Do we know something about the angular resolution of the processed 3d map? Because it's critical if the sampling rate is only 60 hz.

Oh, and @Selnor: what do you mean with "preset motion controls"?

I see where the misunderstanding came from, then: 60 samples/ second, so, for Shannon-Nyquist, 30Hz maximum frequency detectable.

If the camera is interlaced, things worsen, though. I worked on a project about optical flow for an exam, and interlaced cameras forced to choose amongst several trade-offs, but all involving halved vertical space resolution (the other choices depended on computational power and memory for framebuffers available, scarce when the original project started, so on older machines maximum frequency was halved too). These trade-offs come from Nyquist-Shannon too, so also technologies not using optical flow are affected.

So they start developing now (maybe not even now, after summer is more likely), when are games ready? Not next Xmas, not the successive one, most probably, for simpler project maybe in time for Xmas 2011. For biggest ones, in time for XB720, if MS has a 7-years plan for XB360.

@Alby

True about Shannon-Nyquist, but the maximum detectable frequency is not that important a parameter, as the Fourier transform of human body movement will hardly be significative over 30Hz (we're talking about pattern recognition here, right?)

NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IGN and all other media that have had hands on report that Natal is more accurate than a knife in your own hand.

Hello people, it doesnt matter how it does it, reports say it works and works very well, very accurate and had no problems from any of the playtests Ive read at Eurogamer, IGN or Gamespot. Your trying to make a hole that was never their. The tech works and from the biggest leg movement to the smallest pinch is accurate. Get over it.

You must also take into account sampling in space performed by the camera, low time resolution means small objects (including fingers) can't be properly detected if moving fast, as they would look like disappearing and reappearing at a distance greater than their size in pixels. Anyhow, to avoid errors, low-pass filtering is always applied (in the transformed domain it becomes a very simple operation), both in space and time.

I sense the same type of logic in your head by which 3rd parties were producing so much shovelware on wii, whether a casual or not.

You do know Wii Motion Plus with 1-to-1 movement is coming out in a few days, right?

And there's this thing called the analog stick to do movement. How are you going to move around an open 3D world with Natal?

If anything, it's Natal that will use more predefined movement and on-rails gaming.

Malstrom has become prisoner of his own excessive style and now that it drifted away too much from reality, he can't escape anymore from it.
The more Wii hovers just below 50% (despite a very good 50% that will take Wii to absolute sales greater than almost monopolistic market shares in previous gens) and fails totally disrupting gaming market and crushing or marginalizing competitors (but these never were Nintendo's goals!), the more Malstrom's star risks fading. He's not scared for Wii, Wii's doing wonders even in its slowest weeks, he's worried for himself.

Edit: ZOMFG, grey nature of reality DISRUPTED Malstrom's black and white utopia dystopia whatever!!!    

Uh? I get over 45000 results...