It's a patent. Nothing more.

The percentage of patents filed that actually used by companies is with companies like MS is very low. Patents are valuable by themselves in areas like this. I'm not getting my panties in a twist until I see something concrete by MS.

Suck on that, multiple children Colombian families that live in one room! No games for you, ahahaha! :P

What next? MURDERING BABIES?

More and more I realize how prophetic 1984 is / ever was.

What worries me the most, is how uefi and secure boot can be abused, to restrict users from doing what they want with their own machines.

http://techrights.org/2012/07/17/rms-on-uefi/

But there is something about this invention, that reminds me of George Orwells 1984.

This is getting scary being monitored in your own home by microsoft thank got i dont have an xbox so no kinect but i do worry where this is going.

Didn't Kinect EULA state from the very beginning, that they will use the gathered data however they please?

Even when this Patent is being used, who stops you to turn your Console in a way that the camera does not see the whole room (and the people in there?)

1984 FTW

Does it make it legal?

Except if this new 'improvement' gets built into future televisions and monitors.

In theory they could prevent any monitor that does not have this technology from working with the console. It is within their reach.

This is a given. However, it will still be a good game machine because that's an easy way to install it into millions of homes immediately.

Movie streaming?! What kind of sorcery is this! I would call this VOtD!

Videos of the Devil!

or simply VOD

oh, wait...

What if you turn the kinect back to face the wall while you invite all the neighborhood to watch the rented movie? And on the wall you have a picture with a monkey :P

There will be a warning "NO VIEWERS DETECTED. TURN YOUR KINECT AROUND OR WE WILL START MURDERING YOUR FAMILY"

as for the monkey "BUY ANIMAL LICENSE, OR WE..."

At least I'd make the system so that each viewer has to wave both of his hands on demand, one by one. That way the box can count how many living creatures are watching it.

Or if there are motionless characters in the view, the box could send a laser to their "eyes", just to see if they flinch.

Ok enough of that. I'll do what I always do: I try to use money only on technologies and systems which I'm fine with, so if this kind of technology comes out, I won't be an early adopter at least. Yeah I know, I already paid for Win8, but I tried to pay as little as possible...