Consumer Reports: Kinect motion-senser not 'racist'

NEW YORK (AP) - GameSpot, a popular video game website, said earlier it found through testing Kinect that its facial recognition camera system did not work properly for some players...

NEW YORK (AP) — Looking to debunk a report that Microsoft’s new motion-sensing video game controller might be racist, Consumer Reports says it found no evidence that Kinect has problems recognizing users with darker skin.

GameSpot, a popular video game website, said earlier it found through testing Kinect that its facial recognition camera system did not work properly for some players with darker skin.

WATCH MSNBC COVERAGE OF THE KINECT PRODUCT HERE:
[MSNBCMSN video=”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640″ w=”592″ h=”346″ launch_id=”39995505″ id=”msnbc4a297b”]

Consumer Reports said Thursday the problem is related to low-level lighting, and not directly to players’ skin color. Kinect’s camera, it says, needs enough light and contrast so it can determine players’ facial features. Then it can perform software recognition and log them in to the Xbox gaming system.

Microsoft Corp. launched Kinect on Thursday.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

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