Key Takeaways
- Kinect 2.0 had a relatively short lifespan, but fans found other uses, like using it for security purposes at Walmart.
- The Kinect has been repurposed for non-gaming functions, like medical and surveillance applications.
- Fans miss the Kinect’s original functionality and wish Microsoft would create new games that support it.
A user found a Walmart which used the Xbox One‘s Kinect for a different purpose. Many consider the Xbox One‘s Kinect as a missed opportunity because the Xbox 360’s Kinect showed a lot of potential, especially when it came to body tracking. It helped show that full motion controls were a revolutionary gaming method as it became prevalent in several sports and dancing games. However, Kinect 2.0, the second iteration of the technology, felt like a miss when that generation of gaming came.
While the Kinect 2.0 had such a minor presence in the Xbox One’s lifespan, owners instead found ingenious ways of utilizing the motion sensor. One fan previously spotted the Xbox Kinect being used in a medical capacity. In fact, consumers have tried to incorporate the Kinect into many other fields that don’t have anything to do with gaming. One gamer recently posed a question after seeing a Kinect in their local Walmart.
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Reddit user Vectormus casually asked when Microsoft or Xbox started providing Kinect devices to Walmart for security purposes. The fan posted a photo of a Kinect hanging from above, similar to a CCTV camera. As user TheMicroburst points out, it seems Walmart has been doing this as early as 2013. Interestingly enough, using the system this way isn’t exactly new, and one airport previously utilized the Xbox Kinect for surveillance. One fan commented that doing so could be cheaper, as units like these sell for around $20 or lower at GameStop.
How the Kinect Is Being Used for Other Purposes
A shared sentiment in the comments section is that the Kinect has found better success as a non-gaming utility than what it was originally intended for. User matt2085 shared their story of how a physical therapist used the technology to understand their posture. User brokenmessiah joked that every time they’ve seen the Kinect in real life, it was never for its original use. And while support for the Microsoft Kinect was discontinued very early in its lifespan, many fans agreed that they missed the functionality it offered, especially because the newer systems do not promote or support it for new games.
One of the last games that supported the Kinect was Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator back in 2021. And while it seems unlikely that fans will be getting any new titles anytime soon, it might be good for Microsoft to see that not all the technology has gone to waste. One important comment from the Reddit post is that it’s refreshing to see that the Kinect still has a lot of use to offer instead of being part of some random landfill dump.
Xbox One
The Microsoft Xbox One is part of the eighth generation of consoles and was crafted by the company to compete against rivals Sony and Nintendo. It directly battled against the PS4, Switch, and Wii-U. It was created after the Xbox 360.
- Brand
- Microsoft
- Original Release Date
- November 22, 2013
- Hardware Versions
- Xbox One , Xbox One X , Xbox One S
- Original MSRP (USD)
- $499, £429, €499
- Weight
- Base: 7.7 lbsS: 6.4 lbsX: 9.8lbs
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