E3: MS unveils hands-free Project Natal

By Tom Bramwell Published 1 June, 2009

Pretty much X720. A bit Minority Report.

Microsoft games boss Don Mattrick has shown off Project Natal, a camera-based no-controller control scheme that combines "an RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone and custom processor running proprietary software all in one device".

There’s no word on a date, but Mattrick said it would work with every single Xbox 360 when it launches, which saves on them making a new console (for now anyway).

It’s “a revolutionary new way to play where the only experience you need is life experience”, according to Mattrick.

An accompanying press release added: "Unlike 2D cameras and controllers, Project Natal tracks your full body movement in 3D, while responding to commands, directions and even a shift of emotion in your voice."

In a video reel tech demonstration, various demos were shown, including a racing game where you wave your arms around like a steering wheel, a skateboard game where you scan in a real-life board and then skate around on it by jumping around the room, and a quiz game where you move your hands to buzz in.

Facial and voice recognition is in there, and so are Minority Report-style swiping controls for navigating menus – handy for pushing windows around to highlight things for your friends and to select items.

According to Steven Spielberg (yes, him), on stage with Mattrick to talk up Project Natal, it recognises “not just your thumbs and your wrists, but your entire being”.

“It’s not about reinventing the wheel, it’s about no wheel at all.”

Not convinced? Check out footage over on EGTV now.

Spielberg and “his teams” will be working on projects for Natal. “We’ll come up with some great stuff,” he said, as he wandered off to loud cheers.

Project leader Kudo Tsunoda (he of the sunglasses) came on-stage to demonstrate how demo girl Abigail could take limb-by-limb control of her avatar.

In a 3D Breakout tech demo called Ricochet, Abby smacked balls around by flapping her arms and legs, with her avatar following suit.

“This isn’t the kind of game where you just end up on the sofa using some kind of preset waggle commands,” Tsunoda said in a pretty obvious dig at Nintendo’s Wii.

The next demo, Paint Party, saw another demo chap, Dan, “slopping” paint onto a canvas – again, making motions that his avatar followed pretty much instantly. By saying the names of colours out loud (“dark brown”) he could select the kind of paint he laid down by waving his arms.

With Abby back on stage, she and Dan then contorted themselves into Twister shapes and stencilled themselves on screen to add to the image. In this case, they managed an elephant.

Tsunoda said that development kits were arriving with teams today - although Peter Molyneux is already working on something, and has been for a few weeks. You can read our conference report on his project for more or stay tuned later this week for a write-up based on a private demo.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (72) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • Rash' #1 3 years ago

    "a revolutionary new way to play where the only experience you need is life experience"

    Had to smirk at that. :)
    Edited by 1 at 01/06/09 @ 20:18

  • oxymoron #2 3 years ago

    so people who spend lots of time playing too many computer games and avoid real world interactions will have more of an excuse not to socially interact apart from their loving A>I, who will no doubt fill them with self confidence and all the life skills they will ever need.

    it does look good though (the AI stuff).

  • Freek #3 3 years ago

    Ok, so all that technology, wich is impressive. And what did they make with it? An EyeToy clone and a creepy as hell little kid. Milo showed allot of cool tech and AI, but the end result was still firmly planted in the uncanny valley.
    Come on MS, you need to do better then that. Way better.

  • MORZTAN #4 3 years ago

    Milo will be limited beyond compare!!

  • stevetuck #5 3 years ago

    Those japs are gonna love the hentai aspects of this :D

  • Razorus #6 3 years ago

    That was very impressive. I was quite shocked. I'd have to test it myself to see if it REALLY works but if the technology works, this can open doors for a huge amount of potentially amazing games.

  • berelain #7 3 years ago

    Remember guys, Milo is only a tech demo. Devs havent had a chance to make any actual *games* with the tech yet. Give them chance.

  • GundamJehutyKai #8 3 years ago

    so everyone was expecting a wii-mote copy and instead we got an eyetoy copy??

    Pretty lame...

  • chris_ace #9 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 11:55:13 13-12-2011

  • el_vicio #10 3 years ago

    Pricing will be a massive concern if they want to take Nintendos casual slice of the gamer cake.

    That tech can't come cheap.

  • CallousB #11 3 years ago

    Get rid of the virtual child and they have a winner. It just creeped me out completely.

  • mr_chimp #12 3 years ago

    Molyneux's demo was unbelievable. Genuine hairs standing up stuff. Hope the 'real life' demo gives a good impression.

  • Domovoi #13 3 years ago

    This goes way beyond pretend skateboarding and break-out with your limbs. Amazing.

  • owl #14 3 years ago

    i like controllers : (

    still, i don't own a 360!!

  • penhalion #15 3 years ago

    I loved this tech. No idea why some people are calling it lame. I guess those same people called the wiimote lame when it first came out. I think that this has great potential, even though I can already see a dozen keep fit games in the making. Their vision with the skateboard thing kind of killed Tony Hawks board controller idea, which raised a chuckle from me.

    I can already imagine a nice starwars game with full lightsaber movements and being able to point my arm and yell "Force push" or "Force pull" at stormtroopers and opbects or even doing the old emperor lightning strikes.

    The only limitation is going to be the size of the space you have to play in!

  • Negotiator #16 3 years ago

    This goes far beyond Eyetoy in fact in the movies MS did last year was like Eyetoy, this is on a different level not 2D like Eye toy but full 3D, incredible.

  • wellzy4eva #17 3 years ago

    The only limit is when people have to realise they actually have to move to do stuff...

    http://ww w.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/5...

  • DudleySmith #18 3 years ago

    Here's 3DV's patent.

    3D imaging system

    It works using a pulsing IR illuminator and a high speed camera so that it can work out the distance from the illuminator of each pixel in the scene.

  • Negotiator #19 3 years ago

    Sony and Nintendo are finished, because they can't copy this tech, MS own it. Everyone will want this, face and voice recognition for christ sake.

  • Domovoi #20 3 years ago

    The only problem I can see is that there's no first/third-person shooters for this. I mean, how would you move forward?

  • Rodchenko #21 3 years ago

    Yes, impressive, but everybody knows that your arms will get heavy after playing that racing game for about 10 minutes. And the one pivotal thing this will be missing is physical feedback (rumble).

  • AaronTurner #22 3 years ago

    Apparently you can still use pads with the camera so FPS' etc are still perfectly possible.

  • EmiliasHorse #23 3 years ago

    If this turns out to be even half as good as MS say it could become huge.

  • themorganator #24 3 years ago

    How the hell can this be lame you deluded fanboy chimps???!!!

    The potential for this technology is beyond comprehension and all you can say is it's lame??? FFS, why are you even on a gaming website posting so soon after its announcement anyway??

    Go back to your PS3's and Wii's and cry into your milk.

  • AphoticCosmos #25 3 years ago

    If it works, and only if, this could be big.

    It won't bring the 360 back to compete with the Wii for the casual market, but it does open it up a lot, and if it ever makes it to more "hardcore" games, as an option at least , then it could be freaking awesome.

  • Mattattattatt #26 3 years ago

    Hopefully you'll look cooler than this playing it... http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=ql-UZv3AS-E

  • Domovoi #27 3 years ago

    Yes, impressive, but everybody knows that your arms will get heavy after playing that racing game for about 10 minutes.

    True, but that didn't stop Mario Kart and all the Wii racers.

    Apparently you can still use pads with the camera so FPS' etc are still perfectly possible.

    Wouldn't it defeat the point of the full-body controls if you have to have your hands full with a controller?

    Although I suppose you could hold the controller like a gun and steer with your thumbs... seems awkard though.

  • owl #28 3 years ago

    i really don't like all this future stuff. i think i'm going to lock myself in my room with a super nintendo and a copy of now 21.

  • Negotiator #29 3 years ago

    Microsoft have done it, what everyone has been waiting for, full body control, no controller no device, just your body and voice to control the game. It makes the Wii look like shit, you see this can't be bettered and Sony and Nintendo can't copy it unless they want to pay Microsoft lots of money. When this comes out 360 sales will surpass the Wii by such a big margin, it will catch up in about 6 to 12 months. This goes beyond the casual market, everyone will want this.

  • po3mone #30 3 years ago

    wow the only thing that microsoft does is BITE natal is way similar to the EYE TOY, im not trying to flame but when when they state and others state that this is new tech or for that matter intuitive/revolutionary tech is of bunch of BULLSHIT.. what are going to be the games that take advantage of this so called new controler?? it seems to me the only way the 360 can make a good change of making a long console race is to appeal to other than the hardcore market just like the wii is doing. but seriously this was a really bad conference..........

  • AphoticCosmos #31 3 years ago

    oh dear, the fanboy invasion is here.

    The eyetoy was a lot more limited in it's functionality. If you saw the Natal demo you'd see it is quite a bit more advanced, even if it relies on the same principle.

  • Spryte #32 3 years ago

    I don't get how it makes games better. In a very few limited applications it has potential, but how is it going to make Mass Effect, FIFA, COD or the like better? Seems like a fairly positive response on here so far, so I'm wondering what are people perceiving as the benefits of this camera to the games they are enjoying at the moment?

  • The12thMonkey #33 3 years ago

    Potential, yes.
    Technologically impressive, very.

    I want to phrase this post without sounding either too sceptical or too fanboyishly wet in the pants.
    I'm not saying that designers can't think around these issues, because that's what they're paid to do. It's easy to make comparisons with the Wiimote, because it's clearly the market that Microsoft are aiming at. My principle issue is this - there is a lot to be said for having a physical object to hold. So many of the games we play involve us picking objects up and using them. The Wiimote is the direct extention of your arm in a game world. Also, when the camera is just watching you and the game is reacting to your input, you're left without a physical feedback mechanism. That's point one.

    Point two is that, at least in our European part of the world, I don't know many people who have a great deal of space to play games in. Of course, this is a charge you can level at the Wii as well, but by restricting normal play on the Wii to easy gestures, you remove the charge of breaking china, or smashing the dog, or something. If your control is your body, then there's problems for how you go about implementing much - picture walking as an example. I am not, repeat not, going to walk on the spot to move my character forward (I am replaying FF12 at the moment, and if I'd had to walk as far as my characters have - nearly half a million steps currently, I wouldn't have made it out of the Nalbina Dungeons). My floorboards would give up, assuming the parents and neighbours hadn't hung me well before that. Being able to use the 360 pad still is a good plan, but mixing gestures with a control pad which isn't suited for one hand seems to me to be an issue.

    Point three is precision. Grabbing an invisible machine gun or sniper rifle (particularly this one) in mid air is all well and good, but it's very easy to be ham-fisted and point off target. The Wiimote works by the controller and sensor calculating where you are pointing at any given moment. It's as accurate as you are (mostly), where as I would like to see some concrete demonstrations of accurate on-screen responses to not-particularly accurate physical movements.


    Lastly, I'll try and be positive about it. The interaction with Milo was impressive - hopefully those who get to test it as Molyneux was saying will get to go off piest a little with, and see if it holds up well to having to improvise. I half expected him to push the lass into the water. I wonder where the processing for all this lot goes on? In the Camera device itself? Surely co-ordinating mulitple people (do we know how many people it can video capture at once?), recognising their voice, and running a game engine all at the same time would be a little beyond the current tech in the 360? If they've put it in the camera, I'm sure it probably has cost implications, but I think if it is, it's better to let the 360 do what it does well - drawing the action.

    I want to hear more from Microsoft. I'm not exactly sitting on the fence, here. Rather, I have genuine concerns I would like some hard info on.

  • makeamazing #34 3 years ago

    I think we all saw something in the Wii when it first came out, we were like omg you can play computer golf or tennis using real movements, and then realised.. actually it wasnt all that good. To me this is much along the same idea. We all love the idea of the concept, but will probably be disappointed or get bored of it quickly when it does arrive.

    Still credit for MS for progressing this (even though credit should go to nintendo for making others want to do it).

  • Raya #35 3 years ago

    This isn`t ms tech it´s bought tech. I think it was at GDC or E3 last year. A south american company I think, The problem with this as always is that by the time they release something another year has gone by. By the time soemthing really good is released then they´ll be on the next gen and new tech. As for Sony and N coping they don´t need to they just buy another similar tech but come on can you see Nintendo even bothering to copy? They have cheap tech and are the brand that every body knows at the moment. You´ll see this tech on the news and then wait, and wait...

    Remember the wii mote killers for the PS2 .... As always it´s software not hardware... Wait

  • RedPanda #36 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • Negotiator #37 3 years ago

    This isn`t ms tech it´s bought tech. I think it was at GDC or E3 last year. A south american company I think, The problem with this as always is that by the time they release something another year has gone by. By the time soemthing really good is released then they´ll be on the next gen and new tech. As for Sony and N coping they don´t need to they just buy another similar tech but come on can you see Nintendo even bothering to copy? They have cheap tech and are the brand that every body knows at the moment. You´ll see this tech on the news and then wait, and wait...


    Microsoft own the tech now, ok buddy and what do you mean similar tech, if you mean full body motion control Microsoft on the tech. Next gen and new tech? you can't go beyond this its full body motion control, no controller, no device at all, the only thing that could better this is a holodeck, and that ain't gonna happen in our lifetime.

  • Machiavellian #38 3 years ago

    The tech was bought by MS and also if you go by the company promise, the tech is cheap as well. It was said that this tech will be below 100 US dollars and if MS go the console route, MS might subsidize the tech to sell more of it. Anyway, this tech is just the starting point for MS and you can believe it will not be limited to just games. I would not be surprise if you do not see a partnership with a automaker company. I can also see this tech going into TVs and other things as well.

    The great thing about the tech is that it can map your whole body or just parts of your body like your hands. You can pair it with anything you want since it is not limited to a physical device. Interesting enough, MS has a patent for a controller that you wear like a glove. It appear like the controller has force feedback where if you were gripping something it would give you feedback once the object is grab. If you have seen Minority Report just think about how that tech work to get a picture.

    Like someone said here or at another forum, you could easily have a lightsaber game where you have a lightsaber in one hand and make motions with the other to actually do a force push, lighting or Choke. Being able to actually do the force choke on someone and sling then off a high cliff would definitely get my geek on.

    Hell, I already thought of a Wizard game where you do motions to cast spells, summon monsters and setup defense. Yea, you would totally look like a clown but you would have fun doing it.

    I trully believe MS has stumbled on tech that definitely takes the Wii motion controls and totally surpasses it. Hell if MS is smart, they should demo the tech to every mall, shopping center they can. This tech would put MS on the map in Japan since they love stuff like this. They should partner with Jobs from Apple to kick start some creative thinking (yeah I know, never happen).

  • owl #39 3 years ago

    microsoft own the tech now, ok buddy

    heehee

  • greenthumb #40 3 years ago

    its pretty impressive alright but i have doubts. that racing game, how do you accelerate and brake? with your feet? can it measure small enough movement going towards and back from the camera to make that worthwhile. its normally on the shoulder buttons that are analogue. seems to me its like an eyetoy with some fancy bits added in like voice and face recognition. and we all know how much of a nightmare voice recognition is in reality, especially with the number of british accents around... im trying to think of a game that wont be very similar to a wii title that would benefit from this....

    saying that, it if can do everything they say, ill be first in the queue, im a sucker for this kind of thing

  • Raya #41 3 years ago

    Did I say they didn't own it? Doh guys don't get all silly on this. I think it´s great tech and if it is the same tech I think it is then it is cheap too (though not for MS !). My point was the software and as others have mentioned; expect it to be avatar trying on a new tie before you are Luke sky walker but t´s going to happen and it should be awsome when it does - even if you have to waggle your whole body and not just a wii mote!

    Personally if feel a little silly acting out motions with a wii-mote I don't really fancy roleplaying in front of a tv!

    - Next gen and new tech? you can't go beyond this its full body motion control
    So MS are never going to update this till a holodeck appears in 100 years - and their next 20 console are going to use it - right ok.
    Edited by 2 at 01/06/09 @ 22:37

  • Negotiator #42 3 years ago

    Raya you nob head how can you improve on this tech, you tell me, oh wait you can't, nob head.

  • po3mone #43 3 years ago

    their pr sucks massive balls though , sony comes up with 250k online players mag then microsoft comes up with 300k players lol , i remmember when sony was launching the ps3 in france , microsoft sent a big bote saying xbox360 loves you at its side to sonys launch event , aples touch then comes zune, sonys singstar then 360's lips, i could state alot more u know this company is way more about a profit stategy than about inovation towards gaming.. its just amazing how microsoft pr's instigate though. and fan boys follow , but this is true with alot of companys.

    but as for this tech yea it might be beneficial to the company as a whole but for gaming??? i mean what games are going to benefit from it?? if they want to get into the market then they should sell it bundled with the console, if anything there going to pave the way for sony to get such a device or even limbed their eye toy tech to the ps4 imagine that a controler imbeded to the system itself.. but now i think this is going to get nowere unless they bundle it and unless they make really inovative and eye catching games for this , i mean it cant possibly work with cod right?? the game isnt coded for that device.... so whats the point?? saying that there going to sell like hotcakes and that gamers are going to bite is a big understatement..

    the conference was not so apealing , the only thing that i saw that was dope was alan wake, but halo this halo that its just played the hell out and mgs rising ?? what the hell is that? no info what so ever , those fans are in sonys side i belive most people that enjoy the 360 dont care about that game because of the storyline they most dont know , but who knows... and then theres final fantasy , the majority of that fan base is in japan some in the states but knowing hardcorefans of ff they would buy the game on what they think is the best system for ff... i would be suprise if they dont judge it 360 ps3 side to side u know...

    if anything they should of anounced a handheld system , but its gona be too late for them now.. sony umdless psp go is aimed for digital dist making devopers make more of a profit to make games for that system , think about it who is in the forefront of digital dist ??? microsoft shit marketplace smashes on the ps store i thinkl they need to really advance in this aspect because by 2012-2013 digital dist will be more of a thing u know...

  • Canyarion #44 3 years ago

    As a Nintendo fan I think this is amazing technology. It could be the future. Very impressive.

    But like we all know, a console is only as good as its games. It will all depend on the software. What they've shown holds promise, but it's not done yet. There are practical issues to be solved.

    And most of all, it needs time. When will this tech be out? If developers have just gotten their kits today, how long will it take for some decent games?? And how much of an audience will it reach if it costs €200?

    It's of course a nice practice for Microsoft's next gen.

  • byron_hinson #45 3 years ago

    Looks great - how it'll work in real living rooms is another matter with clutter around etc - be interesting to see. Thing it is another device announced but probably not out til next year.

  • wired009 #46 3 years ago

    It's not going to replace the controller anytime soon. I have always found the motion controll sensing on the Wii to be gimicky and short lived when it comes to the entertainment factor. Natal is an opportunity to create a few interesting titles, but it won't drastically change the way most people play the major game genres simply because in-game object manipulation is complex. Motion control is great for interfacing with menus, pointing, and short range movement but changing directions, moving over distances, simple repetitive actions, even cycling through inventory becomes a challenge compared with a few presses of a button.

  • coldiron #47 3 years ago

    Of course MS and Molyneux haven't created a more advanced AI than what already exists in games, but the interesting thing about this tech is the new possible interactions it could offer. If Natal is as good as it seems then we should be able to (and it's pure speculation at this point):
    - do away with all the signing in faff (imagine playing RB/GH with some mates, picking a guitar and the game just recognizes who you are, what instrument you're playing, and puts your instrument lane in front of you)
    - have characters that actually look at you in the eyes and respond to voice commands. Perhaps you could even shout and scare NPCs or be soft and charm them, give them the finger or a kiss, a slap in the face (I wished for that so many times) or a pat on the head (perfect for Fable)...
    - make for new, and finally interesting, quicktime events (ducking, jumping, throwing, grabbing ropes and actually dodging bullets...)
    - populate games with avatars and characters that look (somewhat) like you and your friends automatically as well as character related NPCs like the father in Fallout 3.
    - easier RTS unit selection and movement by dragging selection areas with the hand and 'pushing' armies etc...
    - realistic sport interactions (boxing, hitting or catching the ball during football penalties etc...) and slightly more interesting mini-games (i.e Fable's blacksmith, woodcutting and bartending jobs)

    Obviously there will be an onslaught of Wii-like stuff/rubbish (nintendogs, Wii fit/tennis/bowling/..., all those ridiculous accessories) and I don't believe for one moment that Natal's 'full body control' will ever completely replace a real controller (apart for all the aforementioned Wii rubbish). But as a complement to the controller, this could make for much more engaging game experiences. What I really want to know is:
    - how precise the movement tracking is, especially when it comes to finger tracking: could the hand be used to move things about in an inventory screen, control level maps like you control pictures on an iphone? Can it track fingers and not just limbs?
    - how bad is the latency between physical action and game representation? How demanding are all the features on the XBox's Hardware?
    - will it be able to track head motion like Johnny Chung Lee's awesome Wii head tracking demos?
    - what kind of setting up is involved (specifically for voice recogition)
    - will Microsoft keep the device's price below $100 (which is already too expensive) as mentioned in the Arstechnica article?
    ([link url=http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2 009/05/microsofts-big-surprise-at-e3.ars)
    ]http://ar stechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/...[/link]

    Exciting news nonetheless and if this thing really works, all I'll need is a 3D screen and some talented developers to put it all together in immersive gaming awesomeness. Next stop is the Holodeck indeed...
    Edited by 1 at 02/06/09 @ 00:26

  • cheekyjay #48 3 years ago

    If they can find a way to bundle this with their lower end console for under £150 this could be a huge mainstream hit. The two big questions however are: does it work and what are the games and support going to be like?

  • Diomedes #49 3 years ago

    Pretty much the same as the Playstation Eye.I saw last year the Eye Pet demo and this isnt far removed from that.

  • The_Bloody_Kettle #50 3 years ago

    People are saying they want to see it at under £150 with the console thrown in..
    The wii on it's own is £180 and is graphically inferior and also it would seem gameplay inferior too now.. C'mon guys give MS a break!
    The add-on should exceed no more than £90 tho, and in reality should be £70 to match wii fit.

    Has anyone else considered what would happen if they coupled this technology with the 3-D TVs that are springing up atm??
    THAT would be such an amazing experience.

    I have some reservations but I'm pretty much sold, as even combining just simple aspects of this with the use of usual controllers would revolutionise gaming. I also reckon it'll be out soon [within 6-8months], as they wouldn't announce it early, because that would give the competition time to catch up. You guys that think this is just another gimmick have a point, but so long as I have the option for old-style hardcore gaming [as in controller] as well then I'm a happy boy.

  • Genji #51 3 years ago

    What a piece of gimmicky shit for kid- oh wait, this is the Microsoft conference? It sounds awesome then.

    /not sure what he really thinks about it

    More seriously, it sounds like it will be even more of a bitch to get right in games. It responds to the emotional changes in your voice??!? That'll be quite hard to measure, I think.
    Edited by 1 at 02/06/09 @ 03:15

  • Widge #52 3 years ago

    Also to get people to make games for it. With the Wii, the functionality is a core part of the product from the off, with this, you've got to build a user base to buy they games.

  • cheekyjay #53 3 years ago

    @ The_Bloody_Kettle: My £150 comment is assuming this tech is 18 months to 2 years away, as I believe is likely to be the case given that sdk's have only just been distributed to developers. Seeing as Microsoft no longer make a loss on the current £169.99 60 GB Xbox 360 model, and we're talking about two years of price cuts, I don't think this is at all unlikely.

  • Raya #54 3 years ago

    >Raya you nob head how can you improve on this tech, you tell me, oh wait you can't, nob head.

    What a sucker - sees a tech demo and is totally sold! Ok play a tennis game and flap your arms fine. Hold a tennis racquet and play will the camera recognise it as a racquet? Short answer is you and I don't know. It may think you have long arms! So don't start with this 'it's the best it can ever be crap and can't be updated later' when you haven't seen it for real.

    God. Now I remember why I stopped posting here. On the defence fan boys really do annoy me specially ones that talk out of their ...

    Why bother...

  • smelly #55 3 years ago

    [link url=http://www.vimeo.com/495 2629
    ]http://www.vimeo.com/495 2629
    [/link]

    That is all

  • Raya #56 3 years ago

    http://www.vimeo.com/495 2629

    That is all


    I think that shows a limitation! Look at the guys arms. Totally unatural and not once doe he raise them. Never above his head - never a typical wave motion. It's just body waggling ;-) Make a great penguin sim :-)

    JUST an observation ....
    Edited by 1 at 02/06/09 @ 08:48

  • colostomyexplosion #57 3 years ago

    I can see the potential, and I don't think price will be as much of an issue as expected. MS will have almost certainly seen the other applications this tech has, for example in Windows, and the same unit may well work with PCs (even if not, the components will cheapen with the economies of scale).

  • andywilkie35 #58 3 years ago

    “This isn’t the kind of game where you just end up on the sofa using some kind of preset waggle commands,” Tsunoda said in a pretty obvious dig at Nintendo’s Wii.

    hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

  • jjolley #59 3 years ago

    This technology is certainly interesting, but I do have some serious concerns about it's overall accessibility for blind or disabled persons:
    1. The programs demonstrated are meant to understand emotion in a voice? Potentially difficult for me as a blind person because sometimes I can get people all wrong because i'm not seeing them. For instance, someone says "Your a fucking idiot!" with a nasty tone, while smiling and pointing in a jokular way. Not seeing is a disadvantage here. Emotions are hard to track by voice anyway, mostly because when we interact with speech recognition interfaces, we are trying to make them understand us by breaking our speech into small segments. The technology is still rubbish by todays standards. Dragon is rubbish anyway, there are serious limitations with the profiling, it's not able to truly understand homonyms etc, speech rec is still never going to fully replace typing for those that can obviously.

    2. Cameras, Accessibility and awareness. All 3 of these are the issue for me at a personal level. Cameras are only as good as where you place them, accessibility for the products will depend on being in a line of sight. Also, how will the game know I want an object in it's world, rather than the cup of coffee i've just placed next to me?

    3. Interactivity, narativism and the psychology. In todays gaming, we regard story as often being secondary to main action. The lionhead demonstration with Milo seems interesting, but there are serious problems. Firstly, we regard talking to NPCs as a necesary job to get things done (obtain objects, open doors etc.) in games. Interactive fiction games that have attempted to improve this by attempting better interaction are usually good experiments but don't always tell good stories.

    Secondly, because this is on a 360, space is a problem. There is only so much audio one can fit onto a DVD. I suspect Sony will pull something out of the bag, but they have the advantage of space. Even then we are limited as there is only so many interactions that can be accounted for in any given scene, not to mention the limited scope for conversation generally. Plot managers, certainly in interactive fiction have problems when asked to deal with many strands, either at the performance level or gameplay. Aaron's "Blue Lacuna" for instance, attempts to understand the player's shortfalls and advance the story. Principly, this works, but some have managed to derail the game. It boils down to this. Someone will always come up with an interaction that the programmer hasn't acounted for. Someone will always progress the plot 3 seconds quicker, making the scene changing mechanism break or throw the AI into meltdown.

    Just my thoughts and will be interesting to see how it pans out.

  • MaxiSleep #60 3 years ago

    This technology is certainly interesting, but I do have some serious concerns about it's overall accessibility for blind or disabled persons:

    How is a blind person disadvantaged when they cannot use the medium in the first place?

  • jjolley #61 3 years ago

    I've owned most of the consoles except the WII interestingly enough. Ps1, PS2, PS3, Dreamcast, N64, Megadrive and SNES. You'd be surprised how accessible many things are. UFC, Wrestling games, sports etc. Once you have the hang of how they work and learn to recognise the sounds and follow the commentary track, the games are certainly doable.

  • Dave52 #62 3 years ago

    Some great tech going on here - but the milo thing is er... a little uncomfortable to watch. I suspect it'll end up as a gimick like the Eye Toy.

  • Jos #63 3 years ago

    Fancy tech - it even filled in the rest of the skate board's design covered by the kids hands...

    I think it'll suffer from one simple issue - using a controller removes the need to have the physical ability to perform the complex tasks some games require. If you have to mime the action many categories of game become too hard to have wide appeal, and so will tend to produce games from it that have simple motion (not that the tech can't cope, but rather the players can't).

    Not a bad thing about the system, just a limit to the applications it is likely put to...

  • Sunyavadin #64 3 years ago

    Pfffft. Give me my Sega Activator any day.

  • ps3owner #65 3 years ago

    lets hope they migrate Leisure Suit Larry to the xbox. I'll get one as well then...

  • wired009 #66 3 years ago

    I want to see the powerglove make a come back!

  • StooMonster #67 3 years ago

    Will it work in Windows 7? I would like to move stuff around my screen by waving my hands at it.

  • busboy33 #68 3 years ago

    @Coldiron:

    "- how precise the movement tracking is, especially when it comes to finger tracking: could the hand be used to move things about in an inventory screen, control level maps like you control pictures on an iphone? Can it track fingers and not just limbs?"
    Allegedly, yes. At least, the developing company MS bought claimed (and demonstrated) "pinching" and pointing to select objects last year . . . so I would assume that the ability is still there (hopefully refined)

    "- will it be able to track head motion like Johnny Chung Lee's awesome Wii head tracking demos?"
    I just read at vgchartz.com that Johnny Lee posted an update on his blog answering people's questions about what the hell happened to him -- he's been working on Project Natal, and hasn't been allowed to mention it until the reveal on Monday. He said that what he's been doing was totally unrelated to any of the demos from the show, and he still can't talk about it . . . but if they grabbed Mr. Lee I'm even more optimistic for what the hardware can produce.

  • JahB #69 3 years ago

    you're all missing the point. don't you know what this means?

    lightgun accessory. House of the Dead HD on XBLA. Hell yeah

  • gammonbanter #70 3 years ago

    I just want to sit on my arse when I play games!

  • davisorle #71 3 years ago

    For the ignorants, simple fact: This has NOTHING at all to do with an eyetoy. It's like calling ur dick a dildo, even though in your cases a dildo is more usefull than your dick cause if youc an't use yoru brins I cant expect you to be able to use your cocks any more than a dildo. Simple shit :)

    Yeah this is the future of motion control since you can have the OPTION to control ingame through voice, body motion and a controller( all with voice and facial recognition which is also amazing I have to admit ).

    For those that worry about the software.. We all know that a game designer-freak, like Peter, was so waiting for something like this to "do it" first and he wont give up. The fact you heard someone like Spielberg ( if not go watch his interview ) be so amazed and interested into working on the product himself and creating new stuff.. I mean SERIOUSLY how many of you were EVER dissapointed from something that had to do with that dude? -Never- So, there is NO way that ppl will stop working on this thing. As simple was it was that they keep creating shit for the Wemote or wtf they call it. Ever since Sidewinder ( super old controller for PCs from MS with motion sensor.. yeah if you dont know it i had it. Google it ) I just hated motion controlling. This isnt motion controlling. I cant be bitchslapping my friend for all i care and laugh seeing it on the game earning points by it. lol

    Anyhow, the thing is that the possibilities are HUGE. An adventure/riddle game you can solve it with using voice and hand/body controls. You can play monkey island and instead of choose the phrase just say it and say the way points.. You dont HAVE to use ur body. As long as they have the SDKs and the time goes by with it it will be implemented in mostly everything like they did for Wii, for achievements first on 360 and now copy/pasted to PS3 and now this. You can combine voice commands from this, profile choosing automatic wince the face recognition and mix it up with a controller for the movement etc since you should have the OPTION to choose controls. Plus the fact it can work so many times better in so many levels than an eyetoy which is also a plus itself..

    All I need now and for anyone into Hightech stuff is a price and date for this :) I bet its gonna be a bitch in the pocket but if I can pay so much building me a new PC whenever I think needed, THIS is a must have :p

  • PattiJordan #72 3 years ago

    To be clear, GestureTek is the inventor, pioneer and world leader in video gesture control technology for both 2D and 3D cameras. Our software works with 3DV, Mesa, Prime Sense, Canesta and other 3D depth cameras. For more than 20 years, we have been creating 2D and 3D tracking technology and evangelizing video gesture control as the next step in computer human interaction.

    With more than 4000 public installations worldwide, we have a robust library of video gesture control technologies, applications and patents. GestureTek has licensed these patents and technologies in various ways to many consumer electronics providers, including for PlayStation, Xbox 360, Hasbro and others. GestureTek is proud of the trail we’ve blazed in the area of 3D depth tracking and control and our current leading position in the market today.

    Here’s more on GestureTek’s 3D tracking and control software: http://ww w.gesturetek.com/3ddepth/introd... .

    Here are some of GestureTek's work using 3D tracking technology prior to Natal:
    Beijing Olympics Flight Simulator http://ww w.gesturetek.com/3ddepth/busine...

    Two-Handed Control Driving Demo http://ww w.gesturetek.com/newscenter/med...

    Sprint 3D Depth Sensing Interactive Digital Signage
    [link url=http://www.gesturetek.com/3ddepth/busines scases/businesscase-sprint.php
    ]http://ww w.gesturetek.com/3ddepth/busine...[/link]