twitter feedInteractive 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 claims that the device has the capability to 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.”
Last year, was the biggest and most ambitious Rave On Air so far, heres a short making of video of the whole event that was broadcast out live over DTT (freeview) to the local area. It was also broadcast out over the internet for the whole world to see if they tuned in at raveonair.com.