So, Microsoft just announced their newest and most ambitious... something to date. Project Natal, which promises to be the most immersive form of gameply released commercially.

Basically, it's an advanced camera that can perceive three-dimensional space, packaged together with advanced face and body recognition software. The goal of the project seems to be to eliminate the need for controllers. They showcased a few things at E3, such as facial recognition which automatically logs you in to your Xbox account just by looking at it. They had an advanced demo video, but I'm pretty sure it was all just pre-rendered concepts. A few demos were played out live, one fairly impressive "breakout" style game, played with digital dodgeballs, and another that was basically the world's least intuitive painting program.

The big show was Milo, a tech-demo developed by Peter Molyneux and the group at Lionhead studio. This is basically some degree of AI, which uses a combination of emotion and voice recognition to simulate an interaction with a young boy. Unfortunately, this was also displayed through a pre-rendered video, which didn't really give much of an idea as to how well it actually works. For all we know, their actress was just going through a specific script that Milo would play along with. I've seen a lot of voice-recognition programs, and to be honest I'm painfully skeptical about the concept. Does anyone remember Seaman? I know that was more than a decade ago, but let's just say half the game was trying to get him to actually understand what you're saying. In fact, I can't think of anything I've seen commercially that would lead me to believe that a truly immersive voice-recognition AI is possible any time soon.

Still, I'm excited at the possibility. But like most new technology, and especially theoretical technology, I'm very skeptical

I'm optimistic but also skeptical about the whole thing. Project Natal looks a lot like things Sony was doing with the EyeToy last generation, though Natal does look a lot more sophisticated.

However, I want to wait and see it applied to some real games. The featured tech demos honestly didn't look very fun, just minigames pretty much. I want to see it working with a real game and working well, because I still wonder if you'll run into issues depending on your room's lighting, your clothing, and how much space you have in front of your couch. And I want to know how much it costs.

But it looks interesting. At the very least, a better fitness tool than the Wii Fit. Speaking of which, it was funny to see how much of Nintendo's rhetoric Microsoft was borrowing. "Controllers and getting too complicated." "We're finding new ways to make gaming accessible to everyone." Even the promo shots of fake families at their couch getting way too excited about what they were playing.

I'm just as skeptical about Milo as you are, Inkmonkey. First of all, it was presented by Peter Molyneux, the king of broken promises. Second, I really doubt they'll program enough tangent possibilities for you to just be able to shoot the breeze with Milo. That's something full-time AI specialists are still grappling with. You're right about the flakiness of voice recognition, and I think emotion recognition will be just as flaky.

But please prove me wrong, Microsoft. The stuff that was show will be really cool if it works.

Well, a recent Kotaku article mentions that the Milo demo has a programmer there at a computer doing unspecified work to make the game run correctly. So... yeah. Until I see it running autonomously, I'm not going to put much stock in it.

Motion control on its own has never made for good gameplay. Wii Play, Wii Sports, every damn EA and Ubisoft minigame collection... these aren't deep games. It's only somewhat useful when it's supplements traditional control, like in Twilight Princess or Heavenly Sword, and in that regard Natal could be pretty cool.

Imagine playing Fable III and yelling your spells instead of pressing some random button combination. "LIGHTNING!" And electricity tears down through the sky.

I do want to play that PunchOut-like martial arts fighting game where you're actually dodging, punching, and kicking. That looks like good exercise...

Looks like a slightly more advanced Eyetoy that they're lying about being ZOMG AMAZING.

Just watched the presentation for that thing. Man did I screw up the pronunciation for that thing. I thought it was pronounced like you say natal in prenatal. Turns out that you pronounce it like na-tal.

So far, these motion detection gimmick thingies have only been exactly that. A gimmick. Wii did a great job incorporating motion detection into many of their games and it now appears that the technology has evolved enough for it to become a bigger part of the console then before. I foresee that Sony and Microsoft are going to harm further sales of wii since they're effectively taking their biggest advantage and incorporate it into their own.

Btw. Did anyone see that Milo demo that Lionhead presented? That thing was scary. It's hard to imagine that it wasn't unscripted. If this is the stuff we're gonna see coming out in the next few years, we're gonna see more and more people isolating themselves at home. I mean that blasted thing actually carried out a conversation with the woman.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to their website and look at the lionhead presentation. Look at all the other stuff too.
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/projectnatal/

Microsoft sure is promising allot of crazy new innovations, I must say.

yeah, it looks fun for mini-games and that's about it. Milo was definitely scripted. I just don't like the idea of it. It's gonna be another Eye-Toy

ParkerFarker
yeah, it looks fun for mini-games

Now watch as it becomes the wii with it's mini game collection games with microsoft stamped on it.

Most of the stuff was real, such as the dodgeball and painting demos. But I'm almost certain that "Milo" was merely a stitch up. From what I hear Milo detects the tone of your voice and responds in "an open ended manner" giving the perception he is replying to what you have said. I can't remember where I found this information, but I remember someone involved in the Microsoft presentation stating that Milo wasn't as innovative as he seemed.