by D. Sproul | June 5th, 2009
I’ve just seen the future of the internet: Microsoft Xbox 360’s Project Natal. A person uses their hands, controller-free, to surf the internet, play computer games, and shop, all in one machine. Project Natal has body scanning to “see” your hands and whole body as you use them for controlling the internet or video games. It has facial recognition to match the user (in this case a teenage daughter) to her own contacts and experience, and voice recognition to take commands. Their demo video shows the young woman being recognized and logged in (facial recognition), calling a friend through the Xbox and TV (voice recognition commands), looking at a dress a friend found (sharing files), and dressing her virtual model (body scanning and recognition), and turning from side to side in it. (I’d like to know if the shopping feature requires a 3D model of that dress, or is it taking the front and extrapolating what the sides would look like?) Watching the demo reminded me of the computer interface in the film the “Minority Report.”
While playing computer games, the machine scans the player’s whole body continuously (body tracking or motion capture). Project Natal then showed the player’s body in the game knocking down buildings as Godzilla or fighting martial arts-style with an opponent. Critics of “couch potato” video game players will have little to say as players engage their whole body to win.
Another view showed interfaces similar to the Apple iTunes’ album view interface: a left-to-right scrolling view of different items: game tools (i.e. skateboards for game play), dresses (in shopping), and movie covers. (The Xbox is also a media storage device.)
The live demo from tech conference E3 showed someone painting. I didn’t think that was so great, but the “stencil” function would be fun for kids to capture their shapes while jumping in mid-air.
I can’t help but think back to my first experience on PC computers navigating the list of menus across the top with arrow keys (pre-mouse, no less!), or the button-intensive video games of the last 15 years that lost many of the casual and younger players. The Nintendo Wii was a huge step forward for videogames, simplifying the gaming experience, and including multiple age groups, including young children and seniors. Now Project Natal has carried it a step further, into internet, communications, video games, and e-commerce.
