I have read several articles stating that the Kinect depth sensor is  is 320x240, but all the specs I have seen, have it at 640x480.

Microsoft's Store:

http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft/Kinect-for-Xbox-360/product/C737B081

• Color VGA Motion Camera 640 x 480 pixel resolution at 30FPS
• Depth Camera 640 x 480 pixel resolution at 30FPS
• Array of 4 microphones supporting single speaker voice recognition

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Kinect-Sensor-Adventures-Xbox-360/dp/B002BSA298/ref=sr_tr_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1281529239&sr=8-2

I think they were going off of this.

Sensor
Colour and depth-sensing lenses
Voice microphone array
Tilt motor for sensor adjustment
Fully compatible with existing Xbox 360 consoles

Field of View
Horizontal field of view: 57 degrees
Vertical field of view: 43 degrees
Physical tilt range: ± 27 degrees
Depth sensor range: 1.2m - 3.5m

Data Streams
320x240 16-bit depth @ 30 frames/sec
640x480 32-bit colour@ 30 frames/sec
16-bit audio @ 16 kHz

Skeletal Tracking System
Tracks up to 6 people, including 2 active players
Tracks 20 joints per active player
Ability to map active players to LIVE Avatars

Audio System
LIVE party chat and in-game voice chat (requires Xbox LIVE Gold Membership)
Echo cancellation system enhances voice input
Speech recognition in multiple [languages]

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/06/29/kinect-specs-posted-640x480-at-30fps-two-players-maximum/

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29195/Kinect_Specs_Show_TwoPlayer_Limitation.php

By the way, those specs came from Play.com

http://www.play.com/Games/Xbox360/4-/10296372/Project-Natal/Product.html

Gamestop.com lists the same thing Amazon and the MS store do.

http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=78103

So maybe it is in fact 640 x 480 and Play.com has it wrong as I don't think MS is going to lie like that on their own site.

Does anyone besides Play.com have it at 320x240?

Add Target, KMart, and Toys R Us who have it at 640x480.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/11/microsoft-says-kinect-wont-support-sign-language-downgraded-ca/

it was downgrade to 320x240p,

the 640x480p could do finger tracking, 320x240p version no.

do you have the source to your sources source?  i didn't see it linked in your source.

nevermind...i googled it.

http://kotaku.com/5609840/kinect-dumbed-down-to-save-money-cant-read-sign-language

Engadget used Kotaku as a source.  Kotaku had no source.  Kotaku even says that Kinect at one point was able to detect fingers, which is a complete fabrication that also had no sources.  Kotaku is garbage.  Find a legitamite source plz.

Check Reasonable's thread:

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=114337&page=1&str=1676583262#

From Digital Foundry article Pg 3:

"So if many of Kinect's limitations are software in nature and can be engineered, or "evolved" around, what of the hardware itself? Perhaps the biggest surprise - and disappointment - in viewing the final Kinect spec up against the PrimeSense reference camera is that the resolution of the all-important depth map has been reduced to just 25 per cent of its original size: 320x240 up against 640x480."

I'd assume this is based on a hands on with the device.

Edit: Also on Digital Foundry they have an article from 30th June that confirm the source of their info was Play.com:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-kinect-spec-blog-entry

They also say:

"While the information is unconfirmed via official channels, Play said that the details are direct from the manufacturer, while specs collected by Digital Foundry but not published to date tie in extremely closely with the new data. The smart money is on this being the real deal."

So it looks like they've had some experience with the device. DF are usually fairly good with this sort of thing aren't they? I know Kotaku stuff needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.