Kinect update could greatly improve performance, report suggests
What if Kinect could track individual fingers? What if it could see not only the position of your hand, but its rotation as well? According to a report by Eurogamer, more advanced tracking from the Kinect is possible -- but only through a firmware update which its sources say is coming.
The Kinect sensor would be able to transfer up to 35MB/s of data, but is currently locked to about 15MB/s. The artificial limit is imposed by the fact that multiple USB devices may be connected to the console. However, Microsoft engineers are supposedly working on a fix that will allow a greater amount of data to be transferred from the Kinect, upgrading the 320x240 image it currently uses to a 640x480 one -- an effective fourfold increase in pixels.
Digital Foundry's Rich Leadbetter's said that a firmware-based solution is "doable," but admitted that there will be additional caveats for Microsoft to address. "It is uncertain just how accurate the camera's sensor is," even when operating at a higher resolution. "Additionally, processing four times as many depth pixels could slow things down more."
