According to some tests by GameSpot, Kinect for Xbox 360’s facial recognition works much better for white players than those with darker skin. This supports my theory that Microsoft hardware is racist. I’m joking! Seriously though, here’s the word from GameSpot:
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.
Please keep in mind that the sample size is super small.
Oddly enough, I’m more interested in Kinect than I was seconds before I read this story. I know that Kinect’s sensors get all sorts of whacked out in sunlight, but I want to see if the hardware will hate me because I’m brown. I’m sure it will work for most people, but it will be interesting to see if a significant number of gamers with darker skin have issues with the system. If it does then expect countless jokes on Kinect being racist and a class action lawsuit.
Any thoughts on the matter?
(Thanks to Joey for this excellent photo of him dressed as Ron Washington for Halloween!)
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