Microsoft, in a bid to court Nintendo Wii users while pushing the edge of gaming and entertainment, unveiled a new 3-D motion-capture camera Monday that encourages full-body interaction.
Code-named Project Natal, the camera is able to accurately transform 3-D body movements into onscreen play, one-upping the Nintendo Wii’s handheld motion controllers.
The 3-D camera also comes equipped with facial-and-speech recognition capabilities that allow for more personalized and interactive engagement with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console.
Yeah right, all of the sudden M$ is an expert in hardware development. Har, har… While the concept is fascinating, the practical developing of a functioning system is far from imminent. I’ve done some 3d recognition with robots and doing it for navigating is hard as hell and processor intensive. To do 3d motion capture in real time goes way beyond hard as hell and is even more processor intensive. Add to that the challenges of different and changing lighting, and the incredible varieties of shape and style in the human presentation and movement I can come to but one conclusion. This is a gimmick, and it’s highly unlikely it’ll ever be popular, but what the hell, it might help xbox sales.
Ulanoff =douche=ms hack=FUD
You need two camera’s to get good depth perception. Actually, you need 2 sensors coming to image processor, in the image processor you extract the depth ‘map’ and isolate the subject and game SW does the rest.
Not sure if Kinect will be commercially successful, but I think still some patent issues to resolve.
The technology is similar to Canesta’s. May or may not be an issue.
Imaging systems using 2 or more sensors will need license from Argus Microsystems, they have first and fundamental patents related to any digital imaging system using 2 or more sensors.
http://twitter.com/camera_tech
Tek