New kinect to be used for visual drm?

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/24/xbox-one-will-kinect-2-use-visual-drm

http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/24/xbox-one-kinect-2s-visual-drm-functions-found-in-patent-file-report/

Man, I'm slowly backing away from the XboxOne. If I have a few people over to watch a UFC ppv the kinect can tell how many people I have with me, and decide I need to be charged more? No thanks.

Sounds like big brother...

You (sorta) beat me to it, I've known about this junk since November and have been slipping posts here and there with the link, but was starting to feel that it wasn't getting heard clearly and was going to do the same (make a full-on post about it).

MS dropped their patent on this crap when we were all "ooh, ahh" about Black Ops 2... (y'know, for about the first week it was out?)

http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-patent-uses-kinect-and-mobile-cameras-to-count-people-in-your-living-room-2012-11

I've never really been a PS fanboi (I've played them, but never been "rah, rah" about them; I was actually a Nintendo die-hard until the XBox360). I can acknowledge that in the 360 vs. PS3 era I've been staunchly in MS's camp (and not from ignorance, I do technically own a PS3/BluRay player w/ 8-10 games that gather dust, even some still in the orig wrapper! ). But ^^ THIS ^^ is enough to say "sayonara XBox".

This may be a really stupid question, but why couldn't you just turn the kinect around so it can't see. I think it's crap it would have to come to that, but just wondering

Dirty Koi wrote:

This may be a really stupid question, but why couldn't you just turn the kinect around so it can't see. I think it's crap it would have to come to that, but just wondering

From what I understand the patent allows for content to be stopped in the event that no viewer is present which would save someone from paying for something that they were called away from during the broadcast. Conveniently, this would also not allow someone to cover or alter the Kinect2 to hide how many are in the room.

Given that the Kinect2 has infrared capabilities, I see a lot of thermal blanket and/or two-way mirror sales in XBox user's future. Of course, this is only if they decide to implement that feature this time around.

Ho-lee-fuck.

You might have seen the first part of this video before, but don't skip the whole thing; jump forward to 7:45 and onward; that part of the Kinect 2 demo is covered less in Youtube videos and is almost scarier than the rest of it!

I think the part that almost clinches me NOT getting an XBox One is between 9:00 and 9:25. Geez... and people want to bitch that their phone company tracks there every movement...



I ask, though (As I know there are a fair number of XBox 360's in kids/teens rooms today), Who in the hell is going to let this sucker into their kids rooms?!?

ArcaniX wrote:

I think the part that almost clinches me NOT getting a 360 is between 9:00 and 9:25. Geez... and people want to bitch that their phone company tracks there every movement...

You mean Xbox One right? I don't think the current Kinect has this capability.

Oops, yes. I meant XBox One.

As an owner of Kinect (original), I can certainly say that it does not have this capability today. (y'know how many times the damn xbox "activates" because it thinks someone is talking to it...? it's insane) I've seen the raw feed of what the Kinect (orig) can see, it it just isn't clear enough for facial recognition.

That's way too close for comfort. Yes the technology is cool, and the guys making it and giving the demo think it's the cat's ass because it's their creation. But they don't realize, to folks at home, having a multi camera device watching you watch TV and play games is over the line.

The fact it can extract your heart rate, facial expression, mood and who you are is too much for me. Yes, the tech is cool; no I don't want it used on me. Regardless of the fact it can 'taylor' TV/game content for me based on my reaction and heart rate, it opens up a huge can of worms of corporations (MS, next Google, etc.) watching you and extracting even more data/info from us.

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe someone at MS will physically watch me in my living room; it's the data mining and extraction harvested across the broad US and other countries. Yes, MS may be good at protecting your privacy, but MS is a frickin huge corporation, they're on every workplace PC and now will be in every living room.

Big Brother is right!

I'm sure the new games will be kick-ass, I just can't swallow the coupling of a mandatory kinect with visual DRM and data harvesting. As well as paying an extra ~$100/200 (?) for added OS/memory TV content that I don't want.

And no backwards compatible games.. PS4 is seriously under consideration.

Sorry for my morning rant. I'm good now.

TripleAce Andy wrote:

The fact it can extract your heart rate, facial expression, mood and who you are is too much for me.

(sic)

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe someone at MS will physically watch me in my living room; it's the data mining and extraction harvested across the broad US and other countries.

And this is precisely why I point to that section of the video that PROVES that they're mining it; the system can detect and change a "flag" as to when you "changed states" (happy, sad; "engaged/not engaged"). This leads to a ridiculous amount of data-mining capability... Hell, they'll probably even be able to tell you how many people with ADD are playing...

Oh yeah, one other question. The article (I linked above) paraphrases the patent by saying "essentially allows the company to remotely turn on any cameras, be they mobile or from something like the XBox Kinect, and count the number of 'consumers' watching licensed content.

The wording spins it to seem like they might only be allowed to use it "when you Pay-per-View(er)" something. But hold on a second... Isn't EVERYTHING on XBox licensed content?

and one final thought. As my Fiancé pointed out, how long until the commercial content on your XBox is selected by the people in the room watching it?

A new article came out stating that Xbox 1 will have privacy settings that will allow you to turn off your kinect. The wording seems a little convoluted, but it looks like there will be settings to turn the kinect off and play without it on. If you are worried about big brother, there ya go.

http://kotaku.com/xbox-ones-kinect-can-turn-off-microsoft-says-noting-510100564

Also, in regards to people actually freaking out about the fact that you want to have some friends over to watch UFC 159 or whatever, worry not. The law states that there is a cut off, and it is like 100 people, and even then it is fuzzy, because you can only be liable if you CHARGE people to watch the fight or movie or whatnot.

Maybe. But what I gathered from that article was you can turn Kinect off....when you turn the console off, they have privacy settings and you can't play XB1 without Kinect. To me that means that Kinect is on when the power is on and you can opt how the data is shared to some extent but they are still collecting the data.

Why wouldnt they put in a "play without kinect" toggle that allows you to not have your kinect put on.

I don't know but they have said from the start that it will not work without it. I think Microsoft has just botched the way they rolled this whole thing out. Everything they have talked about regarding the gaming piece of it has been mixed messages and often times contradicting each other. I think by the time they actually release it, there will be tweaks to eliminate or tone down the most controversial aspects.

Just found the article you're talking about.

What I'm reading says "Turn it off yes, play with it off, no".

Also, their supposed "2 second boot times" are VERY likely to go out the window if you "OFF" the XBox; I'm willing to bet that it "sleeps" by default, not off.

I am repeating myself here, but:
"essentially allows the company to remotely turn on any cameras, be they mobile or from something like the XBox Kinect, and count the number of 'consumers' watching licensed content."

If my point above about ALL content being licensed is correct, does this not give them blanket authority to turn on my cameras and microphone as soon as I turn on and leave the dashboard? (or is the Dashboard licensed content too?)

The point is, where does it stop? And what about after the 2014 XBox One Dashboard Update, what capabilities will they try to squeeze in once the box is already in our homes?

I try to avoid conspiracy theories, and this is definitely in the vain of that, but as the saying goes "Power Corrupts. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely".

TripleAce Andy wrote:

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe someone at MS will physically watch me in my living room;

Big Brother is right!


Sorry for my morning rant. I'm good now.

I do believe there is some one sick enough working at ms to do this may not be watching you but my young en or your's !


Big brother the book 1989 !