Microsoft’s Kinect enters the arena…and my home

I have finally admitted to my son that I agree with him; his room is too small. Or rather, it’s just not large enough for me to play Dance Central on Microsoft’s Kinect. I set it up a few days ago in anticipation of a TV segment I was taping. Microsoft had given me a few demos along the way but I wanted to try my hand at it. Well, try with no hands. And in order to actually become the controller, you need a lot of room! Once I cleared away some space and downloaded an update to the Xbox Live dashboard, I was ready to boogie!

Kinect Adventures is included with the device, it has lots of fun mini-games that get you up and moving. River Rapids and others have you jumping, squatting and kicking your way through. It’s amazing to see how well Kinect tracks your steps. If you move too close in, or slightly out of view, it lets you know. I also tried Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, which bills itself as a way to burn calories while having fun, either with a personal trainer, taking classes or through mini games like balance and hula-hoop.

I tried the Yoga, to demonstrate how the on-screen avatar will turn green if you’re holding your pose properly.  It calls you out and turns to white if you need to adjust your stance slightly. Not only was it great having someone tell me what steps to do, but I sure felt it the next morning! Good program, or maybe I just haven’t been to the gym in a few days.

Kinect not only learns to recognize your body and your movements, but it will learn your voice as well. So you’ll be able to say Kinect, play music, and it will bring up the Internet music service Last.fm. Or you can ask it to show you videos from  ESPN, or play movies from the Zune Hub.

I’m very excited about using the videochat capability with my son who’s away at college. Kinect is compatible with other Kinects, of course, as well as with Microsoft’s Windows Messenger software.

But back to my son’s room…..I imagine over Thanksgiving it will feel that much smaller since I’m sure everyone will be upstairs waiting their turn to play, or maybe they’ll all be lined up playing Dance Central together while I’m stuck downstairs washing all the dishes. Oh, the videos I’ll post!

Kinect goes on sale today, Nov. 4th for $150 if you already have an Xbox, or you can buy it with a four-gigabyte Xbox360 for $300. Both come bundled with the Kinect Adventures game.