Long live the Xbox Kinect — how Microsoft's 'failed' tech lives on in the strangest of places

In true Microsoft form, the Xbox Kinect was ahead of its time. Now, with most households having a smart speaker as standard, and doorbell security cameras being commonplace, it is harder than ever to believe the Kinect was discontinued.

Luckily, 15 years after its launch, the Kinect refuses to die, and lives on in many spaces for unusual reasons far from its gaming roots. From supermarket surveillance to ghostbusting, the Kinect and its groundbreaking motion and sound capture technology is still widely used outside our humble living rooms.

Kinect at Walmart but not as we know it

A few months ago, I happened across a Reddit post showing the Kinect being used at Walmart as a security camera.

When did Xbox start providing Kinects to Walmart for security? from r/xbox

Initially I thought this was a hoax but after some digging found that apparently the Kinect has been used as security surveillance at least in Walmart since 2013, and according to a friend of mine even spotted at a local airport.

Kinect still being used in hospitals

Originally designed as a gaming system that lets players control games using gestures and voice, the Kinect is still proving invaluable in the operating room.

By using the Kinect to look at and adjust images like CAT scans during procedures, surgeons needn't break sterility by moving from the operating table to a mouse and computer.

By waving forward or backward, surgeons can scroll through CAT scan slices to examine the anatomy in detail, all while remaining focused on the procedure.

Medical papers have been published with further investigations on potential used for the Xbox Kinect, such as how accurately the Kinect V2 sensor can analyze human walking patterns (gait).

Additionally the Kinect V2 sensor is deemed a more cost-effective method for motion tracking in various applications such as clinical settings and rehabilitation.

Life after death as the Kinect is used for ghosthunting

Bizarrely, the Kinect has been adapted by ghost hunters into what's known as a Structures Light Sensor (SLS) camera.

The Kinect maps out environments in three dimensions, using this to detect human-like shapes and displaying them as stick figures on a screen. Ghost hunters use this to then identify potential spirit presences that aren't visible to the naked eye, interpreting unexplained stick figures as evidence of paranormal activity.

Scientist Jon Wood has written a fascinating piece on ghosthunting equipment, including the Kinect, and shared this image of it in practice. Though he points out that the Kinect is picking up shapes in poor environmental conditions, essential 'filling in the gaps'.

Wood describes this DIY Kinect setup, which includes a rig, a laptop, and a screen. All assembled affordably compared to expensive pre-made kits.

The Xbox Kinect was embraced by ghost hunters particularly after its appearance in Paranormal Activity 4, popularizing its use despite its unreliable output, even assigning stick men to vacuum cleaners.

Kinect for porn?

Back in 2010, Kotaku reported on a developer proudly announced the first ever Kinect sex game,. A move that was swiftly shot down by Microsoft lawyers.

The game looked even creepier than it sounds, and probably would never have taken off anyway. Kyle Machulis, founder of an open source library for controlling sex toys by Bluetooth and USB, and known for reverse engineering the Kinect, told The Guardian that the Kinect performed “more of a futurist marketing role than anything of actual consumer use.”

Catching shoplifters, not dodgy dance moves

I've incredibly fond memories of the Xbox Kinect. I had one set up for my first ever house party and remember many friends who had no prior interest in gaming at all busting some questionable dance moves on Dance Central.

Another household favorite was Disneyland Adventures, an open-world theme park game. I’d watch my son navigate it with ease, laughing that it was the closest we’d ever get to Disneyland.

The main use, though, was pure convenience. Being able to mutter “Xbox on” and navigate the dashboard with Kinect was simply brilliant. While you can replicate some functions with smart speakers like Alexa, I’ve never found them to be as “smart” as Kinect was.

Maybe it’s my thick local accent, but I often find myself repeating commands to get Alexa to work. Kinect? It just worked.

Since Kinect was shelved in 2017, it has probably still played a significant role in advancing motion-sensing and voice recognition technologies. It’s a shame Microsoft can’t put its name to those advancements.

It’s honestly heartbreaking that the combination of Kinect and Cortana (well, CoPilot nowadays) isn’t Xbox’s answer to the Amazon Echo.

Today, we even have gesture control in smartphones and tablets, along with more precise tracking technology in VR and AR devices.

You could even compare Windows Hello and its facial recognition to the Kinect of old, or at least that’s what I tell myself. My laptop has a little Kinect inside of it!

The Xbox Kinect lives on

The Xbox Kinect may no longer be a household name, but it lives on in other forms.

Whether it's catching shoplifters at Walmart, assisting surgeons, or appearing in ghost-hunting loadouts, it has certainly found it's home in many other places.

I'd love to see it return to gaming, especially as someone who finds VR nauseating but enjoys the concept of movement-related gaming. Casting lightning spells in Avowed by throwing hands? That I can get down with.

The Kinect may never have reached its full potential as a gaming device, but it has cemented its place in history, and I'm happy it lives on, even in somewhat unconventional forms.

Long live the Xbox Kinect!