Steven Spielberg presents - Playing WITHOUT a Controller on the XBOX 360

Codenamed Project Natal, the device is a sleek horizontal bar fitted with cameras, sensors and microphones, and will allow players to simply act out whatever they want their video game characters to do, without the need to press buttons, flick joysticks or waggle a remote.

“Instead of learning what to do with a controller, you can control your avatar just by moving your body around,” Natal’s creative director Kudo Tsunoda told Sun Media in an exclusive hands-on demonstration at Microsoft’s Seattle-area headquarters, prior to its unveiling at today’s E3 Expo video game trade show in Los Angeles.

The Natal device won’t be available until sometime next year, and it currently doesn’t have an official name, much less a retail price. But Microsoft executives say it will form the foundation of a new breed of not just video games, but entertainment as a whole. And Hollywood agrees.

“The vast majority of people are just too intimidated to pick up a video game controller,” said director Steven Spielberg, who helped unveil Project Natal at Microsoft’s E3 press conference. He likened the technology to film’s transition from square screens to widescreen Cinemascope, and predicted it will open video games up to a much wider audience.

http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/columnists/steve_tilley/2009/06/01/9641431.html

OK, now this is pretty freaky stuff.

It was bound to happen, given the popularity of the Wii. And in a few more years it will be electrodes connected to our heads so we won't even have to move to get things on screen (or holographically or whatever) to react. It will all happen according to our thoughts. It's a changing world.

John

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And in a few more years it will be electrodes connected to our heads so we won't even have to move to get things on screen (or holographically or whatever) to react. It will all happen according to our thoughts.

You know, on the Science Channel's "Next World" program, they showed a company creating video games that did just that. No controls, just some head attachment that allowed you to move your player by thought alone.

If we're going to go that far, I wonder how much longer it will be before we find our entire body useless? Soon we'll just have our heads in jars like on Futurama!

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If we're going to go that far, I wonder how much longer it will be before we find our entire body useless?

Thats the scary part for me. With all this technology developing to make out lives "easier" it also takes away from doing anything physically which will result in us floating around in hover chairs looking like blobs and controlling everything with our minds or a minor movement of the hand.

Wall-E anyone?

Finally one step closer to the Holo-deck

Yep, and that was the message WALL-E was getting across, and probably more so than the environmental message.

Then it's like you say, making our lives "easier". I think as humans we really need to examine whether our current technology has really made life easier? In my opinion, there are things that have been made easier, but at the expense of adding too much chaos and added stress in life, thus making our mental conditions harder in life.

Take the cell phone for example -- it is a convenient item and a cool way for people to always have a way to get in touch with you. It's useful for parents that want to keep tabs on their kids at all times -- then again, we didn't have cell phones when I grew up and everybody did just fine with pay-phones. The draw back is they are a distraction on the road and have been the fault of many major accidents. Some states are beginning to ban cell phone use while driving. And let's not forget how the cell phone shows us truly how rude people can be with them in the movie theatre.

Therefore, sometimes what we think has made our lives better has also added more chaos and stress in the mix than we fail to realize can happen. Sure, the new toys always look WOW to us, but it's usually in the long run that we not only made something better in our life, but we also added new headaches to come. At least that's the way I see it.

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[Post edited by Tim Raynor on Jun 2, 2009 - CDT 1:23 PM]

I have to agree with that Tim, the cell phone was basically initially brought out for business men. Then brought to the masses as a emergency device, car broke down etc. Now they do so many damn things half the time they forget to tell you that it works as a phone in the commercials.

I think a great example is the washing machine. Yes it's much better then washing your clothes in the stream with a ringer but because it's easier the amount of clothes we own now has increased exponentially. The average person maybe had a few sets of clothes with one set of good clothes before the washing machine. Now even someone who isn't an avid clothes buyer will have much more then that. So yes it's easier to wash clothes but your washing a heck of a lot more.

Most people are fat and lazy in the 21st century. Nobody wants to do manual labor anymore. Pretty soon you won't even have to tug it....

I remember reading something awhile back where Sony basicly wanted to put a home theater in your brain.