Microsoft’s Project Natal, their way of competing with the motion gaming that Nintendo Wii introduced, was formally launched with a new name called “Microsoft Kinect” during a pre-E3 event complete with demos for upcoming games ranging from Star Wars, to dancing, to yoga, to petting wild animals.
Apart from enabling to incorporate motion into console gaming, this Xbox 360 accessory also features a new Video Chat app that lets users talk to up to four people at once and share photos as well.
True to its promise, Kinect lets users play video games without any controller at hand. Instead, the players stand in front of the Kinect—which is a combination of infrared and joint detecting sensors—and simply move according to game instructions. This assures a more freestyle playing.
The Kinect menu interface even utilizes motion, as the user waves his or her hand to control a glowing cursor. Push the hand forward to click on the chosen element. This mechanism will also be used on other applications on the Kinect such as Zune Marketplace.
Too bad Microsoft did not announce formally when and how much the Kinect will be, although leaked promotional photos have been circulating on the Net that the Microsoft Kinect will be available for retail on November 2010, while price could be around $150.
Source: Engadget
