Blog

For all of you who doubt whether Natal could possibly do everything Microsoft is claiming it can, here’s a video of it perfectly tracking a guy breakdancing, and its doing it quite well.
Natal is coming to Xboxes sometime this fall, so there is still some time before you can get your hands on one. But let this video be a reminder on why you should be excited about it.

The video isn’t as much of a slam dunk on the lag factor. At some points it looks like there’s a definite delay between the dancer’s movements and those of his avatar on screen, and at other times the lag seems imperceptible. It’s hard to say for sure. But as for the motion capture itself, even in low light situations, it appears to be undeniably smooth.
Here is a list of Natal’s technical details, from Ramon Nuez of the Huffington Post:

• 3D camera
• IR camera
• Current games will not be compatible with Natal
• “Project Natal” is a code name and will not be the final name of the product
• [Work in progress] Use voice commands to control services i.e. music, video’s, movies
• [Work in progress] Facial recognition
• [Work in progress] Use gesturing to navigate the XBOX menu structure
• [Work in progress] Distinguishing between the primary player and a spectator
• [Work in progress] Suppressing background noise

He also wrote, “It was a great experience. There I was (without a controller) standing, kicking, swatting, jumping and working up a sweat. The responsiveness of the Natal system was incredible and very accurate. If I physically moved forward, back, swung faster or slower my dodge ball avatar responded in kind.”
About the price, Michael Pachter, a video game analyst, has gone on record on his online show, “Pach Attack”, that he thinks Project Natal will only be $50, and he’d be shocked that it would cost more than $79. He’s of the cheaper hardware, and recoup money on games mentality. He also mentioned that Microsoft may have a lower price point for Project Natal because they’ll be able to sell more Xbox 360’s because of it.

Sean G. x Project Natal from Matthew Pantoja on Vimeo.

Source: Gizmodo, Project Natal Games.