OK its not directly comparable but I was thinking Kinect is more than a controller device. So the question is; Is Kinect Microsofts attempt at bringing this technology to the mainstream.

When I say mainstream I am thinking about how today we use Touch devices on many things from Fridges to Phones. Certainly it does not take a leap of faith to think of many uses for technology that incorporates Vision, Sound and Body recognition in one device.

I definatly think so. I even believe they said it would come out for pc's eventually. I hope someday that  all screens/tv's are touch, and have kinect built in.

I think that's what it is more than a game controller, just that Microsoft feels it will most easily be introduced there. As an interface, it could have great enduring significance.

A somewhat expensive piece of technology that is actually impressive and yet people will pretend to (or actually) not care about it as it is used in endless debates about console superiority and ends up not being as big a deal as people make it out to be but still makes porn more fun to watch and sells a few consoles because it's the only reason some people will buy said console?  I'd say yeah.

Actually it makes porn cleaner to watch...

I think Kinect-like devices will see better use in the PC space, and I do believe Microsoft has far bigger plans for this technology than just the 360.

I'm just wondering why their first attempt to bring such technology to market involves the 360 and Kinect Adventures.

I think there are much betters they could go about showcasing the technology.  It'd be very interesting to see how such tech could be used with a limited version of Windows, for example, in place of tablet technology. 

Sony had a very understandable reason for pushing Blu-Ray with the PS3: Blu-Ray is their child and success of Blu-Ray probably means financial success for Sony as well. This does not apply to Kinect, because Kinect is not a Microsoft invention, they are only licensing it from PrimeSense like other companies do, so from an economical point of view there is only lttle reason for them to push the technology.

And I consider a general huge success for that technology as rather improbable. There are a number of big differences between Kinect technology and technologies that got very successful in everyday devices (like digital camera sensors, touch screen, motion sensors etc.)

- Kinect technology is way too expensive for everyday devices, and prices are not going to drop to reasonable numbers any time soon

- Kinect technology requires lots of processing power

- Kinect technology consumes too much energy for portable devices

- as an input device, it is rather prone to misinterpreting the user.

Microsoft already said that they plan to support the technology in Windows as well, especially for media center control. But as an input device, it will probably end up even less successful than speech recognition, and for similar reasons. And speech recognition is very cheap technology, the algorithms have been researched and improved for decades, and still it never got very popular in operating systems.

I expect even 3D webcams (=simple webcams with two instead of one digital camera sensor) to become more important. They can technically do almost anything that Kinect can do, unlike Kinect they are also perfect for the upcoming success of 3D video/displays, and they come at just a tiny fraction of the price of Kinect technology.

I believe that can be said of all new and emerging technology. Look how far touvh screens in mobil devices have come. When they first arrived, those three things were probably the biggest thing holding them back. I still feel like most touch screens are not as accurate as they need to be.

I don't like movies, they're too repetitive. I prefer still images.

I think it is PrimeSense and 3DV and Microsoft own one and who knows what deal they made with regards to the technology. I think this is very similar to the Blu Ray and Microsoft look set to benefit from this. I definately think that the gaming arena is seen as a good place to experiment and get the ball rolling.