Imagine a football video game being played on your screen. You feel like participating in the game, but instead of being a couch-potato gamer who uses a controller, you start flapping your arms and feet in the air. Almost magically, the ball on the screen responds to your gestures.
With its ‘Project Natal’ (pronounced ‘nuh-tall’), Microsoft promises to do precisely this. The company believes it will “take gaming into entertainment”, says Hemant Sachdev, joint MD for consumer and online business, Microsoft India.
Globally, more details of ‘Project Natal’ will be announced on June 13 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010 in Los Angeles. “It (Natal) may not be rolled out in India this year, but we surely want to introduce it in the country at the earliest,” asserts Sachdev. The project is expected to be compatible with every Xbox 360. The cost, however, is not known and neither the fact if it’s backward compatible with older Xbox 360 games.
Project Natal — Microsoft’s motion-sensing Xbox 360 camera — not only tracks your full body movement in 3D, but it also recognises your face and facial expressions. If you want to kick a ball in a game, you only need to display a kicking motion in real life. And if you want to share a drawing with an in-game avatar, you need to draw it and then hold it up for the camera to see.
How does Natal work?
The technology behind Project Natal uses the principle of motion detection, which is not new. It involves sensors that detect movements in an area and emit electronic signals that can perform any task — from setting-off alarms and turning on lights, to flicking a switch on a camera and turning it to face the direction of the motion that’s been detected.
Commonly called ‘heat vision’, infrared detection (your TV remote, for instance) is one of the most popular forms of motion detection. If your sensor detects enough infrared radiation, it will activate a camera that may also be swivel-mounted. Another variety is the microwave sensor. When there is a motion in the area, it changes the signals the microwave sensor receives. The change causes the sensor to activate the camera to view and record what’s happening. Some motion detector cameras use a combination of both infrared and microwave sensors.
But competitors are playing the same game
The stakes are high for Microsoft. The global gaming market is estimated to be around $40 billion. While online gaming accounts for $10 billion, the rest is contributed by console gaming.
Project Natal is expected to compete with Nintendo Wii’s MotionPlus and Sony’s PlayStation Move motion controller. Sony had earlier introduced its own Eye Toy — a system which incorporated users’ body movements into some games. Nintendo’s Wii became very popular with the innovative controls of its now-famous Wiimote. The Wii Remote, or ‘Wiimote’ is the primary controller for Nintendo’s Wii console.
The main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion-sensing capability that allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and optical sensor technology. Another feature is its expandability through the use of attachments. The attachment bundled with the Wii console is the Nunchuk (remember Bruce Lee with his nunchuk?), which complements the Wii Remote by providing functions similar to those in gamepad controllers. Nintendo now has the Wii Motion Plus that allows users to feel what they’re doing, and rotational motion in 3D space — such as spinning a skydiver’s body around.
Sony’s new system, too, allows one-to-one motion. It has its glowing orb Move controller (a controller with a glowing ball on top of it). You slap on a wrist strap, grab a virtual tennis racket, baseball bat or sword and let the gaming begin.
Meanwhile, reports say that Microsoft insists that Project Natal will work in rooms of all sizes. The device’s sensors will read the depth and configuration of your room, adjusting its play space on the fly (there were fears that at least 13 feet of clear space from a TV was necessary when using Natal — almost an improbability in living rooms of most homes).
In sum, with its hands-free motion-sensitive controller system, however, the Redmond software giant has upped the ante when it comes to next-generation gaming.
