Xbox Gaming in South Africa

Confusion over Kinect's ability (or inability) to detect players sitting down has finally been put to rest, according to Eurogamer, who has reported that a recent update to the motion controller's software has resolved the issues surrounding seated player detection.

The problem stemmed from the way Kinect originally tried to detect players, using the bottom of the player's spine as the base node and building a skeletal model from there. This caused problems when a player was seated because Kinect couldn't pin point the bottom of the spine as the player's knees were raised in front of their pelvis. To fix this Microsoft changed the base node from the bottom of the spine to the back of the neck, allowing for more accurate detection.

"It means that should the bottom of your torso get confused with the sofa, because your bum and your legs are enveloped inside the sofa, it doesn't matter because your hands and arms are still working," explained Blitz Games Studios' Andrew Oliver, one of the more experienced Kinect developers. "You can do most actions."

This explains the vague response Microsoft gave after E3 when they said that Kinect games will work with seated players if the "experience is developed with sitting in mind", because developers were able to detect seated players, but only if they created their own, internal software specifically for this.

While it's unlikely that any of the launch titles will utilize the new update (barring Blitz Games' The Biggest Loser, which uses internal detection algorithms), most of the games going forward will now have an easier time detecting you in your usual gaming position: on the couch.