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Comic for: November 5th, 2010
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Kinect: "Kinect Racism"
Posted: Friday November 5th, 2010 by

Comments have been flying around about the Kinect's supposed difficulties recognizing the faces of darker complected individuals for as long as the peripheral has been demoed. The article that lead to this comic came from Gamespot. It seems two of its employees had issues getting the system to recognize their faces. Gamespot went on to do further testing: more subjects, different clothes, different rooms, different lighting conditions. Consumer Reports has also joined in on the testing and dismisses the issue as on of lighting not of complexion.

I've not played with the system and I haven't received any reports of problems so I'm left to wrinkle my nose at the use of the word "racism" (or one of its derivatives) in needlessly sensationalist headlines about the issue.

The Kinect is not racist. It might have some light and contrast processing issues, but it's a machine. It's not possessed of an ability to single out users based on ethnicity. And while we're at it, I'm tired of the word "racism" (or one of its derivatives) on the whole. We're all human. That's our race. If you're gonna be ignorant pick a term that better fits the actuality of your social limitation. It won't change my opinion of you if you do. I'll still consider you a miserable asshat. Just saying.

Oh and yes, this comic is also an intentional nod to Penny Arcade's Kinect comic for today.

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