Xbox Kinnect user experiencing an afterimage.

I am willing to bet that if these people <i>didn't</i> have some understanding of how the kinect works, they would not be experiencing this. Kind of similar to how small towns will occasionally complain about radiation from newly installed cell-towers, only to later realize the tower hasn't even been powered up yet.<p>As I understand the kinect's operation, it sends out a grid of dots, each dot being spread out by a few inches or so by a few feet away. In order to get a grid after-image, <i>assuming that IR could do that</i>, you'd have to be inches away from the device so that several different beams were all entering your eye through your pupil.<p>Now, it's possible there is something actually going on here, but my money is on psychosomatic. Seems <i>way</i> more plausible to me.

Considering that you can put on night-vision goggles and see the pattern that a Kinect puts out, and it's just dots, not shapes, I seriously doubt this guy's problems are actually from the Kinect.

For comparison, here's a youtube video of the dots the Kinect projects. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM2-JQtd2Oc&#38;feature=related" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM2-JQtd2Oc&#38;feature=relat...</a><p>I think the "test pattern" is in the poster's imagination.

all sorts of afterimages are both plausible and common after looking at any sort of bright screen, after strenuous activity, or a combination of both. question is phrased as 'is this common and annoying thing about the world related to a new tech fad?'

I'm sure it's not related to this guy's problem, but I was surprised to find that Kinect puts out some visible light; you can easily see it when looking directly into the emitter, and if you get close enough (think centimeters) you can actually see (what I assume is) the dot pattern.

If you're worried, just get some sunglasses that can filter out infrared

/world runs out to buy kinect just to be able to participate in class action suit.