One long-standing rumor about Kinect is that the Xbox 360 motion-control device has trouble recognizing people with darker skin tones. Now that the unit is widely available to the public, however, Consumer Reports set out to put those rumors to bed once and for all.
Speculation regarding Kinect's ability to properly track dark-skinned users dates back to one of the sensor's first public demos, in which former Newsweek writer N'Gai Croal reported difficulties using Microsoft's device -- a failure many forum goers chalked up to the journalist's ethnicity. Then, earlier this week, GameSpot ran a story indicating that two of its own employees encountered some of the same issues because of their skin color.
Consumer Reports has since debunked claims of Kinect "racism" with a series of tests. The results follow:
"The log-in problem is related to low-level lighting and not directly to players' skin color. Like the HP webcam, the Kinect camera needs enough light and contrast to determine features in a person's face before it can perform software recognition and log someone into the game console automatically.
"Essentially, the Kinect recognized both players at light levels typically used in living rooms at night and failed to recognize both players when the lights were turned down lower. So far, we did not experience any instance where one player was recognized and the other wasn't under the same lighting conditions.
"This problem didn't prevent anyone who was affected from playing Kinect games, since it can 'see' and track players' bodies and motions using a built-in infrared lighting system."
Bottom line: Regardless of race, Kinect's facial-recognition features may not work as intended under poor lighting conditions. That said, the device should still be able to track player movements either way. Oh, and unless you're keen on catching an elbow to the teeth, you should probably stick to playing Kinect games with the lights turned on.
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