Sky and Microsoft have announced that users will be able to control the Xbox 360 Sky Player service using the upcoming Kinect motion control system. Owners will be able to move through channels just using hand gestures or via voice control.
“Selecting a favourite show, changing live channels, or easily scrolling forward and back through on-demand content is all made possible by a simple wave of a hand”, Sky said in a statement.
Sky Player offers on demand TV and movies via a computer and arrived on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console in late May.
The ability to select and control your TV viewing with a wave of the hand is something straight out of the Minority Report school of futurism, and this sort of use is likely to raise the interest in the system to an audience who otherwise might be unimpressed with the ability to surfboard in your room.
It’s also interesting that Kinect will be getting an innovative use ahead of the US, which has no equivalent offering at launch.
Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect system will be released in the UK on 10 November for £129.99.
