Kinect Fun Labs

Avatar Kinect

Microsoft's much-vaunted DIY Avatar chatshow suite makes for a strange companion to the other Fun Labs gadgets, feeling more like it should be snuggling up with the social features on the dashboard rather than sharing space with sock puppets and bobbleheads. What it shares with its Fun Labs peers is a sense of promising technology that never quite convinces or excites.

There's no shortage of options for those with both the inclination and energy to stage their own Kinect shows: six different stages, ranging from practical to imaginative, and a selection of different seating arrangements that allow for intimate chats, formal panels or solo soliloquies. It also lets the dusty old joypad in on the action, with button prompts for basic emotive responses so you can agree or disagree with another guest without talking over them. You can even walk offstage, maybe because you need a wee, or because Clive Anderson refuses to take the Bee Gees seriously.

So in terms of functionality, it's pretty good. The sharing options - which are available across all the Fun Labs software - make it easy to upload your show and share it on the social network of your choice. All that's missing is the motivation, so it'll be interesting to see how much use Avatar Kinect actually gets.

Less impressive is the facial recognition, which supposedly maps every raised eyebrow and mouth movement onto your Avatar. And, let's be fair, sometimes it does. Certainly, my Avatar immediately looked furious and irritated which is a more accurate reflection of my normal face than the fake beaming smile I originally chose to adorn my pretend head. But then at other times the face changes randomly, or not at all.

The mouth movement, too, is hit and miss. It's best when you're making a very obvious and unmissable sound - the open "Ooooh" mouth, for example - but unless you're making Kinect porno or a Frankie Howerd tribute, that's going to have limited value. For the rest of the time, your Avatar mouth moves like it's talking, but rarely matches up to the words you're saying, and with only a handful of mouth shapes for it to choose from it's often like watching a badly dubbed episode of Captain Pugwash.

So, annoyingly, Avatar Kinect both works and doesn't. As a social tool it's got a limited audience, but for those inclined to make their own YouTube chatshows it's got much to recommend. What it doesn't do very well is sell Kinect's more precise tracking features, hampered as it is by the need for good lighting and often exaggerated facial movements.

Conclusion

So what can we take away from this? There's not much point putting a score to something that is (mostly) free, and Microsoft is certainly to be applauded for turning its tech demos into something that people can actually play around with. If it's going to start charging for these trinkets, however, the quality and playability is going to need to take a sharp upwards turn. Right now, these are fleeting distractions that might keep families entertained for a few minutes, but if people are sharing lots of material, I'd warrant it's only to grab those free Achievements for uploading 25 videos from each gadget. Nobody would expect hours of content from such a project, but you'd at least hope for digital toys that have more than 10 minutes of appeal.

Mostly, it's disappointing that the technology on display feels so clumsy. It feels like a step backwards for Kinect, displaying its limitations more than its strengths - right when mainstream developers are starting to do interesting things with the device outside of the obvious motion control applications.