Kinect 2 specs leaked hours before PS4 reveal

It’s not as if a platform holder would deliberately leak something just hours ahead of its rival’s big hardware reveal or anything.

Ow, this feels like an episode of The Thick of It!

The truth of it, though, is that some specs for the second iteration of Kinect is unlikely to derail the PS4 bandwagon, even if it was a deliberate strategy. The notion of which there is zero evidence to support, of course.

But for what it’s worth VGLeaks has gone live with seems to be a genuine run-down of the (rumoured to be compulsory) Kinect 2 sensor that will ship alongside the new Xbox later this year.

Basically Kinect 2 will follow the template laid down by its predecessor but improved in many key respects. Resolution is significantly upped from VGA 4:3 at 15fps to 1080p 16:9 at 30fps.

This, along with improvements to the FOV and depth stream, will mean a greater viewable area monitoring a higher number of players (six, apparently) at a greater level of detail.

A new IR system means that performance in a wider range of light levels should be improved. Indeed, some functions will even be available in the dark.

What doesn’t seem to be addressed is the issue of lag. The original Kinect had a latency of 90ms. This has only been reduced to 60ms in the new design, despite the inclusion of USB 3.0. For comparison’s sake, a wireless Xbox 360 pad has a latency below 10ms.

The higher the lag the longer the gap between the player pressing a button/waving their arm and the action being triggered in-game.
Also missing is the much rumoured finger-tracking, Kinect 2 will be able to distinguish between open and closed hands, but individual digits remain elusive.