As I watched Microsoft’s presentation at E3 they demonstrated a new feature from Xbox Kinect called Kinect Fun Labs. They demonstrated a few of the features of this free service for Xbox Live subscribers. Here are some of the highlights…
Kinect Me – In this “lab” you can have the Kinect take a full body scan of yourself and turn it into your avatar. No more searching through all of the facial features to try and find the perfect “you”. I know I was always frustrated with the avatar settings because my hair never looked right. They didn’t have any hair that really fit my personality. This one will even get the details of your clothes correct! Besides the fact it made my husband a little tanner then he really is, it worked pretty well.
BobbleHead - This is another full scan of yourself, but instead of an avatar it’s going to turn you into a bobble head that you can interact with. Check out your whole family of bobbleheads right on your virtual car’s dashboard!
Googly Eyes – Here is where I think the real fun starts. With Googly Eyes you can take an inanimate object in your house and turn it into a fun friend that you can play and interact with. My daughter’s favorite inanimate object of choice was a Spagettios can. The Kinect will take the Spagettios can and give it some eyes and bring it to life. When you jump it will jump, which my daughter absolutely loves to do. She kept looking around the house for more things to bring to life. Which leads right into…
Build A Buddy – In this lab you can take one of your own toys and bring it to life within the game. Using the same scanner you place your toy in front of the Kinect and it will scan the front and back and then you can give it its own personality. You say catch phrases for the toy and teach it tricks. My daughter is always making various creations. Whether it’s a dragon or a bird, she will cut paper and staple or tape it all together to make the creation. They usually turn out pretty darn good. In the following video you can see how my 5 year old took one of her creations and using Build A Buddy created a buddy! This is so much fun for her to bring an extra dimension into her creations.
Sparkler – This one looks really fun, but we have not tried it yet. I think it will be coming out later. You essentially take a picture of yourself with the Kinect and then using your hand you can draw a sparkler all around yourself. Front, back, and all around. It’s like the 4th of July every day!
They say that more is coming, and with what they’ve already released, I can’t wait to see what else they’ve got cooking in their Fun Labs!
