14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is increasingly flirting with Natural User Interfaces as the evolution from traditional computer-human interaction models and the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles acted like the stage for the next piece in the company's NUI puzzle: Project Natal. Sure enough, at an entertainment centric conference Microsoft focused on nothing more than the Xbox 360, but the fact of the matter is that Natal, a codename for now, is much more than just a string- and controller-free interaction model for the Redmond company's gaming console. It's indeed about how the UI is evolving and becoming tailored to the users, and not about the users having to adapt to unnatural models.
“Project Natal is the code name for the new controller-free gaming and entertainment experience from Xbox 360. The name “Project Natal” has several sources. Microsoft Corp. traditionally uses cities as code names. As a result, Alex Kipman, who incubated the project and is from Brazil, chose Natal, a city along the northeastern coast of Brazil, as a tribute to his country. In addition, he knew that Natal also means “to be born” in Latin. Given the new audiences “Project Natal” will bring to Xbox 360, this felt right,” the Redmond company explained.
One thing is clear, with the advent of Microsoft Surface, Windows 7 and Xbox 360's Project Natal, Microsoft is looking to make the NUI pervasive. Essentially, the software giant's vision for the future involves computing surfaces that blend seamlessly into everyday objects and that require nothing more than voice, touch or gesture to understand commands from the end user and to perform the associated tasks.
Project Natal for example is based on a sensor that features a camera, a sensor capable of interpreting depth, a multi-array microphone as well as a custom processor with the Redmond company's software on top. The RGB camera is designed not only to keep track of the user, but also to perform complex facial recognition actions, so complex that Natal is capable of even detecting emotions in its users. The multi-array microphone filters ambient noise from the voice of the user and requires not headset for activities such as chatting.
In addition, the Natal sensor features “an infrared projector combined with a monochrome CMOS sensor [that] allows “Project Natal” to see the room in 3-D (as opposed to inferring the room from a 2-D image) under any lighting conditions. [And a] proprietary software layer makes the magic of “Project Natal” possible. This layer differentiates “Project Natal” from any other technology on the market through its ability to enable human body recognition and extract other visual noise,” the Redmond company stated.
I embedded a few videos below in order to help you get an idea of what Natal is really about.