Natal, PS3 motion wand inspire new wave of plastic props

"interactive gaming started by Nintendo and now embraced by Microsoft's Project Natal,"


The most important part of this article.

Always leading the pack.

wow cody, i don't know what's worse, that you hijacked the first post or that you're being an uninformed fanboy again.

i'm just gonna post this here i want people to read this and it has nothing in response to BloodShot Robot's post.

Anyways, these motion control stuff are all unfinished, so a change is a MUST regarding the name or functuality. I mean, anything could be implemented to both since it's not even made yet. i'm sure that microsoft and sony will offer tons of unique features with these innovative add ons.

And these features are pictured here :)

http://www.virtualshackles.com/18/

Nintendo doesn't make most of those accessories anyway.

Maybe they don't do all of them, but the ones that are useful they do make them, like the zapper...

I am making a pie.

I am a sewer worker.

I will eat your pie.

I am a grieving widow

Butt scratcher~???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEsI5sXjLLQ&feature=related

Wiimote and Nunchuk > Gamepad (it can be a game pad, and more)

It's a finglonger!

Nah man, The Wiimote is greater than or equal to the "PS3 wand".

You forgot that PS2 Eyetoy = Natal or pretty much equivalent

Not trying to sound fanboyish or anything, but could you explain to me what kind of games you are expecting to play using the natal.

my wildest guess is... the ones on that video demo... if that's anything to go by...

Er, I'm trying to understand what's so special about Natal. I'm no fan of motion controls in the first place, but I'd rather be able to control my fencing sword with the wiimote or superimpose anything into my hand with the PS3 gadget than do....whatever in front of Natal.

"You forgot that PS2 Eyetoy = Natal or pretty much equivalent"
Actually, NOPE. Natal figures out your position in 3D space, so you can even hold a Wiimote in your hand and Natal will recognize its movement. HA.

you seem to have got your signs around the wrong way, easy mistake, I know.
see what you really meant was;
"Project Natal > Wiimote > "PS3 wand""

whoops, it's too late for this... what *I* meant was
"you seem to have got your signs around the wrong way, easy mistake, I know.
see what you really meant was;
"Project Natal < Wiimote < "PS3 wand"""

Gamepad > All of them

Don't get why you put Swaggle last. It can do everything the Wii Motion Plus can do (and slightly better), as well as most of the coolest stuff Natal can do (face tracking, voice recognition).

I find it weird that of all three, it's getting the least amount of hype, despite obviously being the best.

Of course, I expect it'll have the worst games of all three. Look at how badly Sony supported the Eyetoy, Sixaxis, and the PlayStation Eye, after all.

Also, +1 to Davey.

PS3 wand > wiimotionplus > Natal > wiimote
Think of accuracy first.
Think of peripherals (less changing & buying the better)
And then think of the games you could play with it.

- PS3 wand is the only one with amazing accuracy. You only need one peripheral (the camera), and then you could play an amazing amount of games with it (everything made to date, if they were written for it)
-Wiimotionplus is pretty accurate-ish. It's a peripheral on a peripheral rich part of a controller. You could play the same type of games as the wiimote, but it's not backwards compatible.
- Natal isn't all that accurate, but enough for casual games with little skill. No extra peripherals could be used with it (really... there is no point). You could play... games more casual that DDR - which is saying something.
- Wiimote is horribly innaccurate, most games are better by not using it the way it was intended to be used (waggle, wrist flicks, etc). The controller itself requires a peripheral for most games (which have to be removed for other games), and has an overly-rich market for more just to make it comfortable in using it different ways. As a bonus, it came out first and therefor is compatible with all games for the system... until the peripheral wiimotionplus hits the shelves... and is pretty good for fps, rpg's, and toy-like games.

it's splitting hairs, but when I look at it this way the ps3 wand is the ONLY one that could replace the standard controller in future systems as it stands. the wiimotionplus could, if it were redesigned to not need so many peripherals.

while Natal is similar to the EyeToy, it is capable of much more. "The device features an "RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone, and custom processor running proprietary software", which provides full-body 3D motion capture, facial recognition, and voice recognition capabilities. The Project Natal sensor's microphone array enables the Xbox 360 to conduct acoustic source localization and ambient noise suppression, allowing for things such as headset-free party chat over Xbox Live.[1][fn 5]

The depth sensor consists of an infrared projector combined with a monochrome CMOS sensor, and allows the Project Natal sensor to see in 3D under any ambient light conditions.[1][14][fn 6] The active depth-sensing range of the depth sensor is adjustable,[fn 7] with the Project Natal software capable of automatically calibrating the sensor based on the gameplay and environment conditions, such as the presence of couches.[15]"

Its not actually that much more advanced than ps3 eye..

Currently they have shown nothing that cant be done on the ps3 eye with the Natal..

you might as well call it the ps3 eye +

Obviously you can.

Unless you're a girl, I picture this:

"Hey guys watch me do sword fighting with my DILDO HARHARHAR"

"Lulz you're a genius. ...Wait, why do you have a dildo?"

"Yeah, aren't those things expensive? And...for girls?"

"Um...Hey guys I'm sword fighting..."

Natal has more sensors and is capable of much more:

"The device features an "RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone, and custom processor running proprietary software", which provides full-body 3D motion capture, facial recognition, and voice recognition capabilities. The Project Natal sensor's microphone array enables the Xbox 360 to conduct acoustic source localization and ambient noise suppression, allowing for things such as headset-free party chat over Xbox Live.[1][fn 5]

The depth sensor consists of an infrared projector combined with a monochrome CMOS sensor, and allows the Project Natal sensor to see in 3D under any ambient light conditions.[1][14][fn 6] The active depth-sensing range of the depth sensor is adjustable,[fn 7] with the Project Natal software capable of automatically calibrating the sensor based on the gameplay and environment conditions, such as the presence of couches.[15]"

tl;dr: Natal sees in 3D, EyeToy sees in 2D. (among other stuff, but that's the biggest thing)

Natal has infrared guys, it's more than a cam...

Dude your right about what the Natal does to some points..

What its probably actually doing is not much different to your average security cmos sensor what its doing is probably projecting an infrared grid out as you break the grid it knows where you are in space It then has a b&w infrared camera attached that tracks as the grid is broken as well. (This way it doesnt matter if the room is completely black or very bright) it will also have the camera to overlay stuff and gives a detailed picture of everything within the room.

It has not yet shown 1:1 and it has no where near the accuracy of the ps3 motion controller. To be able to draw the 3d grid of whats going on how much processing power do you think it needs ? Ive seen the chip designed by 3dv, I dont know how powerful it is, but I have my doubts (price specifically and considering the appalling failure rates, I know once microsoft gets involved expect something that would have been quite good to be basterdised, embrace extend and f*** up should be microsofts slogan)

the ps3mc:
You mention the issues with light... Let me make one thing clear to you here, some one else also mentioned the light as a limiting factor. If its really bright in your room, will you be able to see the tv ? if its really light would you be able to see a projector properly ? Light source is a non issue, if you can see your screen the camera should be able to pick up the light source from the controller, they would have tested that out right ? After all its been in production for how long ?

There is also much more to it, the controller has gyros etc within it its not just tracking the light source, the console knows where the controller is in space through the gyro etc already built into the controller, so its much more than just tracking the light, but by tracking the light it gets very very accurate tracking..

This is where the natal will fail and I mean miserably, the grid it throws out to try and catch your position in space would have to be 1mm x 1mm accurate to match the sort of accuracy the ps3 controller was getting. Its called doing your homework, rather than just buying a company with relative technology..

just my 2 pence