Despite what you may have read, it turns out that the Kinect—and Microsoft by extension—doesn’t favor one race over another. Tech journalists just like to write sensational headlines sometimes.
One of the more ridiculous stories surrounding Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox 360 launch yesterday asserted that because the system’s sensor had some trouble recognizing two dark-skinned users that it was ‘racist.’
It all started with GameSpot reporting that while testing the Kinect, two of its dark-skinned employees had problems with the system’s facial recognition. According to the site:
“The system recognized one employee inconsistently, while it was never able to properly identify the other despite repeated calibration attempts. However, Kinect had no problems identifying a third dark-skinned GameSpot employee, recognizing his face after a single calibration. Lighter-skinned employees were also consistently picked up on the first try.”
Full story: Microsoft Kinect Is Not Racist. Duh.