this thread went out of control quickly:( not good.

So because a researcher is "thinking about the second version down the road" people are assuming it's in development? It's probably in some sort of pre-development planning stage. They're thinking of what they can do to make the current Natal better. Unfortunately, whatever they're coming up with, probably isn't cheap, and while it could be released relatively soon, it would probably be at a higher price point to do so, which could be against their current business plan with Natal.

Seriously though, this thread is filled with so much fail. What MS is doing with Natal 2, Sony and Nintendo and pretty much any major company in the world is doing as well. From cars to games to medicine, everything is planned for and developed long before it's announced. By the time a new product hits the shelves, the next model or iteration of the product is already well into the planning stage. MS is not doing something abnormal here. Just another example of people jumping to conclusions from extremely limited amounts of data.

Now if you want to talk about how it's probably stupid that the guy said anything like that, I completely agree, but it still takes a lot of hate and improperly focused imagination to assume that Natal 2 is "already being worked on". There are so many different assumptions one can make off of that statement, but they're all just assumptions, and just jumping to a conclusion and making comments on that conclusion is ridiculous.

I can already think of a few enhancements that could be done. Make the lens swivel so that it can track someone with a smaller field of view so that accuracy increases. Add a zoom able lens so that the camera can track you and zoom in on you if necessary for whatever reason. And possible zoom in on a specific body part, such as the hands. Of course, motors make things more likely to break, but I think the pay off might be worth it.

...and thus i name thee: Natal Move+

I would like them to build in taser like feature so that if you die in the game, you get tazed. 

Natal is gonna succeed i guess if M$ has already invested alot of money on it.

How much improvement can there be with a camera that they cant add today?

The software is where its at. Ofcourse they should think about the future, but if Natal does all that they claim it can do today, i dont really see what can be added to justify a Natal 2. Todays features could obviously get tweeked, but as i said, i dont see how that would justify new release of hardware. People buy these things because of software.

A higher resolution sensor would allow for a wider FOV and higher accuracy.  Of course, this would require more processing power to process the image.  Perfect for the next XBox.

Natal will be really successful.

completely agree, it sounds like they will treat natal like a gimick, it would be nice if it works but if not o well.

dont count your chickens before they hatch M$