Xbox One's Kinect can understand two people talking at the same time

The new Kinect bundled with the upcoming Xbox One is turning out to be quite a powerful piece of hardware. According to Polygon, Microsoft’s Phil Harrison revealed at the Eurogamer Expo that the new Kinect’s sensors can understand when two different people are talking at the same time. Technology Lead Developer Nick Burton further explained that the Kinect can also see whether peoples’ mouths are moving even in a dark room.

Other impressive statistics include the ability of the Kinect to detect 25 joints between six different people, as well as the ability to recognise who is using the controller. It even has some biometric capabilities, and can estimate heart rates and map faces to 1,400 points. The ability to detect and estimate heart rates will undoubtedly be useful for fitness buffs who plan on subscribing to Xbox Fitness.

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The new Kinect seems to be quite powerful

While the company was earler adamant about requiring the Kinect to play games on the Xbox One, it has since eased off on the position. Earlier, Microsoft’s Marc Whitten revealed that Xbox One can run just fine without the Kinect being connected, but understandably, players won’t be able to use the Kinect-specific features of the console.

Whitten lists a bunch of things that the Kinect sensor is capable of, such as automatically assigning controllers to new players, and ends with, “That said, like online, the console will still function if Kinect isn’t plugged in, although you won’t be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor.”

The Xbox One is hitting the first wave of countries in November.