Setting up
In The Box And Set-UpAside from the Kinect sensor itself, which has a power cable attached to it, you also get an extension cable which you need if you have an old school Xbox 360 (not a Slim) and you use a Wi-Fi adaptor. You also get a copy of the game, Kinect Adventures. It's a sturdy piece of kit and quite sexy looking with its glossy jet black finish. The oblong design is somewhat simple, and it’s much larger that I thought it would be, measuring 29×8x8cm and taking up quite a significant space on top of my T.V. On the front of the sensor you can see three lenses which are the RGB video camera, infrared projector, and the distance and depth sensor. There's also a small circular marking that sits in between them which is the microphone sensor. The base that the sensor stands on is motorized, so that it can tilt and pick up your play space. First impressions are very good. Kinect looks like an expensive piece of kit, well made and nicely designed, and the set-up manual is crystal clear in its instructions. Okay, time to set it up...
Set-up takes a matter of minutes, but there's a fair few things you're advised of in the manual which may scare you slightly. You're told that you shouldn't place the sensor near to anything that produces too much noise, whether that be the speakers of your T.V. or even the loud buzzing of a console. The sensor should also be placed below or above the T.V., but not directly on top of it, and you're told you should have around 1.8m (6ft) and 2.4m (8ft) of play space. Space was immediately an issue for me - I have around 5ft of space in my living room in front of the T.V before you hit the settee. Due to having a young, destructive daughter in our house, I also didn't want to place the sensor below the T.V. where it could be damaged. So, I did in fact place it directly on top, even though you're advised against it. I was also worried about not having "adequate lighting" and as a result the sensor not picking up my movements (I had this problem with the PlayStation Eye camera.) As it turns out, all of these warnings are probably because Microsoft is just covering its arse against complaints. Despite not having the optimal amount of space, fairly poor lighting from two 40 Watt bulbs and no natural light, and placing the sensor on top of the T.V. fairly close to the speakers, I've so far encountered no detection problems or voice activation issues at all.
Continued Overleaf...
