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I love the Kinect. My ongoing attempt to better my health revolves around including it in many of my daily activities. Sometimes, though, I just want to watch Yogscast Minecraft videos and laze about, and the Kinect won't have that. It wants to peer into my life like those televisions in 1984, commanding me to exercise and uphold the party principles.
What's most annoying, though, is how the Kinect interacts with third-party applications. Any time you so much as scratch your nose when watching something on Netflix or YouTube a little hand icon appears. It won't go away, no matter how you half-heartedly wave at it.
Many apps also have a motion-based typing function built in that I've managed to accidentally activate when using a controller. No matter what I do, the Kinect is determined to make me use it. If my entertainment center wasn't such a rat's nest of wires I'd just unplug it in those moments....
My boss Dan Hsu's answer for this thoroughly first-world problem was an inelegant “just throw a towel over it.” Well, I prefer something a bit more refined than a dish towel thrown over my Kinect. Luckily, the Pritect exists.
The Pritect is a black piece of plastic shaped to slide over the Kinect, completely blocking the camera and infrared sensors. It's a $15 dollar solution to a problem I could solve with a towel I already own. But, I like having a sleek little protective case rather than cluttering up my living room further with yet another stray item.
Besides blocking the irritating camera while I'm trying to be lazy, the Pritect also serves as an excellent dust cover. I've had to clean the Kinect more than once thanks to all the traffic outside my building and the shedding hair-beasts I keep as pets. Using the Pritect has certainly cut down on the amount of time I spend making sure the sensors recognize me and not the black cat fluff floating around.
So, Hsu was right. I could have just thrown a towel over the Kinect and not been all annoyed by it trying to rule my life. But I prefer something a little more elegant, and the Pritect is definitely that.
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