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Friday, May 31, 2013

Kinect 2.0, more like GLaDOS

I thought the whole deal with the Xbox One's anti used game policy and its DRMish log on every 24 hours for verification thing was pretty bad. But its when its idle, and its got that damn Kinect nobody wants plugged into it. Microsoft says its mandatory, otherwise the console will not work. I know the 360 doesn't do anything unless it has a charger active, while its idle. The One however has the Kinect 2.0 always on, always watching. In particular you if you come in its line of sight. One apparently also features a Siri like AI that can be voice commanded to turn the system on or off and a whole plethora of other crap(Thats all we know for the moment, Microsoft says there's more to it). I only think of Skynet Terminators, Eagle Eye, and GLaDOS. When I hear that a machine is going to have its own AI and a fucking camera and microphone that can't be disabled that's scanning around my game room and then trains itself on me when I walk in, its not a very pleasing feeling knowing that. It also has the power to check my heartbeat and mood. And it apparently recognizes who you are and will sign you in and some other stuff...What?!

The rest I take with a grain of salt but its possible, some people said it would direct ads to the things its sees around you. I don't want to be sitting eating Lays and wearing Fruit of the Loom and the console starts blowing up my dashboard with ads for the same brands around me. It sounds like the One is adaptive, as is all the other AI's made up by us with fiction. The reality of it probably isn't too bad but with the things people have watch or played in the last decade and a half, gives you creeps thinking that the thing will start hacking into Cheyenne Mountain and start nuclear war overnight or something.

The worst part is that its legally patented so basically invading ones privacy is legal in some way. I'm not saying that Microsoft is watching you doing, well, things... But its just an unpleasant feeling knowing that you basically bugged your own house for the sake of entertainment. I'd just toss some electrical tape over the camera for the time being. Half of it is proven and half of it is still speculation(Wait until E3). Just by the amount of vents on the console, that's sure a fast way to dump neurotoxin into your house.

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