Xbox One includes a new Kinect sensor

The Xbox One will include a new Kinect sensor, Microsoft announced during its Xbox reveal event today.

The new device supports 1080p video at 30 frames per second and offers a 60 percent wider field of view, thanks to a data throughput of 2 GB per second. New "time of flight" technology enables the sensor to measure the time it takes for photons to bounce off players, and because it uses infrared technology, it works in a dark room. The sensor is also much more precise — it's able to read a person's balance and the transfer of weight, and it can measure a heartbeat during exercise. And an array of microphones will do a better job of picking out your voice, even in a crowded room.

"This is human control, for a human experience," said Microsoft's Marc Whitten.

Wired reports that the new Kinect also includes an infrared blaster that will allow it to turn on other living-room devices like your TV and cable box.

A leaked document obtained by The Verge last year suggested that the second-generation Kinect would offer higher-fidelity cameras and microphones for better body tracking and voice recognition, respectively, including support for tracking as many as four players at once.

It has been widely reported that the original Kinect was set to have an internal processor, but that Microsoft decided to remove it and offload calculations to the Xbox 360 in order to cut costs for Kinect. According to at least one developer, the original Kinect was also hampered by the bandwidth limitations of the USB 2.0 connection between the sensor and the console: the image's resolution and frame rate had to be capped.

In February, Sony announced a new PlayStation Eye camera for PlayStation 4 that will sense motion and track the DualShock 4 controller. The Eye uses a proprietary connector to interface with the PS4, and can output a high-definition image (1280x800 pixels) at 60 frames per second.

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