No, the Kinect Can’t See Through Your Clothes

The Xbox One launches in North America tomorrow, and Microsoft just killed the rumor that the Kinect could see through clothing. 

A recently released Microsoft Research video, which I’ve included above, showed off the Kinect’s camera and some and one of the unique ways it can track and identify players, Active IR, that developers can include in their games.

Well, the rumour mill turned “Kinect can see in the dark” into, “Kinect can see through your clothing.”

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed with IGN that the Kinect, although far more advanced than the original could not see through clothing.

“There is no tech magic going on here and Kinect cannot see through clothing. Furthermore, the video was an illustration of the various camera views available for the creation of games and apps. This view is only accessible on a development kit and is not viewable on retail consoles.“

I bolded the important part of that spiel. Even if the Kinect could see through clothing, the only consoles capable of displaying the view are development kits. Dev kits are not available to consumers, and aren’t sold in stores. You have nothing to worry about, leave the junk perving to the TSA.