Microsoft Avatar Kinect Revealed

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, Microsoft announced plans for a new feature which brings your XBox 360 avatar to life.

Letting You Be A Better Virtual You

Microsoft Avatar Kinect is about to change everything in how we socially interact on the Internet. It could also change the way we look at existing social networks, like Facebook, in how we could engage differently with others.

If you ever played The Sims 3 or Zynga's Yoville, you would immediately understand how this is leaps above how we play games online. This new feature is like peering into the future, before it is even done. Before I continue, let's watch CEO Steve Ballmer introduce the Microsoft Avatar Kinect to get a feel for what is in store:

Creative Sets Create More Engagement

Note how more engaging this is. You will be able to sit down with friends and family in various Create Sets (as Mr. Ballmer briefly talked about in the presentation). Creative sets are basically environments, or stages where you participate as an actor. They are static in nature in the sense that the stage doesn't move like they do while playing a game of Mario Brothers in a scrolling, active world.

In these Creative Sets, you socially interact with your avatar. But you aren't doing this in a typical "type and chat" way. You are having your physical movement being monitored by a sensor and rendered on screen so everyone can see. So when you laugh, you are seen laughing and the subtle gestures you make that cannot be seen off screen during traditional chat and messaging, is now revealed.

Now your physical gestures are being communicated to your participants.

These gestures add additional information to your communication. It lets you tell jokes, for example, without being taken literally.

But let's extrapolate and go further on this.

A Virtual City Creative Set

Imagine a City of Create Sets. One that is not only static but dynamic. By dyanmic, I mean one which involves action and motion. Can you see where I am going with this? How cool would this be if you were transported into a virtual world of Dynamic Sets? Not just animated movements of your character going through the motions, but rather your physical movements being mimicked on screen?

Suddenly, you are part of the game, and your physical motions of lifting your arms, moving your legs, and twisting and turning count! This is exactly where the future of online gaming is unfolding. A world of a fresher, more intriguing and engaging format. You are the controller in a sea of Creative Dynamic Sets as the actor, on stage, performing in all your glory

The Nintendo Wii popularized motion with the Wii controller. But if you own a Wii, lately it seems to be getting boring. The reason? Poor implementation, if any, in the games. Greedy software execs who were in a rush to make a quick buck. I cannot tell you how many Wii games I have purchased that ended up in the junk pile. Its probably the reason why most Nintendo Wii owners are hesitant to forking up another $50 bucks for a new game.

But I went off track there for a moment, lets continue...

A Dynamic Virtual City Creative Set

Imagine in this Dynamic City, you could race around the neighborhood knocking on doors in apartment buildings to get a cup of sugar, sitting down at a diner to eat and converse with family when you can't be there at Thanksgiving, hanging out at a night club with college friends to dance, and all the other venues we visit in everyday life.

How cool would it be to have Lady Gaga show up at a Dynamic Set that is a concert hall where you get to participate live?

The beauty is that by creating engaging Dynamic Sets, exploration and discovery become part of the game. You can "virtually see", "virtually feel", "virtually pick up" and it seems so real. Your social interactions become more richer and meaningful because your are an active participant in the Set. You are out of your chair, not being a lazy couch potato physically interacting. The tracking of your body movement and facial expressions is part of your character. The rendering is performed in real-time to be shared, socialized, and brought to life.

Traditional Social Networks Become Boring

Suddenly, traditional Internet social networks like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter become extremely boring! What good is it reading about what people are doing, when you can be doing it, virtually, in Creative Sets?

Answer this for me.

With all the junk that appears on your Facebook wall, how much of it do you really read? If you are like me, I can't read it all because as the number of friends grows, so does the amount of messages. Very much of those messages are ignored or get lost because you aren't there to interact with it or because simply there is too many.

Social Networks like these are a waste of our time. Eventually, you get burned out with it because there is just too much information to take in and the pace of the information gets overwhelming.

Example: A Baseball Dynamic Set

Let's take another example. How about a Creative Set at a baseball field in our virtual city? Imagine yourself waiting at the bus stop being transported to a baseball stadium. When you arrive, think for a moment of all the user relationships in that environment - ticket takers, ushers, police, fire and emergency staff, food vendors, ticket holders and even the players themselves. Imagine participating as part of a Baseball Creative Set.

MLB Live and MLB 2K11 would be experienced differently.

Wouldn't you agree that gaming becomes more fun? It puts the "play" into playing where you are the controller. You become more engaged and part of your virtual environment. It is instilled in you while you participate. It's a whole different feeling and the physical motions you perform is an extrapolation of you.

Microsoft Avatar Kinect Is Going To Rock

Kinect is poised to be the next big thing everyone is going to want - just like how the Wii was an instant hit. We will have to wait for release until Spring. Microsoft said this week at CES that they sold nearly 8 million Kinects. I see that number growing much bigger as new features like Avatar Kinect are added.

About Kerry Kobashi

Kerry is the founder of KerryOnWorld. He lives in Silicon Valley and has worked as an engineer and project manager. He owns Kobashi Computing a consulting company.