Turn Kinect Xbox 360 features on or off

You can choose to turn certain Kinect features on or off. For example, you might want to turn off the chat microphone or you might want to turn off the sensor, without having to unplug it.
1. On your Xbox 360 console, go to My Xbox, and then select System Settings.
2. Select Kinect Settings.
3. Select the item that you want to change.

* Sensor: Turn the sensor on or off.
* Chat Microphone: Turn the chat microphone on if you want to talk to players while playing a game, or if you are using Video Kinect. Learn about Video Kinect. If you turn off the chat microphone, speech recognition still works.
Note: When you are using the Kinect Guide, you can turn the chat microphone on or off by hovering your hand over the speech icon in the lower-right corner.
* Speech Recognition: Turn on speech recognition if you want to use your voice to control your Xbox 360 console. Turn speech recognition off if you do not want to use voice commands (you can still use the sensor for chat). Learn about speech recognition.

4. Select Off or On.

Source: www.support.xbox.com