Random: Microsoft's Kinect finds new life tracking the undead, used by ghost hunters
Who ya gonna call?
It's spooky season, also known as Halloween in some circles. Whether you're catching Midnight Mass on Netflix or indulging in the best horror games on Xbox, there's something for everybody in this most petrifying period. There's no better time of year to go ghost hunting either, and that's exactly what H3 Productions recently did over on YouTube.
Teaming up with Linda the Ghost Hunter, H3 explored one of the most "haunted" places in America, built atop an ancient burial ground. Why is this relevant to Microsoft, you may be wondering, intrepid Windows Central reader? Well, it's because Linda uses a custom Microsoft Kinect rig to track down spooky apparitions.
Linda explains that the Xbox Kinect has the ability to track "skeletal figures that aren't there," i.e., ghosts or demons that we can't see with the naked eye. Of course, it could simply be one of Kinect's notorious algorithm glitches, but hey, you can check the footage out for yourself above. At 19:08, the team stumble upon not one, but two ghostly Kinect figures in the dark, undiscernible with the naked eye.
It's also interesting to note that Linda uses an Xbox 360 Kinect. Perhaps the ghost tracking systems were patched out of the Kinect 2 or even the modern Azure Kinect, making them unsuitable for spiritual investigations. I suspect Microsoft would have little to say about such things if I reached out to PR to inquire if they'd tested Kinect's paranormal capabilities, so it may simply remain a mystery (or not.)
Kinect has found a range of uses since its death as a gaming peripheral. The tech is, of course, embedded in HoloLens, and Azure Kinect is being used in everything from advertising systems to medical devices. I suspect Kinect inventor Alex Kipman and his team may have never envisaged Kinect's paranormal applications, but hey, it just goes to show how powerful the tech is, right?
Have you ever had a haunted Kinect experience? Tell us your ghost stories in the comments. The truth is out there, friends.
Thanks to @avianoir for the tip!
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Jez Corden is a Managing Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by tea. Follow on Twitter (X) and Threads, and listen to his XB2 Podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!