Zoom for Kinect - Xbox 360

Despite many negative reviews, we bought the Zoom based on some of the positive reviews. Glad we did! I bought the Xbox 360 w/Kinect & the Zoom on the same day from different vendors and by chance, they were delivered on the same day, so we have never...not...used our Xbox w/o the Zoom. It was easy to set up/calibrate - very easy...Since we have a 72" TV in a smaller room, the Zoom made the difference between being able to use our new Kinect or not. We would never move couches and rearrange our room every day in order to do our daily workouts - ain't happen'in, crisis averted...Btw, our Kinect camera is about 26" off the ground. The Zoom will always be on the Kinect, although it only takes a split second to remove it, slightly longer to attach it - lining it up left to right - SIMPLE!!! Fyi, the Zoom is just a series of magnifying lens(one unit...) that snap on the Xbox Kinect camera. Not much too it, but it is a great idea and vital for situations like ours...I'm not sure why so many people are having problems with this. My guess is that some of these reviewers have problems with many of the things they buy...(draw your own conclusions...). My advice: if you think you need this, get it. The price is right.Btw, the aftermarket "privacy" covers for Kinect cameras will not fit if you have a Zoom on your camera - this should be obvious...A PHD isn't required to improvise. Maybe some genius will make one for Zoom owners, while others will just use a black sock or hankie...Whatever it is, we are feeling sort of creepy w/ this camera pointing at us while watch TV, Netflix, ect. so we are currently turning it to the side while not in use. If we can find a cover, we may just pony up another $20 for a piece of black plastic...What's another $20? (sarcasm)

After reading many of the negative reviews, I thought it's best to write my experience with the product.I had this pre-ordered for a while now, and since it was only $24, I was willing to give it a shot , just so I can stop moving furniture around every time I needed to use the KINECT.So far it worked out. It is true that it's probably not that accurate, but I use it with Fitness Evolved, and it tracks things really well, I am surprised how much more closer to the sensor I can stand now.Some people have mentioned that KINECT needs to see the floor or it re-calibrates, this is true, but there are instruction to fix that issue in the manual of the product. My KINECT is placed under the TV, so many that helped my situation.Overall, for $24 it was worth it, I take this over having to move my furniture around (ie. heavy couch) every time i felt like playing a game. Which caused me to not use the KINECT as much.It does create issues for gestures when watching HULU or Netflix because the "playing area" is now much closer to the TV, so the KINECT can't recognize you from your couch 8 feet away. But that's a given considering the wide-angle lens they use as a solution. For the money, the unit feels very solid and well made, I would have paid $75 for it, because for me the convenience this provides is just un-parralled. However, I always thought MS had a reason for not doing this, so I have feeling, the new and more advanced games that are coming out for the KINECT might not work so well with a wide-angle lens in front of it. But for $24 , who cares!

I see all these reviews are all over the place so I wanted to weigh in with my own opinions.I barely play my Kinect, and really don't want to have to move my big L-sofa whenever I want to play. So like everyone else I was sold on the idea of playing Kinect with less space.At first my Kinect was on top of my TV, and I slapped the Zoom on and turned everything on.. and it barely recognized my hand, let alone me. I messed with it a bit, including redoing the calibration with that smiley face card, and it helped a little. When I went in to run the Kinect ID setup I saw what the problem was - it couldn't see my feet, and kept showing me as having my legs crossed and in all kinds of strange positions.So I moved my Kinect to below my TV, it's sitting on a speaker on my TV stand, so about 6 inches off the stand with the top of it in line with the bottom of my TV screen. I ran the calibration again, and it seemed to be somewhat better. I went and played Kinect Adventures, and saw in the pictures it takes what is probably the issue with the Zoom - everything is shaped different, and on the outside of each image you can see the circle for where the lenses are. BUT, you can clearly see it sees ALL OF YOU, and more, if the Kinect is below the TV.So what I did was go back into Kinect ID and -deleted my settings-. All the saved things it had to recognize me I cleared out. Then re-did it. And everything started to move a lot better. My wife did the same and experienced the same thing. I think the original way of viewing the world and the new way it looks with the Zoom on all saved together confused the system.So what I suggest for other people who are having trouble before they return the Zoom:- Put the Kinect below the TV- Clear out your Kinect ID settings and redo the recognition setup.Another thing: I think 40% less space is conservative. 5 feet away from the Kinect was freaking it out in Kinect Adventures. So I still need to check that out more.Bottom line from me: For the amount I play the Kinect, once I worked the bugs out I'm happy with the device. It'll save me from moving anything but our coffee table, and that sounds good to me.