In addition to revealing some impressive sales numbers for Xbox 360 and the Kinect at CES, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer confirmed a new feature that we've been hearing about for days leading up to CES. The new feature is called Avatar Kinect, and it'll be launching as a free update for paying Gold Xbox Live members this Spring.
The Avatar Kinect feature provides a number of "sets" to chat in with your Avatar, and the technology will take motion tracking a step further by tracking mouth movements and facial expressions, such as eyebrows. The feature also enables you to record a video of a chat with other Avatars and put it up on Facebook.
As much as Microsoft has downplayed Sony's approach with PlayStation Home, this Avatar Kinect feature seems only about one step removed from such a virtual world (although Home is obviously not tracking your face). We'll be curious to see how Microsoft evolves Avatar Kinect in the future.
