A day after Microsoft’s keynote address at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, attendees and the tech media are still buzzing about the company’s latest innovation, a controller-less system for interacting with games and other features on the Xbox 360. The new technology, dubbed Project Natal, is contained in an external peripheral loaded with a motion-sensing RGB camera, a depth sensor, and a multi-array microphone. The hardware is connected to a processor stocked with proprietary software to capture and interpret both movement and vocal commands, which are then fed into the Xbox 360. One of the most compelling aspects of Microsoft’s new tool is that it can easily be added to existing Xbox consoles, minimizing the cost to current 360 owners who want to add the full-motion experience. To facilitate adoption of the technology, Microsoft also released the software developers’ kit for Project Natal, so motion capability can be added not only to future games, but to existing games as well. The Next

Level in Gaming Zippy Aima, an industry analyst for digital media at ABI Research, said Project Natal represents a significant advance in gaming. “I think that Nintendo had already raised the bar with Wii,” Aima said, “which obviously has enjoyed significant success in the market. With Project Natal’s announcement, Microsoft is taking that gaming technology to the next level.” Despite the stir caused by Monday’s announcement, numerous questions remain to be answered. For instance, there is no specific word yet on when the Project Natal hardware will be generally available, or how much it will cost. There is also some question about how well the hardware will respond to faster or more intricate game play. The two software demos offered by Microsoft to showcase the hardware — Ricochet and Paint Party — both used fairly basic motions. Contemporary games, however, require much more involved movements. It…

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Xbox 360 Sensor Takes Gaming To the Next Level