Yesterday Microsoft invited us to a private preview of Kinect for XBOX 360 — at the beautiful MPE Penthouse. Now we have been invited to a handful of private previews this past year. What made last night such a pleasure was being able to see a very polished Kinect sensor. We were met by a handful of Microsoft Entertainment and Devices representatives — they were very eager to show off all the refined features. Throughout the salon Microsoft had a number of Kinect stations setup for demonstration. We started off the night with Video Kinect.

Microsoft explained that XBOX movies can be accessed either through NetFlix or Zune – which supports 1080p streaming and 5.1 surround sound. The Kinect philosophy is – “a controller free experience.” So after a number of hand gestures Harry Potter begins to play. As the movie starts you immediately see a scroll bar pop up. This scroll bar is controlled by simple hand gestures – which allow you to stop, fast forward, play and rewind a movie. It was impressive to watch how easy and accurate the sensor was.

Please ready the rest at the Huffington Post.