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Microsoft Debuts Project Natal Sensor Peripheral
by Leigh Alexander [Console/PC]
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June 1, 2009
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"The controller is a barrier separating video game players from everyone else," said Xbox senior vice president Don Mattrick. With the aim of removing that barrier, Microsoft unveiled Project Natal, a sensor-based interface for gesture, voice and facial recognition, at the company's E3 press conference today.
It's a set top box equipped with an RGB camera, depth sensor and multi-array microphone, and coupled with proprietary software, it aims to allow users to play games and navigate the Xbox 360's menu using no controller at all.
Mattrick was joined on stage by renowned film director Steven Spielberg, who said he's enthused about the technology because in his view, a video game controller is one last barrier to entry that prevents games from being as "approachable" as other media.
"The vast majority of people are just too intimidated to pick up a game controller," he said. "Despite the size of the industry, still 60 percent of households do not own a video game console... the only way to [make] interactive entertainment available to everybody is to make the technology invisible," he said.
"It's not about reinventing the wheel -- it's about no wheel at all."
Two applications for the tech were demonstrated onstage -- one, a 3D Breakout-style game reminiscent of playing handball against a wall, and the other, a painting interface that lets users splash colors and make body stencils against a canvas. The latter made use of voice recognition commands for the different paint colors.
The standout demonstration, however was a presentation by Lionhead Studios' Peter Molyneux of a concept video for Project Natal, showing a user interacting with a young boy AI named Milo.
The video showed off possible applications for the technology; in it, the user was able to be recognized by and talk to Milo, who was able to interpret some of her facial expressions as emotions. She could also pass items from her world into his (Natal can visually scan and import objects), and interact with the environment, like playing with the surface of the water beside which Milo was sitting.
Microsoft gave no further specifics on pricing or launch time for the project, but the company is presenting early demonstrations of the tech at E3.
[Image courtesy of Kotaku]
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Assertion fail. People can deal with mouse and keyboard just fine, so where's the evidence to back up this massive panic about game controllers? Plastic and wires are scary I know, but maybe there are other reasons people don't own consoles... like maybe price or game selection.
I don't really want to live in Spielberg's controller-less utopia. I've seen what the Wii has to offer in that department and I'll keep my scary little plastic boxes, thanks.
Hopefully it won't have it's own version of RROD, though!
These are very interesting moves by MS and I applaud them for these actions towards much wider accessibility (clearly they see the success of the Wii in that area). The catch for them will be in having enough support and added value to get existing 360 owners to buy the new input device and I see that as a massive uphill battle that will require bundling of all future systems, strong partnerships and some serious mojo. Like many other optional peripherals the public will wait to see how many games will support it and the developers will wait to see how many consumers buy it. It should be interesting to see how MS combats this classic Catch-22 of wait and see behavior.
If you just compare it to the Wii, I think you'll notice a big difference. When the Wii debuted, a lot of hardcore gamers included myself, got very excited. It actually looked like a step forward in interactivity - something that would replace the traditional gamepad. It didn't turn out that way, but that was because the technology failed to live up to expectations.
The NATAL, on the otherhand, is being pushed as something for casual gamers. It's hard to imagine the complex interaction found in an FPS could be accomplished with the NATAL camera. It's not gonna get the push from hardcore gamers that the Wii did in the beginning.
So we're talking about a $200 add-on for a $200 system that's aimed at grandma. I think I'll just buy her a Wii and let her play bowling thank you.
The real question is, is the technology robust enough support a full AAA title? i.e. Is the response time fast and accurate enough for a twitch/action game? How sensitive is the thing to real world/home lighting conditions? (Eye of Judgement had problems with lighting)
I can't shoot it down or call it revolutionary until I get hold of it as a developer and see what the possibilities are.
I disagree. I think the potential for this product will be huge and I'm sure MS will push it to be used in a wide variety of games. I remember a few arcade games that used this technology and it was pretty amazing. There was a police-type game where you could duck, lean for cover, and shoot. I'm not sure how shooting will be implemented with this system, but I'm sure they're already working on it.
I showed the video to a few people who are not casual gamers and everyone was pretty excited about it. Just hope it lives up to the hype.