A Look At the Xbox 360 Project Natal And The Things It Can Do
Chasing down the heels of the Wii’s motion capture technology, Microsoft are expecting to trump this one better with Xbox 360 Project Natal. Announced during 2009′s E3 conference, this add-on accessory for the Xbox 360 is said to allow completely controller-free interaction with games, sensing movement and translating that as controls in the software.
Xbox 360 Project Natal is claimed to be available round the end of 2010, and Microsoft are hoping that the hardware will become an essential component of all Xbox consoles. They also state that this innovative technology will lengthen the shelf-life of the 360 considerably, and is, for all intents and purposes, a next-gen accessory.
The accessory has a depth sensor coupled with an RGB camera, which hands the Xbox 360 Project Natal a 360 degree range of interpretation. The hardware is so cutting edge that even slight facial expressions can get picked up and converted on-screen. The range of recognition may also be extended or shortened as the user wishes, with the chance of picking up surrounding objects like tables or cupboards.
Aswell as movement, the Xbox 360 Project Natal also boasts the facility to interpret audio. The multi-array microphone included may be employed to register audio and relay voice recognition on screen. These elements blend to offer total interactivity between user and videogame.
As the software used to create both Natal and the titles it will engage with is reasonably unique, Microsoft have stated that current Xbox 360 titles probably will not support Natal, and that a fresh range of titles are presently in development. Various technical demos demonstrated at E3 saw Space Invaders Extreme and Paint Party, a title in which pots of paint are manipulated by the user to color objects.
Winter will tell as to whether theXbox 360 Project Natal will cause the impact Microsoft are looking for. While the specs arecertainly cutting edge and due to beat even the Wii’s signature card, Microsoft should announce more interesting titles to gain increased public interest. With the right titles coupled with it, theXbox 360 Project Natal might really be the way forward for videogaming!
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