• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, November 4, 2010

Consumer Reports released findings Thursday that debunk what it calls a racist comment related to Microsoft Kinect, the add-on to the Xbox 360 entertainment console.

The report by GameSpot "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 did not encounter this issue with the Kinect and facial recognition when it tested the first time, but decided to try again with two players of "different skin tones, in varying light levels." The research group did find a log-in problem related to low-level lighting, but not directly to players' skin color.

Similar to the Hewlett-Packard webcam fiasco earlier this year, the Kinect camera requires enough light and contrast to determine features in a person's face before it can perform software recognition and log someone into the game console automatically.

The Kinect add-on recognized both players at adequate light levels and failed to recognize both players at levels that were too low. At no time did it recognize one player and not the other, according to Consumer Reports.

This problem didn't prevent anyone who was affected from playing Kinect games, since it can "see" and track players' bodies and motions using a built-in infrared lighting system.

The findings suggest Kinect users should turn on as many room lights as possible to see their environment while playing. The magazine suggests it's to "avoid unintentionally jumping or bumping into room furniture or other objects on the floor," but the research also finds the add-on works better in well-lit environments.