Rumor mill: next gen Xboxes + Kinect 2 to read lips, track fingers, make unicorns real

Pinches of salt on the ready, folks. Consistent with the most recent speculation, Microsoft’s sequel to the Xbox 360 will actually be two models, a pared down set-top box for informal gamers and a heftier model for the hardcore. Either way, Xbox 720 / Xbox Loop’s getting paired up with a revised version of the magnificent Kinect hardware. The digital grapevine’s saying that Kinect 2 could be ready to read your lips, track your fingers and sense the tone of your voice to find out if you’ve come over all angry. It can’t try this currently because of its USB cable, which may only transmit 16MB/s of knowledge — limiting the camera’s resolution to 320 x 240 at 30fps. We do not know what protocol the hot sensor bar will use, but we do know that either USB 3.0 (that may transmit 400 MB/s) or Intel’s Thunderbolt (700MB/s) would remove such limitations. In related news, 2012′s Kinect for Windows is getting a shorter USB cable for better data integrity and a refocused image sensor which will switch to “near mode” to look objects 50cm away — meaning a whole lot of classic Kinects and Nyko Zooms are gonna land up as a filling for a brand new Mexico landfill.