project-natal posts

Microsoft hyped up their Kinect motion sensing control system for the Xbox 360 console to the top of its lungs at E3 2010 last week, but when will that kind of technology be made available for PC owners. Our sister site Engadget reports that the tech may be coming sooner than you might think.

The site chatted with a vice president of PrimeSense, the company that is behind the camera-controlling technology that Microsoft is using for its Kinect camera (previously known as Project Natal). VP Adi Berenson stated that the tech will be put into home theater PCs by the end of this year. It sounds like the company is concentrating on TV-based support for the technology but we are betting that there will be some game developers who will support the tech as well.

Microsoft has been making a lot of buzz about its upcoming Project Natal efforts for the Xbox 360 console. Using a specially made camera to allow players to interact with games and other things on screen without the need for a conventional controller has certainly gotten a lot of press. Now developer Trendy Entertainment has announced plans to bring a Project Natal-like experience to PC users.

Their technology is called VisionPlay and according to the developer it will require no special equipment other than a regular off-the-shelf web cam attached to your PC. Trendy is developing a prototype game called VisionTennis that will allow players to use their body to control the tennis players on screen. The game is scheduled to be release later this year.

Last month at E3, everyone was talking about "Project Natal", the code name for Microsoft's controller-less camera technology for the Xbox 360 game console. When asked if the technology could come to the PC as well, Microsoft execs wouldn't commit saying only that they were just talking about the Xbox 360's uses during E3.

Well, no less than Microsoft founder Bill Gates has blown Project Natal's Xbox 360 exclusivity. News.com reports that Gates has confirmed that they are bringing the gesture-based technology to Windows as well. Gates is quoted as saying, "Both the Xbox guys and the Windows guys latched onto that and now even since they latched onto it the idea of how it can be used in the office is getting much more concrete, and is pretty exciting."

Office use, Bill? We are betting that when Project Natal tech does come to Windows we will see some PC game apps as well.

One of Microsoft's big Xbox 360 announcements at their E3 2009 press conference was the reveal of "Project Natal", the code name for a new motion sensor based camera technology that Microsoft claims will turn the human body into a controller. Live demos of the early version of the tech showed people using the camera to play games that, for example, let humans simply mime the action of driving to control a racing game rather than using even a wireless controller.

Microsoft stated that when the technology is released the camera will work with all of the Xbox 360 consoles currently out there as well as all future Xbox 360 consoles. But since the camera is USB-based we at Big Download wondered if Microsoft had plans to bring "Project Natal" to the PC as well.

We got our sister site Joystiq to pose this question to Kudo Tsunoda, the leader of "Project Natal", during a press lunch following the press conference. Tsunoda told Joystiq's editor-in-chief Chris Grant, "Of course, this has many applications" but stopped short of confirming that the technology would be ported to the PC. It wasn't a flat denial, however, and we wouldn't be surprised to hear announcements in the future about a PC version of the technology.