Chicago (IL) – Bill Gates recently sat down for his annual interview with Cnet and
spent some time talking about his thoughts on Project Natal – including
the system’s release date, which should not be a surprise to TG Daily
readers, as well as scenarios why depth sensing cameras make also sense
for your Windows PC.
Bill Gates did not mention an exact launch date for Natal, a gesture recognition technology Microsoft announced as an expansion for its Xbox 360 gaming system at this year’s E3 conference. But Gates said that it will be introduced in about a year, which would lead us to believe that Microsoft is aiming for a late summer launch and just in time to have the hardware available in volume for the 2010 Christmas shopping season.
Reported by TG Daily, Steve Ballmer recently announced a “new Xbox” for 2010 during a lunch meeting in Chicago. The executive later retracted from that exact phrase, but it was widely believed that he in fact referred to Natal, which may be as significant for the company’s gaming division as a completely new gaming system.
Now Gates mention that Natal will not only be part of the Xbox 360, but is also aimed at Windows PCs. “I I think the value is as great for if you’re in the home, as you want to manage your movies, music, home system type stuff, it’s very cool there. And I think there’s incredible value as we use that in the office connected to a Windows PC,” Gates told Cnet.
Gates think that “this depth-sensing camera thing” has not just value for games, “but for media consumption as a whole.”
“If they connect it up to Windows PCs for interacting in terms of meetings, and collaboration, and communication, you put the camera in now it’s a cool thing, and it’s just an example where Microsoft research did the original stuff to show, with the depth information, something great could be done.”
No doubt, we can’t wait to see what is cooking in Microsoft’s labs.
