Kinect play area shortened thanks to Nyko Zoom
Waving your arms like you just dont care when playing Kinect games on the Xbox 360 is all well and good if you’ve got a king-sized living room, but if your console lives in a pokey council flat, getting the six to eight feet of required playing area to get the thing to work is a real chore. Nobody wants to have to rearrange all their furniture just to play a video game, do they?
Peripheral makers Nyko might have come up with a solution. Their Nyko Zoom add-on for the Kinect attatches a set of wide-angle lenses over the motion sensor’s camera system, effectively tricking the unit into thinking your room is 40% or so bigger. In theory, it means the Kinect should then play nicely from distances of around four or five feet.
The technology is currently being demoed at the E3 games convention, and has so far been met with praise; the clip-on attachment doesn’t seem to hinder the Kinect’s motion-tracking capabilties in any way.
With an expected retail price of $30, it’s a far cheaper solution than knocking a wall out of your house to make more room, anyway.
More info here.
