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Next Generation Kinect To Have Higher Resolution, Larger Viewing Field [Rumor]

Microsoft’s Kinect was a pretty revolutionary piece of technology. It’s unfortunate that many of the games released for it have turned out to be so bad. That may not change with the rumored next generation Kinect, but the technology is definitely getting a major upgrade.

VGLeaks, the source behind the recent next Xbox and PS4 specs leak, comes the latest round of leaks concerning Microsoft’s next generation Kinect hardware. We already know that the next Xbox may require Kinect to be plugged in at all times, but this latest rumor gets into the nitty gritty details of the hardware.

According to the rumor, here’s what we can expect from the next generation Kinect hardware:

  • Improved field of view results in much larger play space.
  • RGB stream is higher quality and higher resolution.
  • Depth stream is much higher resolution and able to resolve much smaller objects.
  • Higher depth stream accuracy enables separating objects in close depth proximity.
  • Higher depth stream accuracy captures depth curvature around edges better.
  • Active infrared (IR) stream permits lighting independent processing and feature recognition.
  • End to end pipeline latency is improved by 33 ms.
  • The field of view for the next Kinect has been increased to 70 inches by 60 inches. That’s a pretty sizable increase from 57.5 inches by 43.5 inches. The resolution has been increased from 640×480 to 1920×1080. The latency has also been decreased from 90 ms to 60 ms.

    All in all, the next Kinect is a substantial upgrade in pretty much every respect. Games utilizing the technology will be able to detect more limited range of movements, and capture more parts of the body. The original Kinect was going to have finger tracking, and that feature may come back in the newest Kinect hardware.

    Of course, all of this is rumor for now. We won’t know anything for sure until Microsoft lifts the veil on its next generation console. The PS4 will be unveiled tonight, however, so Microsoft better show its hand sooner than later.