Xbox Motion Control Camera Project Natal

Mon, Jun 1, 2009

True to the rumours that have been flying around for the last couple of months, Microsoft has unveiled a motion control system called Project Natal. Demoed on the stage at E3, Project Natal combines voice recognition and motion recognition via camera to create a lifelike emmersive gaming experience. Not only will Project Natal allow you to interact in games such as driving with a virtual steering wheel, but also navigate the dashboard Minority Report style. I can’t think of anything cooler right now than the awesome interface that Minority Report presented and if it comes close Project Natal will truly be revolutionary. According to the system creator, Kudo Tsunoda, your Xbox 360 camera will be able to recognize you, log you in and then allow you to control the dashboard. I’ve seen some facial recognition based on CCTV cameras before which was pretty impressive but I never thought I would see it in a games console, especially this generation.

A couple of simple games were demoed including Ricochet, a 3D breakout game and a game called Party Paint which allowed you to fling paint at a canvas bucket style yet had enough precision to paint individual leaves on a tree. These are of course aimed at the casual gaming market but I get the impression the Microsoft has plans for Project Natal not only in the Wii/Eye Toy sectors but also integration with more of it’s core gaming experience.

Hit the read link for some video of Party Pain in action. Stick with PixelatedGeek and we’ll bring you more as we check it out.

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