CES 2010
Project Natal for the Xbox 360, which debuted to wide praise at E3 last summer, lets players control video games with movements and words.
And gesture recognition companies hope that the gaming-industry buzz generated by Natal will extend into the wider consumer electronics world.
"The momentum they have created around Natal has created a lot of momentum in this industry," says Michel Tombroff, CEO of Softkinetic, a 3D-gesture recognition middleware provider that recently struck a partnership with Texas Instruments. "They have validated you can use 3D cameras to build consumer products. … This has applicability in many areas and people don’t yet understand how far it can go."
Microsoft has made it clear that its ambitions aren’t restricted to gaming. At the Streaming Media West trade show in November 2009, Marc Whitten, the general manager responsible for the Xbox Live service, said he could envision a future where Natal would recognize users by voice – and know the content they’re interested in.
"I believe that this will be the largest leap of TV experience since the remote control," he said.
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Seems like NATAL ignited a firestorm of interest in controller free electronic interaction. WOW!!!
Very surprising that NATAL is already a game changer and it hasn't even launched yet.
