The Kinect and How it's Helping the World

The thing that I am most interested in is probably the Kinect. I mean, sure, it's just another outlet for nerds to geek about and play when you get drunk, but I like to think that this new technology that can read your movements and pick up on things going on in your environment is a huge leap forward in technology. Think about it. You stand in front of your T.V. (and Kinect by proxy... if it's anywhere else, you're doing it wrong...) you start up, hold your arm out so that you can be discovered by the sensor and then with out any sort of control or remote you can navigate your dashboard to get to the game you want to play or get to Netflix or what have you.


This. is. awesome. Bar none.


Want to know why this is awesome? Gamer. Yes, the movie with Gerard Butler. See, I would like to experience technology in the way they presented it in the movie. Granted, I'd rather not be controlling another human being (that's be weird) but, I would like to be able to sit on my bed and have my room be my computer, my T.V. and my gaming console.


I'd never leave my room.


Can you imagine what that would to to the first person shooter (FPS)? It would be like you were actually there! I think it would make reaction times better, it would help with training in various fields and it would help cure the boredom of many a person all over the world. Studies have shown that people who work with a certain game extensively have a tendency to become show more cognitive and be more content overall. As shown in the "Mario math with millennials: The impact of playing the Nintendo DS on student achievement" study, children were more likely to have better attitudes towards their teachers and lessons after having played "Mario Math." Can you imagine that? 

The "Video-game training and naïve reasoning about object motion" study showed that people were able to learn how to learn about trajectory with a video game. Granted, they needed a tutorial but everyone needs a tutorial. They don't just throw you into a game or a job without some sort of introduction, am I right? 

And with better video gaming technology means better movie graphics, I'm just saying...

Cites

Masson, M. E. J., Bub, D. N., & Lalonde, C. E. (2011). Video-game training and naïve reasoning about object motion.Applied Cognitive Psychology, 25(1), 166-166-173. doi:10.1002/acp.1658

Gelman, A. Mario math with millennials: The impact of playing the nintendo DS on student achievement. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/857128224?accountid=7122

 

Video Games and Me (or Why Apple is Ruining My Life)

I haven't always been a gamer. When I was younger, I wasn't even allowed to touch the gaming systems in the house without getting a smackdown from my brother or being chased down the street by the boys in the neighborhood. And, it wasn't until I was a sophomore in high school that I was really able to actually sit down and play a game in its entirety. My first game was Marvel VS Capcom 2. It's all been downhill from there. Kingdom Hearts to Silent Hill to Halo to Call of Duty, my life has changed from sneaking a couple of late night levels before my mom could catch me to forgetting to do my homework because I was sure I was going to prestige in Call of Duty that night and I was confident that I could prestige and finish my homework (it never worked out the way I wanted...)

My parents hate that I spend so much of my time playing that they forewent getting me a t.v. so that I wouldn't be able to play at all after I insisted on taking my XBOX with me. They bought me a 27" iMac instead. Little did they know that I had found an interesting website that told me that it was possible to connect an XBOX to a Mac and use the Mac as a source to display the game in HD. This was good since by this time I was beginning to get the shakes from being away from XBOX live for so long. All I had to do was a get a converter that connected the HDMI cable to the Mini Display Port cable.

It only cost me the sum of $150. Steep, but I was willing.

It worked wonderfully for a blissful 7 months before my life came to a crashing halt.

Apple developed a new thing called the Thunderbolt cable which is supposed to make everything faster and easier to use; while enhancing picture quality to boot! (-___-) They did a few system updates that, I decided to download for some strange reason, made it so that my iMac would not recognize the signals being sent to the computer from the XBOX.

Needless to say, I panicked.

I went out and bought new cables, I called tech support, I talked to the people working at the apple store, and nothing I did would fix the problem and no one knew how to fix it.

Turns out, it's this new cable they're releasing.

Which brings me back to the reason I had wanted to write this: Is the way of the future an integration of all of these technologies going to be something we can expect? Is it something that people want?

Let me start by saying, I want it. I've started to get rid of my DVDs, CDs, and books in favor of digital versions of entertainment. Why bother with mess and clutter when you can have it accessible at your finger tips? I loved that I was able to Play XBOX and work on my computer at the same time by just pressing CTRL+F2 to switch between displays. It made my life easier.

Will it happen? I don't know. If problems like these keep hindering people from doing what they're doing, people are just going to continue to keep everything separate.

I can't say for sure that using the Thunderbolt cable is going to fix all of my problems, but I'm crossing my fingers because living without my XBOX is murder by a cruel and unusual means.

Thanks, Apple.