New Xbox 360 Natal Project

Project Natal is coming soon to your home game room or living room. The Xbox has always been one of the game consoles of choice, and now it's the most innovative.

When the Nintendo Wii was released, the Wii sensor bar and wireless Wii-mote was the most innovative thing since, who knows when (maybe Xbox Live). Well, imagine playing without a controller. Imagine your hands and body being the controller.

It may sound out of this world, but it's coming. The Xbox Natal has a current release date of the end of 2009, which should hit right before the holiday season.

Just be prepared to spend at least $500 for the console, but it's unclear as to whether or not, when you pay the $500 (give or take) for Natal, you will get the Natal sensor bar as an accessory or as a bundle with the actual Xbox system.

It's assumed that everything will be included in one bundle.

Natal will eliminate any controller, which means no chance of a wireless controller slipping out of your hand to bust the TV. This is truly a next generation game console. The main problem is that you won't be able to use current games with Natal because it is rather difficult to set up games with motion control, especially if they aren't initially programmed to use it.

The whole concept behind the new Xbox 360 is to bring back the fun in video games. You'll still want to keep your current Xbox because your games just aren't going to work that great with the sensor control, so you'll still need a console to play them on, unless all of the games are re-released for Natal (which is doubtful).

It's not 100% confirmed, but more than likely Microsoft isn't going to make too many changes to the overall design to the Xbox. It'll just have hardware changes and of course a HDMI output and component cables.

The biggest change, is of course the lacking controller. The wired controller cause a lot of constraint for gamers, which is why the wireless controller was created. This solved many problems, but take the Wii for instance, there's a big chance the controller can slip out of your hand and cause something to break or (plain and simple) you'll just do poorly on the  game for a minute.

The controller-less console offers so many more freedoms. The xbox Natal monitors your movement which makes for more of a 'get-up-and-play' experience. You'll still be able to use your Xbox 360 for movies; the main difference is the lack of controller.

Project Natal is going to be a whole new and exciting way to play video games, talk to friends, and watch movies. The price tag may be a little much for now, but you can nearly be guaranteed that it will be a top seller for the holiday season.

Xbox Natal will provide the ultimate gaming experience. Families can play against each other through Xbox Live, and you can just call up your friends and speak to them face to face.

You can make your own avatars. Natal can even scan your face and give your avatar your appearance; it can also scan an item so that you can use it in the game.

How does Natal work?

• Well, Xbox 360 Natal features a multi-array microphone that can track up to four people at the same time, as well as eliminate outside, ambient noises so that it picks up a clear sound. The microphone has full voice recognition features. The microphone within the sensor is probably the most innovative idea; you no longer need a headset in order to chat over Xbox Live.
• There's an RGB camera that enables facial recognition and full body tracking that provides full character control for four people at a time.
  
• A depth sensor is basically an infrared projector combined with a monochrome CMOS sensor, which allows the sensor to monitor the room in 3D in well lit and dimly lit rooms, so that your gaming experience can be enjoyed during the day or night. You can adjust the range of the depth sensor based on your environment, chairs, couch, etc.
  
• And, the custom processor that has proprietary software allows you to have a fully interactive gaming experience.

The Natal sensor is about 9 inches wide, and it's connected to a circular base that has a ball joint pivot so that it can be positioned anywhere above or below the screen. The Natal sensor is based on software technology that Microsoft developed internally from hardware that they obtained from a time-of-flight camera developer (3DV Systems).

Project Xbox Natal is going to be the most innovation to gaming. You're going to be able to experience full voice and facial recognition, as well as advanced gesture recognition. The motion analysis can extract 48 different points of the human body using a frame rate of about 30 hertz, and depending on the distance from the sensor, Natal can actually identify the individual fingers of the user versus just the hand.

Games to Be Released Exclusively for Natal Xbox

• Crackdown 2 (open-world action sequel)
• Left 4 Dead 2 (zombie game)
• Splinter Cell Conviction (third person shooter game)
• Forza Motorsport 3 (racing game)
• Halo: ODST (first person shooter game)
• Alan Wake (psychological thriller game)