But even at a friend's house we had to move chairs, sofa, and table and even then in a decent size den only just had enough space to play. In my small apartment this translated to the rather extreme measure of turning the layout of everything in the room 90 degrees to get enough distance from the screen. The space required to get a good play area for Kinect means that even in a reasonably sized room there's going to be some furniture rearranging. The play area needs to be a few feet wide at that distance, and extend back further, unobstructed both to allow room to move and not interfere with the camera's ability to read players. The instructions recommend a distance of six feet from the sensor for playing solo and eight feet for two-player gaming. The real stumbling block to playing Kinect at home is the amount of space it requires. There's also a calibration card for fine tuning the camera sensors to your play space, but I found the system's self-tuning worked perfectly.
Once it completes, the Kinect is more or less good to go. An automated routine runs that measures background noise and plays sounds through the speaker system to establish a baseline. Getting the microphones configured is actually the most time consuming part of the setup. Placement behind and above the speaker worked but anywhere right in front of the center channel was a no-go. The Kinect system also employs microphones and proximity to a center channel speaker can be an issue. If your current situation doesn't work, Microsoft has licensed three mounting options to be sold separately: a wall mount, an "A" brace that connects to wall mounting pegs on the back of a flat screen TV and holds the Kinect above it, and a speaker stand-like floor pedestal.Įven with a suitably sturdy base some rearrangement at the very least may be necessary for those with home theaters. Sticky tape and other sorts of less sturdy options that work for the Wii's sensor bar won't hold up and the Kinect will go flopping around, potentially on your TV screen. Position the Kinect sensor bar above or below the screen-it doesn't have to be perfectly centered but the closer to center the better the spatial relationships work-and the motors in its base do the rest, scanning the room to determine its dimensions.īecause the Kinect includes this motorized tracking functionality, it needs to be placed fairly securely. In fact, the camera system actually requires no special calibration. Bundle the Kinect with that 4GB 360 or the 250GB hard drive equipped console and Microsoft throws in a $50 discount, making them $299 and $399 respectively.Įxpecting a lengthy process to get all dialed-in and working properly, Kinect's setup surprised me by being painless and only taking a couple of minutes. It also costs more than just a controller-$149 alone for the Kinect that's only $50 shy of a 4GB Xbox 360. It sounds more futuristic than holding a PlayStation Move or Nintendo Wiimote in hand and waving it around at the TV. Its motion sensing capability also allows navigation of the Xbox 360's menus with swiping gestures and the built-in microphones work with voice recognition to enable voice command for basic functions.
Hook it up to your Xbox 360, position it to scan the area in front of the TV, and play games simply by moving around. "You are the controller", promises Microsoft's Kinect ads.