Kinect Needs Universal Controls

Written by Ryan Johnson (RyanDJ) Sunday, 16 October 2011 11:00

I know that Kinect is all about motion control, and the uniqueness of doing whatever maneuver you need to get on-screen things to happen. I love the Kinect, and am looking forward to the upcoming major integration update before Thanksgiving. What I am talking about is basic functionality.

Two major problems with Kinect spawned this article. The first being the pause function. In media, we can yell "Xbox! Pause!" and our media freezes instantaneously. Gaming? Hold your left arm out at a 45 degree angle for 5 seconds. Never gave this a second thought in first gen Kinect games. They were party games. Now, we have games like Child of Eden and The Gunstringer. Last night I was playing Child of Eden and my 5-year old called for help. I held  my arm out, and my Point of View juttered to the lower left. While I watched the little pause circle fill, I watched my life circle empty. The enemies don't stop for you to....pause.  I lost the round due to that. I tested Child of Eden and The Gunstringer later, and found that you can hit start on the controller to pause, but you may not even have a controller connected when you need it.

My second worry involves DVDs. If we are lucky, this may be fixed in this upcoming update. When we rent movies, I am so used to Netflix that I have yelled "Xbox! Pause!" at the screen before I remember it won't do anything. If Microsoft integrated Kinect into DVD playback, menu selection included, the 360 would become my primary DVD player. That's kind of a big thing for a DVD player. I could see a company working right now on a Blu-Ray player with voice commands. The selling point there alone is astronomical. My child would never have to know of digging in the couch for the remote.  Add it to the Media Extender while we are at it.

While on the topic of video formats, the DVD controls, Media Center, Netflix and ESPN all need to be the same. I watched a video on the Media Center and tried to fast forward like a DVD to find myself at the end of the media. Couldn't pause or rewind the same, either. I feel I  shouldn't have to learn four different controls for video on the same device. Perhaps just make them all work: I could swipe, talk, OR use the controller. Making them universal would also give more power to the Xbox/Kinect brand. Any time a new app arrived (which plenty are coming very soon as the system updates), it would run the same.

Other things I would like to see added to Kinect are minor, but would be helpful. Things like universal select options amongst game titles: I like the Dance Central swipe, but it is starkly different from all other menus, and I dislike the way you scroll songs. If holds are used to select, a universal time would be great: Kinect Sports feels like it takes forever, yet I feel rushed when selecting in Child of Eden.

As the Kinect becomes more integrated into games and our overall entertainment experience, there needs to be a standard to meet. A simple expectation, like when you knew most action NES games had jump mapped to the A button. Then, we can have an easier, more integrated experience Being The Controller.