Sky, one of the main British television operators, is preparing to launch a new range of TVs: Sky Glass. They will be accompanied by a 4K camera strongly reminiscent of the Kinect. Indeed, it will be able to recognize movements, take over voice commands, and can be used in games.
Xbox 360 owners necessarily remember the Kinect, the famous Microsoft camera used in many games, since it was able to recognize the player’s movements and voice commands. The accessory has had mixed success despite its 24 million sales. In August 2016, Microsoft confirmed its desire not to integrate a Kinect port on its new Xbox One S, and in September 2017, the manufacturer announced the end of production of the Kinect.
If you’ve had good memories with the Kinect, imagine that Sky, one of the UK’s leading TV operators, will be launching a new line of connected TVs: the Sky Glass. As the name does not indicate, they will embark a 4K camera comparable to Microsoft’s Kinect on many points.
Sky brings Microsoft’s Kinect back to life on Sky Glass TVs
Indeed, she too will be able to recognize movements (the entire skeleton) of the user, to take charge of voice commands and will propose a television “sharing” function, developed in partnership with Microsoft precisely. “By working with Microsoft, we are also building a fantastic functionality that allows us to watch TV together, even if we are miles from each other ”, says Fraser Stirling, Sky Product Manager.
He pursues : “It syncs your TV with other homes, with on-screen video feed and chat, so you can choose content from the biggest channels – including Premiere League games, movies and all your favorite entertainment. ”. This is reminiscent of the Netflix Party feature launched during the first confinement (the video stream less obviously). It allowed users to watch content together and react through a chat window.
In fact, Sky Glass TVs will have a feature called “Watch Together” (developed with Microsoft), which will allow people to watch a program together and see the reaction of the other instantly. Finally, Sky Glass TVs will support some games that will exploit movement recognition such as the timeless Fruit Ninja. In addition, it will be possible to control the TV by voice via the activation phrase “Hello, Sky”.
Source: TechRadar