Journal 13, July 1

Full-Body Gaming System: Microsoft

In ten years or so one could potentially use the principal behind a full-body gaming system to train for their job. Recently talked about on Newscientist.com is Microsoft, the company that brought you the PC and Xbox among other things, has begun the creation of a full-body gaming device. This system is like no other of its kind. With the code name Natal, this new system will be the most realistic in comparison to movements and emotions. Natal is based off of an inferred camera system made in the Middle East except this particular system only uses two cameras. One camera will focus on the depth between the individual and the object they are focusing and be within two centimeters without error. The second camera will be geared more towards catching the aspects around the individual such as color and texture. The only stipulation they have encountered so far is that the cameras will not pick up what is surrounding or behind the player. Also equipped with Natal is an emotion detector, if you will. The website Wired states that Natal will be able to sign players in by recognizing their facial characteristics as well as use their emotions while playing the game to increase reality. Emotions will also be analyzed through voice recognition. Although they have not come up with a way to work through the voice recognizer being successful in a room of a few people talking at once, some solutions are in talks. One possibility is to use lip-reading software while others suggest software that can recognize up the three voices at once when talking at the same time.
With gaming systems being created ever so quickly and becoming more realistic in the sense of graphics as well as replicating the user, training for high profile jobs such as military, swat team, or even pilots could use systems like this that would fully prepare them, in most cases, for what their job is really like. I find it extremely hard to believe that by the time this project is complete, the younger kids of today’s world will compare this to Atari when I was a kid. That is how much progress has been made in the gaming world since I was a child or just technology in general. With Microsoft creating a device that involved such involved I think this will widely open the doors for many new useful innovations.

Reference Used:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17258-innovation-behind-microsofts-fullbody-gaming-interface.html?page=2

Additional Reference:
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/06/e3-microsoft-live-blog/