Nyko unveils cheap Kinect accessory that reduces the troublesome playing space required to play your favorite Kinect games.
Kinect owners who live in small apartments and crowded homes can surely attest to the troublesome nature of the system's required playing range. Thankfully for them, Nyko's brand new 'Zoom' makes sure running into walls and moving tons of furniture are things of the past. The best part about the product however, as many are sure to appreciate, is its wallet-friendly cost of $29.99.
So what exactly do you get for thirty bucks? The Zoom is capable of reducing the required play range by up to 40% which means that you will be able to play closer to your TV. In addition to getting closer to the action, the Zoom's wide angle lens allows for two people to play in the area that would normally only fit a single player.
Saving space in more ways than one, the Zoom features specially designed optical lenses that snap right over your Kinect. Combined with the lack of any need of software, configuration or calibration, the Nyko Zoom is the perfect plug and play device for those Kinect owners living in small apartments or studios.
I'd expect the next version of the Kinect to include a wide angle lense (and software so images taken with it don't look stretched), phasing out the need for this Nyko add-on.
Didn't get a chance to personally test it from E3 but in the few times that I passed by the booth, it looked like it was working perfectly fine!
for a few reasons, 1 2 people playing in the area normaly needed for 1... you are asking for a black eye
im just takeing a guess here, but it distorts the images a bit to be able to get this.
and 3, to get it so the system natively can do this without distortion, you would need an even finer 3d camera thing (look at night vision kinect to see what im talking about) it would need to scatter more, but need to be denser at the same time. this would cost SIGNIFICANTLY more than what it currently costs for that.
there is a reason kinect requires a large space. but this would be an ok alternative for single player.