[MR.K!]

Xbox unveils hands-free motion control
Microsoft has unveiled a peripheral that will bring full-body, hands-free motion control to its Xbox 360 games console.

Interactive entertainment senior vice president Don Mattrick presented the sensor bar device, codenamed Project Natal, at a press conference ahead of the E3 games industry show in Los Angeles.

The Project Natal peripheral, which sits below the TV screen, incorporates a camera, depth sensor and microphone with a custom processor.

It can detect and track a user’s body movement in three dimensions and, Microsoft says, recognise faces, hand gestures and speech.



Mattrick says the device will have an impact on gaming comparable to a new generation of games machine. “We can launch a new era of entertainment without having to launch a new console,” he says.

Joining Mattrick on stage at the E3 conference, filmmaker and gamer Steven Spielberg spoke on how removing the physical control pad or remote will make gaming much more accessible.

Project Natal will make games “as approachable as all other forms of entertainment,” says Spielberg. “The vast majority of people are too intimidated to pick up a game controller.”



Looks AMAZE !

[Stu]

I hope it wont become the standard and I can still play some good ol' action games with the controller. I never got this ''casual people are terrified of controllers!'' business. It is much, much harder to get to grips with the clunky controls of many Wii 'games' than it is to use a controller. But what the I know. Ronan Keating, Girls Aloud, and Beyonce all say I am wrong.

[Tom4784]

It's an intriguing idea but it'll end up a gimmick. I don't think it'll wrangle the crown from the Wii anyway.

[Scarlett.]

Check my thread on it for the IGN review....

This ***** real, not some sort of tech demo