Cheat Sheet: Microsoft's Project Natal

Project Natal. Sounds very James Bond
Sorry to disappoint, but this is Microsoft, not MI5.

So what are the folk over at Redmond up to this time?
Project Natal is a new type of gesture input system the software giant first showed off back at the CES trade show earlier this year. In a very un-Microsoft way, the product has been generating a lot of interest since.

Tell me more. What does it actually do?
Well, the beauty of Natal is that it does nothing - you do.

Explain yourself.
Most input systems work by the user manipulating a piece of physical hardare - a mouse, a keyboard, a game controller. Natal does away with all that, and turns the user's body into the controller, analysing movements and gestures and translating them into system commands.

Project Natal being demonstrated at the E3 trade show in Las Vegas (Photo credit: Microsoft)

So how could I use Natal?
Remember how the Nintendo Wii introduced a whole range of gesture commands when it first came out? Instead of holding a joypad between your hands horizontally and pressing buttons to control the system, you could use the controller like a fishing rod or a tennis racket and have the movement you made mimicked by a character onscreen? Natal is a very similar proposition.

However, instead of using the controller to make movements, you simply use your hands or legs. For example, imagine a tennis game. Instead of whisking the controller around, you move your hand as you would a racquet, and Natal will recognise and translate the gestures to the game character. Instead of holding a steering wheel peripheral plugged into your console, you just move your hands around accordingly as if there was one there and the game will recognise your driving skills.

And, if the workplace stress is getting to you, fire up a fighting game. With Natal, you can kick and punch your way across the living room carpet and watch your avatar do exactly the same onscreen, dispatching baddies with your excellent roundhouses.

And that's not all - Natal can also do voice and facial recognition, according to Microsoft, so you can command your system to shut down with a simple "goodbye" or swap players in a game simply by having different people sit in front of the screen.

You can take a look at the whole thing in action with this Microsoft video:

And how does it work?
The technological fairydust works using an "RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone and custom processor running proprietary software" according to Microsoft, allowing it to capture movements in 3D as well as recognising shifts in voice.

Hold on, this all sounds a bit gamer-centric. Is there a business use?
But of course. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates certainly thinks so - in a recent interview, Gates said that the technology will eventually end up in Windows.

The former Redmond head honcho said that he reckons we'll see the depth sensing being used to control PCs and televisions, as well as gaming devices. In the average office, Gates believes Natal could one day be used for controlling meetings, collaboration and communications.

"I think there's incredible value as we use that in the office connected to a Windows PC. So Microsoft research and the product groups have a lot going on there, because you can use the cost reduction that will take place over the years to say, 'Why shouldn't that be in most office environments?'" he said.

Very nice. So when will it be in my office environment?
A good question. The short answer is not any time soon - the company hasn't given any formal deadline for when it will be available although everything from the first to the last quarter of 2010 is being bandied about as a likely launch date.

Is anyone else trying this sort of thing?
I'd be very surprised if all the big tech houses aren't looking at creative ways to use gesture recognition in some form.

One company working on something very similar to Natal is Orange, under the banner of Project Keanu (yes, really). silicon.com had a look at the nascent tech back in April, where it was being used for a football game.

Without any form of controller, users could stand in front of a massive TV and make a kicking gesture, complete with run up, that would send the ball on the screen soaring.

According to the mobile operator, the tech is in development phase and could be ready for market next year.