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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Digital Foundry interview about Natal, 3DV NOT the technology used.

Just a snippet, you can get the whole thing here:

The two PrimeSense men are also very keen to point out that despite the Microsoft acquisition of time-of-flight camera specialists, 3DV, who'd already made several 3D-camera based gaming demos, all of the video capture and depth perception hardware within Natal comes from them, and only from them.

"PrimeSense isn't just the provider of the 3D technology in Project Natal... it's the sole provider," says Beracha proudly. "Project Natal is much more than a 3D sensing device, but PrimeSense is the only company responsible for the 3D."

So effectively Natal is something entirely different to 3DV whom pitched to both Sony and Nintendo and this clears it up without a doubt.

"Most of our competitors are using a variety of methods that can be aggregated into one technique that's called 'time of flight'... It pulses a light and times the difference between the pulse and the round trip back to the sensor. Our methodology is nothing like that. What PrimeSense did is an evolution in terms of 3D sensing. We use standard components and the cost of the overall solution and the performance in terms of robustness, stability and no lag suits consumer devices."

Light Coding on the other hand does what it says on the tin: light very close to infrared on the spectrum bathes the scene. What PrimeSense calls "a sophisticated parallel computational algorithm" deciphers the IR data into a depth image. The firm says that this solution, like time of flight, works whatever the lighting conditions of the scene.

Cheap components are an interesting concept, it makes me wonder if the pricetags assigned to Natal on a hypothetical basis have assumed more complicated componentry? This adds credence to the idea that the interface may be bundled with all Xbox 360s.

"Project Natal: the magic is totally Microsoft," says Beracha in admiration. "What they did to the performance, to the robustness of the solution... we have to salute them."

"Being the biggest software company in the world, they did a phenomenal job on the software," adds Berenson. "It's totally their solution."

This is supported by other third parties saying that the Natal software is computationally ahead of both the other commercial and academic research by a reasonable margin.

"What we believe is that if you give people a very good, intuitive, seamless interface then the willingness to adopt new technology is drastically enhanced and that is what PrimeSense wants to do in every aspect of consumer technology," shares Adi Berenson.

"So we're starting with gaming, then we'll move to other aspects of the living room. We'll go to mobility, we'll go to automotive... we really believe that in the future you'll see a nature interface being adopted everywhere in everyone's life. That's the vision."

"We wanted to have machines that understand us seamlessly," adds Inon Berach. "It should be a platform that sees but is not seen. In terms of automotive, if you're a little bit 'wide', it can adjust the airbag. It can see you so it can adjust your car seat. If can warn you if you're tired. It should be seamlessly integrated with other technologies."

Look to other implementations. Car companies like Fiat, Ford and Hyundai?? (can't remember the third) use Microsoft based OS in their cars as well. Also I've seen Natal interface on a video of a technology show controling a TV. So look to 2011 for other companies starting to implement Natal into other systems.

In all it looks pretty interesting. I can't say that the first generation product will be perfect by any means but it doesn't have to be. There isn't exactly a direct competitor for this interface and they can likely afford to take the time and work out all the bugs by the time they move to implement a 2nd generation camera system which shouldn't come too late after the first but you'll probably see it in embedded solutions before you see another implementation in a console. The Xbox next if Natal is successful will probably use a 3rd generation Natal device.

 



Tease.

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If I read that right, they used cheaper and more cost effecient tech with their software doing most of Natal's calculations?



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huaxiong90 said:
If I read that right, they used cheaper and more cost effecient tech with their software doing most of Natal's calculations?

Yup, pretty much this. If you want to know whats going on you'll have to read the article. I just took out interesting and not too mind numbing bits for the plebs here who can't read more than 3 lines at once.



Tease.

Really interesting read, thanks for posting, can't wait for E3



wow now im hyped for natal
E3 cant come any sooner



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good read, cant wait to see how the software turns out. Hopefully hes right about the improvements they've made to the camera (whether hardware or software wise), I would love to see increased response and decreased lag times. But in the end its really how well the software that tracks your multiple body points to interpret motion that will determine its success.




Great thread !

Natal is only the first application of a very promising new tech.

Microsoft is heading the right direction with this.



Tagged for when I have time.



They talked about PrimeSense more than anything.



Nice read Squils.