Project Natal at CES 2010

Project Natal’s most recent appearance was at CES 2010 earlier this month.

At CES, Microsoft gave a really boring introduction, then showed a new video called “Innovation Journey”.

This is my favourite video, since it actually explains how Project Natal works, shows what Project Natal’s depth sensor is actually seeing, and talks a bit to some of the people behind it. And of course it tells us the release date!

Note in particular the scenes where it shows on the screen a 3D view of what the depth sensor is seeing, with the different object types colour-coded. Notice how there is a black hole in the background where the camera can’t see what’s there because it’s blocked by you standing in front of it. But aside from that, it has a very good 3D model of the scene. You can see how easy it would be to recognise different kinds of objects from this sort of information, even without the colour data that you also get. Much more powerful than just a camera like eye-toy.

We also get to see a (blurry) close-up of the back of the project natal hardware.

At CES 2010, Microsoft also talked about Xbox Live, and their own version of Nintendo’s Virtual Console. The Xbox is getting a virtual arcade called Games Room, where your avatar can walk into a 3D arcade and see and hear all their purchased arcade games in their 3D cabinets in attract mode before you play them. You can also invite friends and play against them online. They have 30 different arcade games that you can buy.

And they talked about how people will be able to rent and watch videos online quickly, using Xbox Live.