Please, don't gasp all at once. Allow me to explain.
Up until now, the Xbox 360 had one major selling point for the blind
consumer. What was that, kids? Right. The web interface. The ability
to do anything and everything using your PC. Send messages, add
friends, and even download games and content. Pretty powerful, yes,
but the PS3 had things that competed with that particular feature
well enough.
Enter Project Natal, a new Xbox360 gadget just announced at this
year's E3 that blows the PS3 and the Wii away in just about every
single aspect, up to, and beyond accessibility for the blind. Natal,
set to be released in 2010, appears at first to simply be a Wii
competitor. Apparently, it is about the size of a Wii sensor bar. But
that's where the similarity ends. Natal completely removes the need
for a controller. Completely, and utterly. Equipped with cameras,
depth sensors, and microphones, (yes, microphones), Natal makes you
the controller. And I'm not kidding. I admit, I didn't believe it at
first. Even te initial demo video they showed during the Microsoft
Press Conference wasn't enough to push me beyond skeptical. Videos
can be edited. Products can be overhyped. I've seen it before. I even
expressed this. And then... They did the stage demo.
No longer do I doubt. No longer do I question. It is amazing. With
Natal, you can navigate the dashboard using... your hands, and only
your hands... Or your voice. Yes, your voice. Not enough? Have Natal
hooked up when you initially power on your Xbox, and it'll recognize
your face, signing you into your profile automatically. But that's
only the beginning. The implications with games are staggering. They
showed a brief tech demo of a breakout-style game. The one playing
the game used hands and feet to hit and kick balls down a coridor
into bricks all around it. Each action, even the angle at which she
aimed her fists and feet, was emulated, and calculated by a physics
engine, allowing for real aim. It seemed responsive, and it
definitely worked, as the audience's awe, and Misty's attested to.
Even the voice recognition is being taken to crazy levels. Natal's
voice recognition technology is apparently going to be added to the
Xbox360 trivia competition 1 versus 100, enabling people to just
shout out their answers. And, though this is not currently the case
in the 1 versus 100 beta, the questions are apparently going to be
read aloud in the future.
Very impressive, yes, but it all culminated... with Milo. Milo was,
essentailly, another tech demo made by Lionhead studios, creators of
Fable. They showed us a woman who worked for LIonhead interacting
with Milo, who was quite literally a little boy. Sounded like he was
about 11 or 12. Firstly, when he "saw" her, and when she said hello
to him, he greeted her by name. He recognized her, and they began a
conversation. Milo was programmed to detect not only the words she
spoke, but the emotion in her voice, and they talked briefly about
how she was officially showing him to thousands of people. This was
all audible on both ends, even Milo's initial greeting. Then, they
did some activities together. They jumped in some water and caught
fish by hand, and Claire's reflection, not that of her Xbox avatar
but her actual reflection, appeared on the water, effectively putting
her well and truly in the game world. She splashed the water around
with her hands, and caught some fish with Milo. Then, they drew
together. For this, Claire drew on a real piece of paper, and held it
up to Milo. He recognized the picture for what it was, and
complimented her on it as well.
I'll be honest, I've probably forgotten something. So much was
slammed full-force into my brain in a very short time. But let us end
this email the way I started it. With the main point of it all. I
officially concede, folks. With the arrival of this technology, (Milo
is actually at E3, though the device isn't due out until next year),
the Xbox 360 officially wins me over. There are rumors that Sony is
going to be announcing a new motion controller tomorrow. But the very
word controller already tells me that it's going to be utterly
ahnialated by Project Natal.
