Microsoft Says Natal Could Replace TV Remotes

[Valigarmander]

Microsoft Says Natal Could Replace TV Remotes

We already know Microsoft has designs for Natal beyond the Xbox 360 and into offices worldwide. But now they're going after the 400lb gorilla: Television. During the Streaming Media West show last week, Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten said it's entirely possible that Natal could replace remote controls on Xbox 360-connected TVs.
"I believe that this will be the largest leap of TV experience since the remote control," Whitten said (Yahoo! Tech, via Kotaku). "With the flick of my wrist I can change a channel. With the power of my voice I can start a movie."

But according to Whitten, the possibilities go beyond simply replacing current controls with hand waving: Natal technology could eventually be used to make television viewing a more interactive experience. "Laughter is an input. Yelling at the TV when I know an answer on 'Jeopardy' is an input. Attention is an input. The number of people in the room at one time is an input," Whitten said, insinuating that Natal could be able to read all of these "inputs" and put them to use.

And it'll all go toward reaching what Microsoft sees as the future of television, where user-customized viewing replaces traditional ideas of broadcasting. "The context is not 1 billion channels, but one," Whitten said. "One channel, with what I want, when I want it."

And meanwhile, that will surely mean selling a lot more Natals and 360s to make it all happen. Isn't corporate synergy fantastic?

Huh.

[X-3]

first tvs

then the world!

[Loot]

Pardon me, what?

[Robotazy]

Stop overhyping your product.

Stop what your doing.

[Mushi]

*It's definitely not going to be like Fable in terms of overhype.*

[Booyakasha]

The future of television is sitting in complete motionless silence, lest we say or do something that the Natal misinterprets as a 'change the channel and subtitle everything in Hebrew' command.

[Kargath]

I'm not sure how this handles fight-over-the-remote situations.

[Luigiman7]

I wouldn't be suprised if I could hook it up to my kitchen appliances.

[Valigarmander]

Traveller's Tales Director Believes Natal Lag Will Hurt Development

As novel of a concept as it is, Natal's lack of a physical controller -- and, by extension, the accompanying input lag -- are real causes for concern, according to Traveller's Tales director Jon Burton. Speaking with Develop, he expressed his feeling that Sony's wand motion controller (Gem?) will be the superior motion controller, thanks in large part to the lower level of lag and physical buttons which make the controller more viable for a wide variety of genres.

"[Natal is] exceedingly clever, but the lag on the input and lack of physical buttons is really going to restrict the kind of games that can be done with it," Burton said. But he had nothing but praise for Sony's wand, saying, "Sony's solution will be cheap, accurate and will put buttons at your fingertips, meaning everything from action adventures to FPSes can be handled with the same input."

Burton conceded the fact that he hasn't seen the final version of Natal, so it's entirely possible the lag he's referring to will be eliminated by the time Microsoft releases it.

And although he questioned just how well Natal will work with a wide variety of games, he did admit the technology itself is incredible. "The software behind Natal stunned me," Burton explained. "To be able to take effectively a bump-map of a person and turn that into a fully articulated and rigged polygonal skeleton is an incredible feat. We run a mo-cap studio and to get anything resembling mo-cap, live in real-time, from effectively a single camera is nothing short of amazing."

Still, he raises a point (even if it's one that has been made before) about just how viable Natal will be for playing certain types of games. Without physical buttons or a controller to offer some additional input, it seems like it'll be a real challenge to make Natal work with the games that Sony's wand could potentially work with. And if the lag is as serious an issue as Burton makes it out to be, developers might find themselves struggling to make quality games using Natal.

So much for replacing TV remotes.

[Robotazy]

OOPS.