Next Generation of Motion Controllers

Microsoft is planning on giving a new approach to the world of gaming by scraping the controller and taking the human body as the basic thing to communicate with the console. The name of the work they are just about to finish is Project Natal. NATAL meaning “connected with one’s birth” as in birth of a new generation of games and controllers. As you can see even the name of this great invention is catchy and handy. The hardware itself will be just as natural as the name feels for it.

Ok, I’m guessing that all of you have heard or even seen the project called NATAL around the internet. It’s Microsoft’s answer to future gaming and the best experience that each one of us will enjoy very soon.

Now let’s go on a journey back in time to June 1, 2009. It was the day when Project Natal was first announced and it immediately drew attention of the media and gamers alike. The first few specs that Microsoft shared with the public were that the Project Natal is the Xbox 360 hardware add-on that will appeal on our senses and make gaming controller-less. That means that we will be able to use our entire body to play games the way we always wanted to.

Of course there were some different approaches on making gaming more fun and involving physically but many have failed, one of the best known and still played game controller is the dance pad which made birthday parties look cooler and malls a nicer place to spend some time. The arcade, PS One, PS2 and Xbox360 made a good run game after game making us move and enjoy the music with some awesome choreographies. Some of the other examples were Wii’s motion controller, Play Station 3’s 3 axis gamepad and the EyeToy that stayed marginal with the games that could be played, the game developers just couldn’t incorporate the technology into any game that could look cool. The newest addition to the motion capturing in games is Play Station 3s PS “move” controllers which look odd but for now they are the closest thing to the fun free moving game play.

The Project Natal hardware consists of 2 cameras tracking your every move with a few billion calculations a frame, 60 frames a second. I don’t need to emphasize the calculating and software power. The sensor actually consists of an infrared projector and a monochrome sensor that make the software detect any movement and recognize any shape that is given in front of it. The infrared sensor will make it possible to detect any movement in shady and less lightened rooms, so even if you wanna play in a dark room with flashing lights at a party at a friends’ house or at home on a nice Saturday morning after school or just as a fun way to get you thought off work, you will have the chance to do it without any preparations for the console to work. It will feature facial, imaging and voice recognition.

You will input commands only with your voice and gestures through a natural and slick user interface. The software that Microsoft provided will have the chance to map out even up to four skeletons, which means that four players can play at the same time in split-screen. And the good news for Xbox 360 users is that the console will extend it’s lifespan (life cycle) by 5 years, meaning 2015. I.e. every console has a normal life cycle of 5 years, if you take a look back at PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox you will see 5 years between generations of those platforms.

Also needs to be said that it will be sort of an update to the previously bought consoles so that gamers shouldn’t buy the whole package all over again. Till now the speculations show that it will cost around $300 in a bundle so as a stand-alone component it should be around $100.


Be sure to look for Project Natal on the shelves of gaming stores this Christmas.