Kinect “Can’t Recognise Black People”
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Nov 6, 2010 01:52 JST
- Tags: Bizarre, Controllers, Fail, Marketing, Microsoft, Technology, USA, Xbox 360
Microsoft’s newly released Kinect controller is facing accusations of racism, after reports of it being unable to recognise dark-skinned people surfaced.
GameSpot employees reportedly had trouble using the device, and CNN soon picked the story up; GameSpot’s account of the problems is below:
“Part of Microsoft’s $500 million marketing push for Kinect includes positioning it as an accessible entertainment device for all audiences. However, it may be more accessible to some than others.
While testing out the Kinect, two dark-skinned GameSpot employees experienced problems with the system’s facial recognition abilities. The system recognized one employee inconsistently, while it was never able to properly identify the other despite repeated calibration attempts.
However, Kinect had no problems identifying a third dark-skinned GameSpot employee, recognizing his face after a single calibration. Lighter-skinned employees were also consistently picked up on the first try.
It’s important to note that the problems were only experienced with the system’s facial recognition feature and don’t prevent users from playing Kinect games. Skeletal tracking, a primary means of controlling games with Kinect, appeared to work the same for all GameSpot employees.
The system’s inability to recognize a user only means that he or she would need to sign in manually and some games’ features may not work properly as a result.
For example, when a second player joins in to Kinect Adventures during the title’s drop-in, drop-out multiplayer, the system can’t bring up that player’s proper in-game avatar automatically if it can’t identify the new user first.”
Microsoft now expects to sell 5,000,000 units, so even problems only affecting a small proportion of users may turn out to be widely experienced, and in the US such problems are likely to be politically sensitive to say the least.
Since only the facial recognition feature is affected, the problem is not quite as bad as it could be – but it has not stopped detractors from immediately labelling it a racist product. If previous events are any guide, a class action suit may not be out of the question.
Microsoft stops just short of telling inconveniently black users to bleach their faces:
“Kinect works with people of all skin tones. And just like a camera, optimal lighting is best. Anyone experiencing issues with facial recognition should adjust their lighting settings, as instructed in the Kinect Tuner.”
Previously Microsoft has told badly dressed users to strip off or wear something sensible, its philosophy apparently being that consumers should adapt their dress, rooms, lighting and now skin tone to Kinect, and not Kinect to them.
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I wonder if guidos such as myself will be affected...
So what they are saying is that... Black people become invisible in the dark...
"Kinect works with people of all skin tones. And just like a camera, optimal lighting is best."
New from M$: The Kinect Black Edition - with included 2000W halogen floodlight. ^_^
This is pure BS. Same goes with every other Kinect article.
I just returned from Gamex which is the first gaming exhibition in Sweden, where Xbox had several stations where you could try out Kinect. And I got to say that it worked extraordinary well.
Also, a pure black girl tried it out, and it was still working :P
Thanks for the headlines.
Excuse me while I wipe of the coffee I snorted out...
To be honest, i own an xbox, and i am personally getting quite sick of Micrsoft
example: they released a patch recently to make the dashboard and guide compatible with the connect.
one lovely feature they included was to increase the mic sensitivity and clarity. they accomplished making everyone sound like they are talking through a cheap cellphone mic, and you can hear almost every damn thing in the background unless your TV is barely audible.
It is VERRY annoying if you are playing COD and people aren't muting their mics
well, they were successful in increasing sensitivity and clarity of the microphones alright. WAY TO GO MICROSOFT!
Oh this made my day ^_^ specially since noir people is known for having a good sense of humour ;)
haha sancom fanboys didn't like my comment? <3
@TenguSan So you now constantly hear someone farting and stuff during gaming? lulz
I used to remember the original X-Box not selling very well in Japan because some gamers found it quite offensive...
@Schrobby
QFT!!!
And next thing you know, Kinect won't be able to recognize ugly people~
Or transvestites since that will REALLY confuse
the sensor...
Then they'll release versions of Kinect just for them also~
@flaskis
Maybe the sensor found her hot..?
"they released a patch recently to make the dashboard and guide compatible with the connect."
You forgot the part where it made the entire Dashboard STOP LAGGING LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER.
Stop being all Microsoft this, Microsoft that and grow a pair.
Sure the dashboard is less laggy,but you forgot the part where the dashboard now lags every game and application you use like a motherfucker.
How silly, just SMILE! (^_^) *sparkly-white*
Does this count as a "black on black" crime?
@flaskis
You get used to it pretty fast with this site.
@Anon 5:19
You seem to be ignoring the fact that the dashboard lagged in the first place...
Not to sound racist or anything, but this problem happens in photography too. It's to be expected when one deals with different skin tones and even verbal accents when a system is built around it.
To be fair though, the technology is relatively new and it's something they can fix.
RACIST.
Yeah this is pretty overblown and ridiculous. It sounds like one person got offended and screamed racism, because obviously the camera is discriminating against people of lower contrast and secretly wishes to subjugate them and their families. The article even says another person of similar skin tone was recognized. How does adjusting lighting equate to adjusting skin tone, exactly?
Microsoft: Reinventing racism.
Even consoles can be racist. lulz
i didn't think it was possible 'til now go figure
on a side note though that fact that they are telling people how to dress and what rooms to use for kinect troubles me even more looks like mind control has become the new face of gaming
PS3 sure looks good right now....
Just like how Steve Jobs tried to influence lifestyle by telling people to hold iPhones different to how people usually hold all phones.
Well, as much as M$ has failed, Apple is still worse. The day I buy Apple products for fashion(their PC still has work-related uses like industry-regular Final Cut Pro) is the day I become a fag and I'll see to it that it won't happen.
Apple - selling mediocre products made in China for huge profits. Marketing genius.
if the consoles are racist then surely it isnt microsoft's fault?
Then Microsoft should try to provide a fix or workaround, telling the users to figure something out is not very polite.
This peripheral was designed by the FUCKING MOON MAN!!
KKKinect
Black Xbox gamers are on fire.
Ah~ Now I remember~
I watched something about how Japanese gamers found the original Black X-Box 'offensive' and 'intimidating' in G4 a long time ago...
Intimidating? Because it was big and black? lulz
You are bound to shit bricks when confronted to something hard, big and black that can sudenly pop up a red glitering eye, now won't you?
If the Chinese copy Microsoft and create a chinese version of Kinect it won't recognise Japanese people.
More like, it will accidently recognize Japanese people half the time.
More like, it will recognize nobody unless the gamer is wrapped in a chinese flag.
More like, I've lived in China and they always have to sing their fucking anthem every single goddamn time I went to some big event or some opera, or some orchestra concert.
I don't want to sing that stupid fucking song every single time I want to play a gam-
Wait, if they make a Kinect, it's never going to be for games... The Chinese government wants their youth UNCORRUPTED, right?
and the American don't sing their anthems in major sports events?
I don't, but I'm not a Nationalist.
Singing the national anthem of your country is not being a nationalist. When the situation calls for it, It's showing pride for your country and your beliefs. Or showing respect for fallen comrades. So don't spout BS. Now if it's at every event, on every station, in every province, sang every day of the week, 24/7. Then I could see your point.
Singing it when your nation won gold or something is ok, but creepy when you sing it before every single fucking sport event in your own country. (That don't involve a foreign team or anything...)
Most of them don't know the words or are too drunk to remember them.
As well as the fact that Microsoft is able to sell-off "failures" quite decently. Remember WinME and Vista?
Sure, ME was a failure as an OS, but it gave us ME-tan (and by extension all the other OS-tan), so on that front it won pretty hard ^^
Not exactly racism. For example its not that I choose to be unable to see a black guy walking in the street wearing a black hoodie and black jeans in the middle of the night while I'm driving along, its just that...well he's black and that means he tends to blend into the darkness rather better than a white dude.
I lol'd when I heard that people were actually calling the console racist. Some people just shouldn't be allowed to have kids.
Maybe not quite "racism", but you have to wonder. What are MS's hiring practices if they don't have at least one darker-skinned employee (even meditteranean and some asians could have darker skin too) on staff to do product testing...
@Eddyak
Sometimes, it's funny to call things like this racist.
QFT.
I was once accused of racism for not letting someone come into our store to shop after we had closed. It's a popular card to play, whether it makes sense or not.
Or as Kirk Lazarus puts it, "Earth Mamma's natural night camo"...
This was shown to be just a coincidence when tested, it's due to room lighting not skin colour. Besides, it's not like kinect doesn't have enough flaws already without adding unfounded racist allegations to the list.
Kinect is a fail from the start eh?
I've never seen a video about it's success
Probably is, but I think we kinda of wanted it to fail too
I think a lot people wanted the Wii to fail too
Still tho, Its never bad to watch a cute girl try to play it
Yupyup. Especially if they have to strip to get it to work. ^_^
so you only watch videos posted on sanCom I guess?
Oh man, its not like anyone in sweden could even afford a wii or a xbox ..
and apparently we have a microsoft fagboy/fangirl in here -________-
@flaskis
You can view any Kinect demo vid and find 'only sort-of works'. Besides, looking past the numerous obvious flaws, there aren't nearly enough games compatible with it that wouldn't put you to sleep... and damn, is it expensive.
Fucking guy takes everything at face value from Sankaku Complex.