Project Natal prototype image
Brier Dudley took a photo of this Project Natal prototype at a third party developer’s office:
Photo by Brier Dudley of the prototype Project Natal
If you followed my instructions with the last video I posted about, you might recognise this ugly duckling as much the same as the Project Natal you briefly saw the back of in the Innovation Journey video.
The thing that strikes me as odd about this hardware, is that it’s not level. Surely something like this needs to either be horizontal or else have accelerometers in it so it can measure it’s tilt. For example, in the car racing game we have seen, people steer by holding up their two hands and tilting them. But if the device itself is tilted, it will look like you are steering one way when you are actually holding your hands level.
The i Think Different blog thought this device reminded him of WALL•E. I think it’s cute.
This is not what the final device will look like when it is manufactured by Pegatron.
The stickers say “Caution: Potentially hazardous laser energy. Do not open enclosure.”, “Class 1 Laser” and “MS Equipment E690422″.
In case you were wondering “Class 1 Laser” means a laser that is perfectly safe and can’t hurt your eyes. Higher classes are dangerous. I’m assuming this is an infra-red laser for measuring depth. But even class 1 lasers are dangerous if you open the case and mess around with the insides.
With a pair of cameras, all you would have to do is determine the rotation orientation parameter to control for camera rotation. Something as simple as “put up your dukes here” would allow the system to establish alignment. An accelerometer (or better yet, a gyro) would work as well. If they were particularly creative, they could use the wireframe skeleton that we’ve seen in past samples to establish rotation if the person (people) are sitting up straight. I agree with your assessment on the laster, too, for what it’s worth.
Thanks for keeping this blog! I am a photogrammetrist by training and find Natal fascinating.