Suggestions (Wrist-band/ bracelet)

Problem Statement
We have an Xbox 360 in our house, which we mainly use as a video streaming device these days. When we bought it though, the idea was to use it as a potential educational tool for our daughter (who turns 5 this April), and eventually to our son (who is 2.5).
However, as soon as we bought it, we realized that there were some roadblocks.

• Kinect sensor placement: We have connected our Xbox to the wall-mounted TV in our family room, where the set top boxes, Blu-ray players (and now the Xbox) are all placed in a rack in one corner of the room, with the wires to the TV run thru the wall
  (so as to keep a clean, un-cluttered look). This setup caused 2 issues…

1. While I could use an existing HDMI cable, that has been run thru the wall, to connect Xbox to the TV, I still had to connect the Kinect to Xbox via a cable that was outside the wall, and hence defeated the purpose of hiding all the wires behind the wall.
   
2. I own a Nintendo Wii as well, and the fact that I could stick the Wii sensor to the top OR bottom of the TV screen made life much easier with a toddler around. With Kinect, I am using a tripod (as there is no table below the TV), and whenever I setup the
   tripod, my son would invariably crawl/ walk to it and tip/ move it. This caused a very stop-and-go experience.
   

• User Identification: Our family room has enough space to move around comfortably (i.e Xbox would identify the available space area as ‘large’). However, that also means that my daughter, playing Kinectimals or Sesame street, will share the space
  with her younger brother who is just jumping around or playing with his lego stacks. And this results in Kinect constantly identifying my son as another player or as the primary (blue) player.
  

Due to the issues above, we have stopped using Kinect (at least until the kids grow older, by which time Xbox 360 would be out of date they won’t want to use it J), and now it is acting as a streaming device for our Netflix, Youtube, Amazon, etc.

My Reaction
I am a User Experience Specialist by profession, and I thought to myself “If I were working at Microsoft, how would I tackle this problem?”, and started thinking. As I went down this path, I set a few parameters to myself…

1. I’m not going to focus on solving this particular problem, but use this as a Launchpad for a holistic solution.
   
2. The solutions should be such that it scales well with the current and near future technology trends.
   
3. The solution should have new business viability. I.e it should assist Xbox get a foothold in other areas (outside of gaming and entertainment).
   

I also made one assumption – i.e. the Kinect technology is what it is now. I made this assumption because I’m not in the gaming industry, nor do I focus on gaming peripherals. I’m assuming that the user cannot tell Kinect to ‘stop tracking a particular person,
even though they are in Kinect’s scan zone’. However, even if that assumption is incorrect, I think there is still some value (both from user experience perspective as well as business perspective) to my proposal.

Kinect Sensor Placement: Proposal
I’m not a hardware/ industrial designer, so I did not focus too much on this problem (I did on the next one), but some means of making the bulky sensor ‘clip’ onto the TV screen (both at the top as well as the bottom, as placing the sensor at 6 ft. causes
recognition issues with small kids as players.) will be very effective. And ofcourse, making the sensor communicate to the Xbox wirelessly should be the next logical step.

User Identification: Proposal
With wearable computing devices fast becoming a reality, I am proposing a bracelet (like a fit-bit fitness band) that can be used to alleviate the user identification issue. And I think this problem is not just with kids moving around, but even if there
is an adult standing behind the kid (like I use to do, teaching some game moves to my daughter) the sensor picks up the adult, and causes a bad experience.

With the bracelet, I can tell Kinect to track only the user(s) that are wearing the bracelet and avoid everyone else. Now my son can also jump with his sister for Dora dance, thinking that he is also playing while only my daughter is playing the game.

The bracelet can be used for few other things as well…

• Controlled play time: One of the concerns I hear from some of my friends with tween/ teen kids is that the amount of time they spend with their video games, phones, and computers. With the bracelet, I should be able to assign a bracelet to each kid,
  and specify things like total amount of time they can use Xbox in a day, maximum amount of time they can use Xbox at a stretch, etc. This way parents can control their play time effectively. This functionality can be extended to phones and computer as well,
  using the bracelet as a key part of login mechanism (i.e. the user must wear the bracelet in order to use the device).
  
• Fitness: The bracelet can borrow some ideas from the fitness bands in the market today, but extend the functionality multi-fold. My wife can wear her bracelet during her morning run, and when she comes home and starts the Jillian Anderson exercise
  game in Xbox, ‘Jillian’ would know that my wife had already ran for 3 miles that morning, and she (Jillian) can congratulate my wife on her enthusiasm, as well as tailor that session based on her calorie burn so far that day. And when my wife goes to her gym
  the next day and start her workout on an Xbox integrated elliptical, the elliptical can automatically pull up the appropriate exercise pattern for her, and update her workout information to the bracelet (or the Xbox cloud server) for later use by ‘Jillian’.
  In fact, if the fitness center provides personal TV monitors, then the bracelet can be used to prompt my wife whether she wants to continue watching the latest episode of Sherlock Holmes that she paused half way thru at home.
  
• Healthcare: An extension of the above feature. The bracelet can keep track of the user’s heart rate, how far away from the screen they stand (averaged out), etc. And when the user gets an email/ calendar notification (in her windows phone or Windows
  computer) about her doctor appointment, the Windows system can sense the bracelet, and prompt the user to send her health statistics (from the bracelet) to the doctor’s office, so that the optometrist can review the information and tell her that she should
  stay at least a feet more away from her current position, and should be tested for near-sightedness.
  

I am sure there are a lot more possibilities in addition to what I have stated above, but the key thing is the potential to expand the Xbox eco system beyond the current gaming/ entertainment areas.

Final Thoughts
This activity started as an exercise to quench my creative curiosity, but as it evolved I thought it would be a good idea to share this with the folks to whom this might be of interest. In all likelihood the Xbox UX team has thought of these things already
(and probably working on it), but still I think it does not hurt to share ideas.

:)

 

games that make you feel sick

You need some sea bands. They are just wrist bands that press on the pressure point in your wrist that stops motion sickness. Get them from amazon for a few quid. Work extremely well, we have them for the kid's while travelling.

 

Well, Lets hear some fresh reviews of the game???

I was a hero this morning to the 5 year old. Mega blocks, posters, wrist band. You'd have thougt he got a new game.

 

I'm pretty sure the newer Kinect on the one can do a lot of the stuff you're saying. It can tell who is who in the room etc...

Plus the 360's Kinect if you look on youtube a lot of people been using it for all sorts of stuff. I'm pretty sure even NASA is or has used it as well for stuff.....

 

ManneredDonkey: A very weel thought-out piece with some good thoughts. I think that some of the problems you are having with the 360 Kinect have been "solved" on the one but there will still be problems with the smaller kids. (don't wish them to grow
up too quickly!!!!!)

Thanks for the post, it made me think.