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Adinnieken on 23 May 2013
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ArnoldRimmer said:
Adinnieken said:

No.  Kinect 2 is significantly better than Kinect.  They aren't even comparable. 

Kinect used a passive infrared system, where an area is blanketted with IR light, and the temperature/strength of that light is measured to calculate the distance.  It's a technology that's fraught with peril, as it can easily be washed out in bright sunlight. 

Kinect 2 uses a passive infrared system, where a laser scans the room and depth and motion is measured based on the time it takes for the light (photons) to return from the surface it's shot at.  This is the same technology used by satellites to map the earth, it's called LIDAR.  Kinect 2 is so much better than Kinect, that it is possible for Kinect 2 to measure your heart rate.  In fact, it is possible for it to detect certain medical conditions as they're happening.

Any source for those claims? Because everything I've read so far sounded like Kinect 2 is pretty much Kinect 1, just at a higher resolution (+ a new infrared stream, which however sounded like it was pretty much only useful as a low-resolution replacement for the RGB stream in low-light sitations).

Now I would agree that increasing the resolution is a clear improvement that should help accuracy, but I'd hardly call that "not even comparable to Kinect 1".

Then you haven't read anything informed.

What Time of Flight cameras are and how they work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-of-flight_camera

Read the specifications of the following two patents.  The second of these you will see demonstrated in the video below.  The first one, under the specifications, describes the use of a ToF system to capture motion

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220130129224%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20130129224&RS=DN/20130129224

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220120300040%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20120300040&RS=DN/20120300040

3DZ is a company that Microsoft purchased in March 2009, before Kinect was released.  Initially it was speculated that this was the technology that Microsoft was using in Kinect, however prior to E3 2010, PrimeSense announced in a press release that it was the technology behind Kinect.  This was backed by Kudo Tsunoda when he mentioned in an interview how they used a PrimeSense device in their intial design.

The ZCam was 3DZ's ToF Web cam that they had, only months before, shown at CES 2009.  This is technology that Microsoft owns.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZCam

Shortly after E3 2009, Microsoft announced that it would be buying Canesta.  An IC maker, whose claim to fame were ToF eproms and sensors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canesta

At 2:00 mins, you see the aforementioned patent demonstrated. 

http://gizmodo.com/kinect-2-full-video-walkthrough-the-xbox-sees-you-like-509155673

Finally, because me saying it isn't enough...about 50 seconds in.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/05/video-watch-us-flail-in-front-of-the-xbox-ones-new-kinect/

You can also watch the architectural overview video.

http://majornelson.com/2013/05/21/xbox-one-architecture-panel/

About 8:13 start watching.