Steven Spielberg himself likes it, and maybe, so will you but more important is the shifting of games from couch potatoes to the fitness freak
Steven Spielberg himself likes it, and maybe, so will you but more important is the shifting of games from couch potatoes to the fitness freak
One of the nicest things about technology is that it tends to break down old ideas and create new ones. For example, in the good old days, it was felt that stuff like a BBS (bulletin board system, a popular precursor to Yahoo Groups and Google Groups) would be shunned by shy and introverted people; but, on the contrary, many people who were reserved and taciturn when it came to direct face-to-face communications tended to get extremely garrulous on various forums.
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Similarly, there was a time when people who played video games were seen as lazy people who wouldn't get up and go out to play cricket or football. And initially, this was true, because they just sat on a couch and exercised their fingers on game controllers.
All that changed in November 2006, when the Wii Remote was launched. Suddenly, you needed to move your hand quite a bit to play gamesu2014and the advantage was that you had fun and burnt calories.
In fact, Wikipedia points out that, according to the British Medical Journal, Wii players use more energy than those playing traditional computer games, though this was good for weight management, but not necessarily a replacement for regular exercise. But Microsoft is there to change this.
What controller?
While we have to credit Wii for giving us a very different controller, we have to thank Microsoft's Project Natal which was announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in LAu2014for taking the controller away from us.
Thanks to Project Natal, you are the controller Microsoft says that the system combines a camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone and custom processor running proprietary software to track your full body movement in 3D while responding to commands, directions and even a shift of emotion in your voice. 'The only experience needed is life experience' says the Microsoft press release, and they are probably right.
The big picture
While Project Natal will initially make gaming more fun, one day, such a technology will be able to enable you to interact with your PC without a keyboard or a mouse. One interesting thing about Project Natal is the ability to respond to the emotion in your voice. A system like that could one day choose different forms of music if you tell it to verbally say 'play music' to itu2014if you are sounding angry, it can play soothing music and if you are sounding peppy, it can play invigorating music.
QUICK TAKE
>>Microsoft's Project Natal could revolutionise gaming
>>It does away with the controller completely
>>It uses a camera to track your body movements and control games
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