The Future is now

Face recognition software and biometrics a thing of the future? Maybe not as far into the future as you may think. a few weeks ago when the US patent office released documents, filed by Microsoft most experts figured the big M was trying to patent some concepts. Turns out it was the next generation of the Xbox 360.

At the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, Microsoft has unveiled its new control system for the Xbox 360. Film director Steven Spielberg, attending the launch, said it was "a window into what the future holds".

The main barrier stopping people getting into video games was the
complexity of a games controller," and that Natal was "a whole new world".

"There is technology now that recognizes not just your thumb, it
recognizes your entire person. The technology knows who you are".

Dubbed project Natal features True 1-to-1 motion tracking.
Crows PC world:

Wave your arm and your onscreen avatar follows you precisely. Bend,
yoga-like, to form cute animal shadow-shapes and a silhouetted image on a
virtual canvas curls and contorts picture-perfectly. Shift toe-to-toe,
tennis-like, anticipating objects hurled your way and whatever algorithms are
intelligently sorting behind the scenes recognize your intentions, filtering out
flailing limbs or ignoring unnecessary maneuvers.

And then there's Milo. the innocent little boy who seemed to react
viscerally to the human asking him questions. Peter Molyneux (Fable 2) claimed
it wasn't staged or scripted. At one point Milo tossed a pair of goggles at the
screen and the player demoing the game reached down, instinctively, to catch
them. Molyneux pointed out that "every player reaches down," highlighting the
almost autonomic response a character like Milo engenders. Molyneux's enthusiasm
was palpable, even contagious -- a guy who's probably been anticipating this
sort of interactive naturalism longer than any of us, now perched center-stage
with his fingers on a product that might just deliver it.

Uber cool