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Kinect’s Unexpected Afterlife: Still a Go-To for Ghost Hunters
In a dimly lit, derelict room, paranormal investigator Billy Tolley of Ghost Adventures brandishes a Microsoft Kinect, its motions abrupt and erratic. “Whoa!” he exclaims, “Dude, that was intensely eerie.” The Kinect display flickers with a fleeting cluster of arrows, spheres, and red lines. For Tolley and Zak Bagans, fellow paranormal enthusiasts, this ephemeral anomaly is compelling enough to warrant immediate departure. To them, and others in the ghost hunting community, this seemingly innocuous display signifies something more sinister: a possible glimpse of spirits or apparitions invisible to the naked eye. Despite being discontinued in 2017, the Microsoft Kinect, initially designed as a gaming peripheral, finds a surprising second life among ghost hunters seeking to document paranormal activity.
Fifteen years after its initial launch, an unexpected demographic continues to purchase the Microsoft Kinect: ghost hunters like Tolley and Bagans. Although the body-tracking camera, ceased production in 2017, began as an entertainment device, it has experienced an unforeseen resurgence outside the realm of video games. In 2025, its most prominent application appears to be aiding paranormal investigators, such as the Ghost Adventures team, in their efforts to capture evidence of the afterlife.
These investigators are intrigued by the Kinect’s capability to translate data from its body-tracking sensors into a skeletal figure on screen. They propose that these figures, appearing in vacant spaces, represent the skeletons of supernatural entities. Observing the Kinect in action through popular ghost hunting YouTube channels, it undeniably produces results, depicting human-like outlines where no physical person exists. The central question remains: what is the underlying cause of these readings?
The Verge, seeking to understand the unexpected popularity of this once-maligned gaming device within paranormal research, consulted with ghost hunters and experts familiar with the Kinect’s operational mechanisms.
Technical Appeal of Kinect in Ghost Hunting
A significant factor is technical functionality. Sam Ashford, founder of SpiritShack, a ghost-hunting equipment retailer, explains, “The Kinect’s appeal as a depth camera for ghost hunting originates from its ability to perceive depth and generate stick-figure representations of humanoid forms. This facilitates the identification of potential human-like shapes, even if they are faint or translucent.”
How Kinect’s Structured Light System Works
The first-generation Kinect’s structured light system enables this capability. It projects a grid of infrared dots into the surrounding environment, even in darkness. By analyzing the distortion of this projected pattern, the Kinect can detect alterations and, using a machine learning algorithm, discern human-like shapes within these distortions. This data is then transformed into a visual stick figure, the same technology that powered interactive games such as Dance Central and Kinect Sports.
The Kinect’s interpretation is not always accurate.
Upon its release in 2010, the original Kinect represented state-of-the-art technology: a potent, durable, and lightweight depth camera, condensing technology that typically cost upwards of $6,000 into a $150 device. Currently, Kinects are available on eBay for approximately $20. However, ghost hunters commonly attach them to a handle and tablet, rebranding and reselling them as “structured light sensor” (SLS) cameras for prices ranging from $400 to $600. Andy Bailey, founder of Infraready, a ghost hunting equipment supplier, states, “The user aims the camera toward a specific area within a room suspected of paranormal activity. This area should be devoid of people. Nevertheless, the camera frequently calculates and displays a skeletal figure.”
While proponents often cite this as evidence of an eternal existence haunting aged buildings, Bailey advises caution. He recommends that aspiring ghost hunters utilize these cameras in conjunction with other equipment to “provide supplementary supporting evidence.” Ghost Hunters Equipment, the retail division of Ghost Augustine, a haunted tour operator, suggests that “EMF readings, temperature variations, baseline measurements, and related data are crucial when evaluating the authenticity of paranormal phenomena.”
This is because the Kinect’s perceptions are not always accurate. But what does the Kinect truly detect? Did Microsoft, in its attempt to compete with Nintendo Wii’s motion-control market, inadvertently create a portal to the afterlife? Regrettably, the answer is no.
The Kinect is, in fact, a straightforward technological device. It is programmed to recognize the human form and operates under the assumption it is consistently observing one – its primary design function. Regardless of the object presented, be it human, humanoid, or something entirely disparate, it attempts to identify human anatomical structures. If the Kinect’s positional accuracy is compromised, the displayed figure might even appear to move. “We sometimes perceive the face of a religious figure in a piece of toast or an animal shape in a rock formation,” explains Jon Wood, a science communicator who presents a show examining ghost hunting equipment. “Our minds strive to make sense of randomness.” The Kinect performs similarly, but lacks the capacity to override its preprogrammed assumptions.
Naturally, this suits ghost hunters effectively. The Kinect’s tendency to identify human shapes in the absence of humans is crowd-pleasing. When utilized in darkened rooms, illuminated only by infrared light from cameras and torches, and handled by enthusiastic ghost hunters, the Kinect, while attempting to decipher a precise grid of infrared points, is almost guaranteed to corroborate their desired findings.
Ambiguity is central to much of ghost hunting. Logically, when seeking proof of something, be it the afterlife or otherwise, one would desire tools that deliver the clearest, most definitive results to validate this proof. However, ghost hunters often favor technology that produces results of any kind: indistinct recordings from older voice recorders that could be mistaken for voices, low-resolution videos filled with shadowy artifacts, and any inexpensive equipment that can question the nature of dust (euphemistically termed “spirit orbs”) – with bonus appeal if the battery performance is unpredictable.
“I’ve observed ghost hunters employing two distinct electromagnetic field (EMF) measuring devices,” Wood recounts. “One was a precise and costly Trifled TF2, which remains static unless it encounters an actual electromagnetic field. The other was a cheap, unbranded ‘KII’ device, costing approximately £15 [$18], with five lights that react wildly to even minor disturbances. Which one do you suppose was more popular?”
Malfunctions are not just accepted—they are embraced.
Considering the Kinect’s notoriously unreliable skeletal tracking – most non-gaming applications avoid the Kinect’s standard SDKs, opting for alternative, less error-prone methods of processing raw data – it would be more surprising if it didn’t detect figures each time it was used. But that is precisely the appeal. Like much of the technology employed by ghost hunters, the Kinect’s imperfections are not considered flaws or errors. They are not just tolerated—they are embraced.
“When individuals invest money to partake in a ghost hunt, what is their objective?” Wood questions. “They mentally prepare themselves for a ‘spooky experience’ and become receptive to interpreting anything as ‘evidence of a ghost’—they desire to find a ghost, and they ensure they do.”
If skeletal tracking were the sole objective, more advanced options are now available using simple color imaging. However, enhanced methodologies would not produce the same false positives that sustain belief. Therefore, skeletal tracking technology from 2010 remains favored. While this is unlikely to sway committed believers toward skepticism, we now understand the reason for the Kinect’s (or SLS camera’s) results, and we know it is not attributable to ghosts.
Nonetheless, even if its findings are inaccurate, perhaps the Kinect’s renewed purpose in the paranormal realm is not entirely negative. Much like ghosts are often depicted as endlessly repeating patterns until disturbed by ghost hunters, it might be fitting that the Kinect will perpetually continue to track human forms—even when those forms are not actually present.