Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been busy pumping up the inevitable hype over Natal, which is expected to be unveiled at E3 in June.
According to ZDNet, Ballmer recently told a group of CEOs in Bogota, Colombia that the technology behind the project was “very general purpose” and would inevitably affect the “rest of our lives.”
“Natal [is] a little camera and microphone that sits on top of your TV set. And if you want to control the TV, you don’t go get some remote control or big fat gaming thing. If you want to look through TV channels, you just gesture, and the computer recognizes your voice, it recognizes your gestures,” explained Ballmer.
“You want to see the next sports program, you go like this, it will cycle you through. You want to play a game and you need to jump, you jump. I’m not going to jump too hard; a little bit too high altitude here in Bogota for that, at least for me. But it recognizes you, it knows your voice, who you are, your gestures, what you’re doing.”
Marc Whitten, general manager of Xbox 360, recently expressed similar sentiments in an interview with Fast Company.
“If you counted the number of buttons in your living room, it would send a chill down your spine. A lot of people can play games amazingly well, but others feel locked out if games involve a bunch of triggers and buttons,” claimed Whitten.
“But Natal isn’t just about gaming…It’s about all living room experiences. Imagine a sporting event. Natal could know which team you’re for because it sees your jersey, or knows you thought a bad call was made when you yell ‘boo.’ It learns about you and gets smarter to create a more tailored entertainment experience.”
