Microsoft has recently released a new gaming add-on for the XBox that has literally made McLuhan’s observation of the media being an “extension of man” a reality. This console, Microsoft’s Kinect, reads body movement and does not require any remote controls. A camera reads the individual’s body movements and transfers them into characters in the game. Therefore, the body literally controls the media and movement that are on the television screen. A player’s every physical movement is relayed on the screen through a camera. CNN reports that the Kinect is part of a new wave of “gesture-based” technologies that are soon coming to the market. This technological movement will make human actions and reactions a reality though mediums, bridging the gap between media forms and their users. McLuhan writes that “That our human senses, of which all media are extensions, are also fixed charges on our personal energies, and that they also configure the awareness and experience of each one of us…” The Kinect is able to embody this statement, through its interactive technologies and allows users with the ability to control the experience of the media. The question can now be posed as to how successful this new add-on will be. Forcing players to deviate from controller use may cause some users to be turned-off by this product. This may take some adjusting but with time new technologies like the Kinect could truly revitalize the future of the media. This presents the endless possibilities of having television and computers that do not require key boards or remote controls, but are purely controlled by human movement. Human movements have the potential to control future development of new mediums.
This is just another great example of how fast technology's evolve. If you were to tell someone in the year 2000 that only 10 years later we would have these motion-technology video games, they would think you were crazy. Once Nintendo developed the technology into their Wii console, it as only be a matter of time until another company would step up and advance the technology even further. It will be interesting to see if these technologies will be widely accepted by consumers, and also to see (as you said) in what other mediums this motion sensor technology be applied to.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very true point that you discussed here. Literally the Microsoft Kinect system is serving as an extension of ourselves into a television and is doing so in the most literal way unlike a car or walking stick. I'm wondering how video game technology will evolve in the next decade after Kinect
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