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JaggedSac on 18 January 2010
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welshbloke said:
Avinash_Tyagi said:

Again we get back to the issue of values and processes, the idea of a motion camera like NATAL may have the capability to reach out to such an audience, but not the way MS is trying to implement it, see the issue with incumbents trying to bring an innovation is they target it at their core in a way that actually destroys its disruptive abilities, Nintendo when they made Wii fit, actively designed the hardware around the software, with the intent of satisfying the need that I discussed earlier, MS doesn't know how to do that, nor are they even trying to launch NATAL in that manner, they themselves admit they are going to bring it to th e core first then try and move to the "casuals", like birdmen, without understanding the values and processes that made Nintendo so successful.

Microsoft are making Natal both the hardware and the software available for the 3rd party developers to develop. In the case of Natal the hardware was created in line with the software without the software the hardware is useless. As the boffin said in his 15 seconds of fame when describing the depth cam and how it defines the points on the skeletal.

What Natal does which is clever is remove the need for a board like we see in Wii Fit but more than that it builds upon it, not only does the camera sense motion but also the depth and skeletal which will only make for a more interesting and more challenging potential for a fitness package. Now whether a 3rd party can produce the software that engages like the Wii Fit package remains to be seen.

Lets imagine for a second. A Natal device could not only record the number of leg raises it could also assess how well the leg was raised. That I believe is the potential game changer element Natal has over the competition.

I think the Natal camera should always be referred to as a depth cam so as to emphasis the difference, maybe then the PS Eye comparisons can stop.

Now imagine a scenario where a Natal excercise application is used in conjunction with their Live infrastructure.  People could join together and work out with live instructors and chat with their friends as they do it.  Even if they did not do live workouts, new workouts could be downloaded whenever they felt like it.  More extensive workouts could be done as well, due to, as you brought up, the ability to see exactly what the body is doing, not just guessing based on pressure.