Technology · 2
Which Xbox motion-sensing accessory was briefly subject to U.S. export restrictions over fears it could be used as a surveillance tool?
Answer
Microsoft Kinect
The Kinect's advanced depth-sensing and motion-tracking technology was so sophisticated that U.S. regulators initially treated it as a controlled dual-use technology before clearing it for export.
💡 Did you know?
Microsoft's Kinect motion sensor for Xbox was so advanced that the U.S. government briefly restricted its export as a potential surveillance weapon before allowing it.
Other options people guess
- Nintendo Wii Remote
- PlayStation Move
- PlayStation Eye
Topics
- kinect
- xbox
- microsoft
- flops
- export-control
Know your technology trivia?
Play a free Technology quiz and see how many you get right — no signup needed to start.
More Technology facts
Technology
Which web browser, released by Microsoft in August 1995 and bundled with Windows 95, rapidly eroded Netscape Navigator's dominant market share during the 'browser wars'?
Microsoft licensed the original code for Internet Explorer 1.0 from Spyglass, a company that had commercialised the NCSA Mosaic browser — meaning IE's earliest DNA traced directly back to a university lab.
Technology
What was the name of the distinctive dial-up connection sound that millions of households heard every time they tried to get online in the 1990s?
The dial-up handshake sound has been preserved by the British Library as a culturally significant audio artifact of the late 20th century.
Technology
Apple marketed the screenless 2005 iPod Shuffle as being roughly the size of which everyday item?
The 2004 iPod Shuffle deliberately omitted a screen entirely, making it the first major music player sold blind—users couldn't see what they were playing.
Technology
For Google Glass, what ultimately proved to be a bigger obstacle to its success than any rival product from a competing tech company?
Google Glass's biggest competitor wasn't other tech companies—it was widespread public hostility. Wearers faced social backlash and were dubbed 'Glassholes' before the product even launched.
Technology
When Apple's original iPod debuted in October 2001, which operating system was it built to work with exclusively?
Apple's first iPod required a Mac to function and couldn't work with Windows PCs, limiting its market to just 2% of computer users at launch.
Technology
Which early web protocol allowed visitors to the first CERN website in 1991 to learn about the WWW project by reading a document titled 'WorldWideWeb: Summary'?
The very first web page ever published, at info.cern.ch, is still live today — CERN restored it in 2013 to its original 1992 address as a digital heritage project.