Perhaps this may be 100th post regarding to this matter, but I just wanted to express my feeling about this as I am a big fan of motion control.
First of let me start with my conclusion so anyone who disagrees and decided not to read further can save their time.
I see NO DIFFERENCE at this time.
| NATAL | PS3 Motion | |
| Full Body detection | Uses Camera to detect full body | PS Eye to detect full body (just as PS2 Eyetoy proved) |
| Depth detection | Uses Camera that has built in capability to detect 3D | Will use Wand Controller with IR to detect this info. |
| Voice Recognition | Built in microphone in the Camera | Built in Microphone in PS Eye |
| Face Recognition | Natal said it can do this. |
Supposedly, Sony has this tech since 2005 |
|
1:1 control |
Supposedly natal camera has very good precision, though not demoed to the level of Sony Wand during this E3. | Wand controller to add further precision. Writing letter showed the level of precsion. |
| Gun Trigger | If Microsoft desires, they can easily introduce cheap plastic gun that emits light, and detect it as actual gun fire | Wand controller to have buttons for such purpose |
| Other control e.g. Sword & Shield | Again, cheap plastic peripheral and have Camera detect it. | Wand controller alone Or Like Wii, sony can have peripheral attachment to the wand controller. |
| Hands Free Experience | Natal is all about this. |
If there is any, this might be the difference. Unfortunately, depth info with Sony motion is acquired by Wands Controller; hence, no alternative. |
| Price | Though no specific pricing, some source said $100-$200 is possiblity. | PS Eye costs $30-$40. If Wand costs similar to Wiimote, another $60-80 (for two wands) & makes total $100+ |
| Lower extremity | Microsoft clearly demonstrated this with their demo of Richot | PS Eye can detect full body motion in 2D, but again not depth. But if depth is determined only by IR signal to the Eye, simply where a band that emits IR light to the Legs. Though this is not proven |
So each technology appeared different, in my opinion if they want to achieve the similar task, they appear to converge & both appear to have capability to achieve anything that the other can do. The biggest question here would be "which approach can provider more precision?" "which approach has less lag?" "which approach is cheaper?" and most importantly, "which technology get more fun games?"
Overall, if I take a step back and look these technologies objectively, I really see not much difference. Analogy here is almost like talking about Intel chip vs. AMD. Different internally, but you can install Windows in the both system and most people won't see any difference.
What do you all think? Anything that I missed here?
By the way, I currently own Wii & PS3. If Natal gets released and proven that it has better gaming selection and can do better motion control than PS3 wand control, I am willing to purchase 360. In fact, with the introduction of Natal, I have never felt so interested in 360 than now.
Thanks for reading :)
