Gesturing at Your TV Isn't Ready for Prime Time

The Microsoft Kinect is a sensor that works with the Xbox 360 game console.  A player controls the $150 device with voice and gestures; there's no need to hold any sort of controller or wear any special gloves or clothing. Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie, described the Kinect as a preview of what's to come for the future consules. Instead of thinking about controllers, keyboards, and other "application-specific prosthetics," Mundie said, people could focus on the task at hand, making software much more appealing and easy to use.

But while using the Kinect for gaming is a fun and interesting experience, the device also illustrates that natural user interfaces have a long way to go before they could be suited to most everyday applications.
The Kinect uses both software and hardware to pick up a person's position, motions, and voice. To measure position, it emits an infrared beam and measures how long that light takes to bounce back from objects it encounters. Four microphones can receive voice commands, and software filters out background noise and even conversation from other people in the room.
Since all these systems need to be calibrated, setting up the Kinect takes some time. After you connect the sensor to an Xbox 360 and position it near the center line of a television, the Kinect's motors automatically adjust its angle so that it can get a complete picture of the user.