Meet Project Natal, Microsoft's motion controller

Microsoft’s motion sensing controller is real.

The company unveiled Project Natal, a new motion-sensing camera that allows players to control on screen action without any handheld controller at its pre-E3 press conference. It did not, however, give any hint about when the device would be released.

Microsoft says Natal (an internal code name and not the final name of the product) will capture full body motion, in essence reflecting any movement you make on your screen. It will also recognize user’s voices, allowing you to talk with onscreen characters or, if the trailer was to be believed, answer questions in a trivia game vocally, instead of making choosing from pre-selected answers.

“The controller will continue to evolve, but here’s the problem: For far too many people, the controller is a barrier, separating video game players from everyone else,” said Don Mattrick, corporate vice president at Microsoft. “We asked ourselves: Can we go beyond the controller? Can we make you the controller?”

Natal uses hand swipes to navigate the Xbox Live dashboard, much like like Tom Cruise made in the film “Minority Report”. Microsoft showed several live demonstrations of tech demos, all of which seemed a bit rudimentary.

One had an employee trying to break bricks with a series of rubber balls (that came rocketing back at her). Another was a Jackson Pollock-inspired painting demo.

The most intriguing demo was called “Project Milo”. Shown on video – not live – it demonstrated a realistic-looking boy who spoke and played with the player.

“What we want to create is a connection to our world – and that’s what I believe Natal does,” said Peter Molyneux, president of Lionhead Studios, which made the demo. “It will change the landscape of games we play.”

I’m expecting to get some hands-on time with Milo before the show is over. I’ll post impressions after I’ve digested it.

Whenever it comes out, Project Natal will work with all existing and future Xbox 360s.

“We can leap into a new era of interactive entertainment without having to launch a new console,” said Mattrick.

Among the fans of Project Natal is director Steven Spielberg, who first saw the peripheral two months ago and came out to endorse the project.

“Despite the size of the industry, 60 percent of households do not have a video game console,” he said. “Don and I have always agreed that the way to bring games to everybody is to make the technology invisible.

“I think what Microsoft is doing is not about reinventing the wheel, it’s about no wheel at all.”

It’s definitely interesting – but Natal seems a long way from being ready for prime time based on the demos shown today.