Microsoft Xbox Is Winning The Living Room War.
Cookie Monster wants a snack. Sure, he could have a handful of you-know-whats, but even a Muppet has to watch his waistline. So he decides to grab something healthful. “Maybe if me jump up and down, me can shake fruit out of this tree,” the fuzzy blue monster says to his television viewers. “Okay. Help me jump!”
Muppets have always broken the fourth wall. But for the first time, Cookie can actually tell if kids are responding. When they do, his googly eyes shake wildly and leaves fall from the tree. “Oh boy, oh boy,” Cookie cheers. If the child refuses to budge, he invites his fuchsia friend Telly on-screen to do the jumping instead.
This is Kinect Sesame Street TV, a fully interactive version of the award-winning educational program that goes on sale exclusively for Microsoft' s Xbox game console in September. The Xbox’s Kinect accessory comes with cameras and microphones and can see and hear the kids as they watch and play. “Kids generally learn through play, and this is an opportunity to get them off the couch and involved,” says Terry Fitzpatrick, chief content and distribution officer for Sesame Workshop, which has produced Sesame Street since 1969. “Microsoft recognized the value of it immediately.”  I like the idea of interacting with your tv on a physical level.  It really shows how far technology has progressed.