PROJECT NATAL - MOTION-SENSING GAME CONTROL
At the E3 video game conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft introduced “Project Natal,” a new gaming console that uses a sensor instead of a controller. It’s the world’s first console to combine an RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone and custom processor running proprietary software all in one device.
Microsoft showed a video demonstrating how the game system could be used to control games such as fighting or skateboarding games. You can scan your own skateboard into a game and then use it to ride on in a skateboarding game. The idea is to make people feel more connected to a game, said Peter Molyneux, head of Microsoft’s Lionhead game division. Molyneux showed a game dubbed Milo, where you can interact with a little boy, a virtual character, and explore a world with your own body movements.
The camera was surprisingly sensitive, able to pick up even subtle movements, like a nod of the head, a twist of a wrist, and a shake of the ankle, as well as bigger, bolder movements. Gestures were immediately replicated on-screen, with the smallest time-lag only occasionally noticeable.
Although Microsoft has declined to say how long it will take for Natal to make the leap from the laboratory to the living room, it’s clear that the technology has upped the ante as far as next-generation gaming is concerned.
Both Nintendo and Sony, who today announced their own innovations in motion-sensitive control, suddenly looked very old-fashioned when compared to the step-change in game control Natal represents. What Project Natal demonstrates is that a pure gaming experience, unencumbered by controllers or wires, can in fact prove one of the most enjoyable and intuitive ways of playing.
