Consumer Reports Says Microsoft Kinect Is Not "Racist"

Is the new Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Kinect game system “racist?”  Consumer Reports says no.

The problem began when Gamespot reported:

[Our] testing suggests facial recognition features of Microsoft’s motion-sensing camera system might not work properly for some gamers. . . . In testing the Kinect, two dark-skinned GameSpot employees had problems getting the system’s facial recognition features to work.

Consumer Reports, which generally takes a neutral position on any item it tests, says the claims are false.

Consumer Reports did not encounter this issue with the Kinect and facial recognition when we first tested it. But it did remind of us a similar rumor about a`racist’ HP laptop—which we debunked—last year.

The organization went on to support is report through extensive tests.  Kinect’s operation is affected by room lighting, and nothing more, Consumer Reports wrote.

The claim of “racism” is astonishing, because it is unimaginable that a huge corporation would launch one of its most critical products without extensive testing. Microsoft has had Xbox hardware problems in the past, but that hardly rates with claims that it produced a machine loaded with discriminatory software.

Major consumer products launches are often followed by reports from test firms and the media of supposed flaws meant to harm consumers. That assumes that firms like Microsoft are willing to commit a form of suicide that could cost them hundreds of millions of dollars.

Douglas A. McIntyre