Discussions

Remember when hands-free gaming could only mean a game of kick ball in the yard?  Man, times are changing.  A few weeks ago I had the privilege of witnessing the announcement of Project Natal at the E3 Expo – a peripheral coming to the Xbox 360 that is poised to deliver gesture-based input, facial recognition, voice activation, and full body motion sensing.  The promise is bold: “You are the controller”. 

Seriously … seriously?

A layman’s explanation of how it functions: The camera doohickey maps your body’s silhouette and turns it into a playable character on screen, mapping your joints to the skeleton of the on-screen player. And it works.  A million skeptical jaws must have dropped around the world. 

Sounds like BS, doesn’t it?  It’s a little hard to refute because it’s not a theoretical technology on a PowerPoint Presentation that’s light years away from production.  There it was, in plain sight, doing what they said it should.  Microsoft brought out celebrities like Sugar Ray Leonard and asked him to drive an invisible car with it.  And he did.  It looked like fun.

A week later Microsoft’s team gave a live audience demonstration on the Jimmy Fallon show.  They received a standing ovation.  I think that was my breaking point.  While this all sounds like X-Files technology it’s hard to ignore it’s plausibility as new videos of real people trying it are making the rounds.  I want to believe!  Still, the “Milo” demo seems too far-fetched and flawless. It’s clearly staged. Just saying.

Anyway, let’s take a step back and consider who’s making this.  Microsoft.  The Xbox people.  You might have heard of them.  You know, the Windows people.  Nothing has been announced, but we must assume that this is coming to PCs everywhere, too.  Why wouldn’t they?  As a stockholder I’d be livid if they didn’t at least try it!  I’m sure they’re dabbling. You can catch a glimpse of this when the perky couch potato family flips through their game library with a hand gesture, jumps into Netflix, and selects a movie without fishing for a controller of any sort.  (Maybe they’re watching Minority Report?)

Assuming this actually works outside of well-prepared studios and closed rooms, I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t the next big thing – and wouldn’t be surprised to see it announced at next year’s Consumer Electronics Show. I guess time will tell, but this is certainly a trend we should keep an eye out for.

So, who can I interest in a gesture-based Windows 7 Asus gaming notebook?   This lady wants one, I bet!