MS has no patent on stereo cams. Everyone can make one and infact Sony developes one too. They have even showed it already.
And if Natal would be really a success EVERYONE would make the same thing. So Natal is the future maybe but is this technology MS property ? NO ? Is Sony making the same thing ? Yes. Perhaps even in this gen ? Who knows ? If Natal is a success then we probably see 3dcams for all purposes and every console would have atleast third party cams. natal is nothing special. Just because MS trys to make you think its a revolution it doesnt mean that it is really so special. The developers which make the games for Natal have then the technology and can use it with every stereocamera.
Natal is just a brand name its not a technology. Bravia is just a Brand name for a TV but everybody can make Tvs. natal is MS but the technology belongs to all and Sony works on a stereocamera as well. the best thing which could happen for MS the absolute best case scenario is that it has 3 months of sales without competitor. Because Sony think its just a gimmick. But if they would see the success of natal they would launch it within months. I wouldnt be surprised if Sony shows ICU on the E3 2010 just to lower the hype for Natal a little bit.
Natal is nothing special Natal is just 2 Cameras in one both cameras take a picture and Natal then calculates how the 3d Picture would look like.->Works like human eyes. This technology is a simple stereo camera. So every stereocamera can do the same thing like natal. The calculations can be made software driven. The SPUs have extreme calculation power so the Sony stereocamera wouldnt even need a chip in it and would be less expensive. the Spu for the OS could make the calculations for ICU this could be easily implemented in the OS via FW update. The same games could come out on both systems. And for the next gen there would be absolutly no advantage for the Xbox360 because all consoles would start with a stereocamera.
This would happen if Stereocameras are a success. If they are not a big success. Sony would probably wait to release their Camera with the PS4 and develope some software.
3D Cameras have a lot of uses I can believe that there will be notebooks with a sterocamera above the screen so you can control the new Windows without touching the screen or another device. you wont even need a mouse maybe even no keyboard so you would have just the screen. Sterocameras are great system which can have a lot of uses but again MS has no patent on this MS has nothing to do with Natal its developed by another company. MS is just forcing the Idea. If it works in Videogames we will see this in the future but I still can not think of a intelligent use in videogames with todays technology.
