A decade after the first Xbox devices hit store shelves, Microsoft is gearing up to revolutionize the gaming experience by offering console owners a new interaction model based on NUI (natural user interface). At the 2010 Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Redmond company indicated that Project Natal would be made available for purchase ahead of the 2010 Holiday season. According to Robert J. Bach, president, Entertainment & Devices Division, customer interest for Natal has been extremely strong following the demonstration of the first prototype at E3 in 2009. Bach noted that CES 2010 represented an excellent opportunity to respond to user questions related to the availability of Natal.
“Now, we've made tremendous progress on the product since then, and we've been hard at work to ensure our third party developers can create their Project Natal ready games. I can now tell all of you that Project Natal will be available this holiday 2010,” Bach stated. “This holiday 2010 you'll be able to bring home Project Natal, which will work with your existing Xbox 360 console. This holiday 2010 you'll be able to experience an entirely new, yet completely natural way to play.”
With Project Natal, Microsoft has moved to scrap the traditional input methods associated with Xbox. By leveraging Natal, users of Xbox 360 consoles will essentially transform their bodies into controllers. Codenamed Natal, the project is set up to deliver a new way for Xbox 360 gamers to interact with their games, and ultimately with technology.
“For me, when people talk about touch and voice technologies, or anything related to Natural User Interface, it all comes back to what’s most natural for the users,” Bach added. “That’s why you’ll see a variety of user interfaces that are considered natural, because each one is tuned to the environment in which it operates.”
Natal has been developed as an Xbox 360 add-on, which brings to the table a variety of NUI capabilities, including face, voice, gesture, and object recognition. “Natal is a next-generation experience that we’re actually delivering this generation,” said Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for Xbox 360. “And they don’t even need to buy a new console.”
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