Xbox Natal

Microsoft surprised the gaming world when they revealed their first gaming console - the Xbox to be released all over the world directly going up against the other gaming consoles. Within the next few years, the Xbox 360 followed and has shown that it is one of the largest contenders in the present gaming world.

Although no new future consoles have been announced yet, a lot of new technologies are starting to form to take these consoles to the next level and one of them happens to be the Xbox Natal Project which generated a lot of hype when it was first announced at E3 2009. It currently uses the code name Project Natal and aims to provide an entertainment experience without the use of a controller for more possibilities that no other consoles can accomplish.

The Natal Project has a special sensor device that can detect 3-D motion in addition to some forwarded tracking techniques that include both face recognition and voice recognition. These technologies are nothing new, however the way all the parts are put together and the fact that will be available for people to use in their homes will make this an enormous breakthrough in the gaming world.

What is alluring about the Xbox Natal is that the sensor is only 9 inches wide and looks like a webcam that is a bit wider in length. Because there are no controllers involved, the player himself essentially is the controller where the various movements are made to be able to interact with the screen. There are so many new possibilities with future Xbox games that can be produced and a video shown at xboxnatal.net demonstrates all the different varieties of games that can be played with the Xbox Natal Project.

Another development is its ability to track up to four different gamers and get the correct motion data that the system requires to involve all the players into the game making it super for multiplayer games. It is designed with accuracy in mind with its ability of feature extracting 48 interest points on the major parts of the body at an impressive 30-hertz frame rate. The distance between the player and the sensor as well will determine its accuracy rate where close encounters are able to track individual fingers.

Various games where shown at E3 such as a simple breakout game where the gamer takes the role of the paddle to bounce balls against the blocks and an interactive painting game where the players hand movements can be used for drawing and speech can be used to choose colors. Racing games, were presented where an imaginary steering wheel is used to steer the car.

To make this more exciting, Project Natal will serve as an early icon on how the Xbox 360's successor will be in regards to gaming experience. Microsoft's competitors are also scrambling to provide a straight answer to this technology, but no matter what happens, Microsoft looks to be heading towards the right path for the hardcore gamers especially if the Xbox Natal Project is going to be very accurate.

By: Francis V. Natal

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Francis V. Natal Believe the Xbox Natal Project is the future of gaming.