EuroGamer: MS execs: Natal not derived from 3DV

Eurogamer Writes: Microsoft's Shane Kim has said that the systems making up Project Natal have been in development "for a long time", and distanced the full-body motion-sensing camera from the company's acquisition of 3DV Systems.

His colleague Aaron Greenberg was even more direct. Asked whether Natal was derived from 3DV technology, he told Eurogamer: "No, we built this in house."

[BLaZiN PRopHeT]

It looks like MS bought 3DV so they would get sued in a few years if Natal takes off.

[Xi]

They bought them out to help develop the technology cheaper.

3dv was working on a $50 vid cam capable of the same thing with slightly less accurate results and I think MS bought them out so they could develop something cheaper and more accurate together.

[fear88]

Apparently when Sony introduces a Camera that senses depth and functions in all light situations 2 years ago its considered a rehash of the EyeToy yet Natal is something revolutionary yet does the exact same thing.

Gotta love them 360 fanboy double standards.

EDIT:

To the disagree try explaining the old GDC 2008 tech demo video

[kewlkat007]

IF you wanna call sony motion superior might as well hype the Wii. Of course that will never happen.

[fear88]

Patent filed August 26, 2004 -

http://www.google.com/paten...

And the Person who submitted the Patent was Dr. Richard Marks of the EyeToy fame.

http://www.gamespy.com/arti...

In fact, this technology is pioneered by this man alone.

So much for that assumption of yours.

[CrazyJ]

I think they bought 3dv so they could corner the market on patents that cover controllerless control using true depth information. Natal uses two cameras to figure out depth information and 3dv used infrared light pulses. Pretty much the only two methods to get good depth information aside from laser scanning. I'm sure they bought 3dv for multiple reasons but one probably was so the competition didn't. If the competition bought 3dv they could have quickly gotten up to Natal's levels and possibly do it cheaper. I could be totally wrong as I don't actually know what patents 3DV or Microsoft owns.

[Xi]

and one regular camera for color, tone, which is then combined along with the calculating the perspective difference between the 2.

That's why this camera can work in the dark without a problem.

[CrazyJ]

Did not know one camera was infrared. I didn't see any infrared emitters so I assumed they were both regular cameras. It would seem they bought 3dv to protect themselves from lawsuits from 3dv.

[Willio]

"Project Natal have been in development "for a long time"

Why cant they just state the development began when nintendo wii came out?

[SaberEdge]

Because we know that a lot of the tech that comprises Natal was being worked on by Microsoft long before the Wii ever came out. The voice recognition aspect, as just one example.

[shazui123]

It wont for gamers, not accurate enough, sonys motion control was superior

[Xi]

Using natal, because the game would use full body movements... not just your hands.

[BX81]

Wow!! surprising to see you with so little bubbles when you are clearly a droid! Sony's motion controls used exactly that...controls!! The natal used nothing other than the sensor! U fail as well did your statement. Thanks for your time.

[Sonyslave3]

MS is smart buy the tech so Sony and Nintendo can't use it for their system lol MS are evil.

[Raoh]

pretty much, MS is well known for buying out the competition and patents.

i'm surprised microsoft's biggest competitors havent learned that yet.

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

MS is probably avoiding what happened when they got sued for the rumble feature that affected Sony as well. In addition, ensuring your competitors have a harder time getting this important technology is just a bonus!!!

I'm not just talking about the likes of Sony for gaming, but consider Apple as well. This is likely to be released for PC's in the future for variety of applications.

[Mike134nl]

Microsoft has been sued so many times, they would be stupid if they haven't learned their lessons yet.

If you believe nadal really looks like eye toy expect Sony to sue them for everything they got.

Its very plausible that Microsoft has been working on nadal for a while now, since they where working on motion capturing with webcams for pc use, also not to forget microsoft surface which doesn't work with a touchscreen but with 5 (near infrared) camera's detecting motion.

As for all the eye toy sony comments, common people stop complaining and comparing to eye toy, really nadal isn't just a webcam.

[Godmars290]

Just like they developed the 360's CPU and rumble?

[Xi]

Which was the first DX10 ready card.

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

Nope, but they did create surface (the touch table) as well as create one of the most sophisticated piece of software on earth, Windows!

[SKUD]

Call me crazy but, I believe it. Total in house development.

[nightfallfilms]

Looks at comments, Sighs 7 comments and most by fanboys.

[Rob0g0rilla]

What were you expecting?

[condorstrike]

It's getting Sony-anoying in here already, it's like they're hunting down natal stories to try and convince themselves that the PS2, sorry PS3 eye toy is par with Natal, go back to playing with the cute monkey.

and they made fun of Nintendogs...LOL

[siliticx]

Wasnt it build on Z-Cam?

[Ps_alm3k]

with improvement!!!
............................

[SaberEdge]

Natal is on a whole different level. And if you don't see that you simply don't understand the technology.

[Socomer 1979]

Are 360 gamers really all about using thier whole body a controller?
First avatars now wiggle?
It's all I hear now from them.

This is so unreal to me. I wonder if it's because I'm old & the kids think I'm prehistoric now?
Seriously, way to much excitement for what I feel is history repeating itself with the nes power glove.
It's so silly now. Should I just stop reading game news now?

[pumpkinpunker]

Same old story. I've said it a million times--

Microsoft and Nintendo innovates.

Sony trails behind and imitates. That nervous Sony "waggle" E3 demonstration looked like it was hastily thrown together as a reaction to Natal. Bet they don't have a working prototype yet.

[Camb00]

Im sure sony fanboys wold be saying the same thing if sony's PC was before microsoft's and do you actually think that adults are that petty no thats just little children

Its all about marketing with xbox oh yeah yeah seen some pre shot footage annd thats cool but sony was live you could see it working like really working

[PopEmUp]

such as SONY imitate lips, and you in the movie lol Btw Natal seem awesome, this would change the gaming industry view, I hope SONY and Nintendo come up something new in the future, anyway this will benefit us consumers after all :D

[Cupid_Viper_3]

Guys once again, Stop coming in 360 ONLY threads and try to defend or show faults in MS related Stuff. neither(them or us) will never admit there's anything wrong with our system of preference so its pointless really, and as ps3 supporters, we lose face a little.

But again, on that note above, that PumpkinF*cker deserves to answer some serious question about Natal since apparently you dont need buttons.

1st, How would you do the Simplest thing with Natal such as WALKING,
Running and change directions while doing SO?

2nd, If we were both playing on our respective consoles, Im playing
GT5 using the latest force feedback wheel, and you're playing Forza 3 using Natal, who's going to have a better Experience out of the two? I get force feedback with vibration from the road, and you're playing with Air...

3. we're playing a FPS on our respective console, I use the Sony motion control, which should be equiped with Vibration and You're playing Halo using your bare hands as a weapon, who's going to get a better feel for the game?

4th, in 3d gaming, player can move his body and maintain the same camera view, how will Natal be able to discerne when to change the camera view and what you want to look at, or even more, how will you control the camera like you do with the analog sticks?

you can answer those questions for me, wise one.

Sony had the Eye toy since ps2, and after almost 8 years of hands on, they've decided that it needs buttons, because there are things that a gamer simply can't replicate standing in his living room, such as walking, running, superhuman jumps, double jumps, high kicks, flying kicks, feedback, superhuman speed for actions and precise combos, there are so many things that we just cant do, and only buttons can replace. especially the camera movements.

by the way, When Sony falls out of line, the majority of the Playstation fans let them know it, They took out rumble, we asked that they put it back. The ps3 was too expensive, we spoke with our wallets. we ignore it for th most part and instead buy a ps2, until price comes down. And and so much more.

[ApocalypseShadow]

guess both had two analog sticks on a controller...no wait.....

guess both had dualshock rumble before sony....no wait.....

guess both had dvd in their systems before sony....no wait......

guess both had ethernet port and hard drive options before sony...no wait..(OG ps2)

guess microsoft had hdmi from the start before sony...no wait...

guess microsoft got the idea for a high def video disc before sony before it failed miserably...no wait......

guess microsoft always thought of 1080p before sony mentioned it was built in and supported....no wait....

scene it,forza,lips,vision cam,ideas for music,movies,games and other digital content....microsoft surely came up with these ideas before sony did.....

surely microsoft didn't see this video a long time ago from sony...

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

nah...microsoft never saw that video.or this one last year from sony..

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

or this one from sony......

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

nah...microsoft didn't see this either to make the natal video with the girls and clothes....

microsoft obviously came up with these ideas on their own.

nope 2004 was when microsoft was thinking of releasing camera games for consoles
http://ps2.ign.com/articles...

hmmmmm.....2003...august....m icrosoft must have been in europe with a camera..

http://ps2.ign.com/articles...

sure pumpkin,keep lying to yourself.

apocalypse................... .

[jivah]

@ Apocalypse Shadow

um not 2 bust ya balls but ninty had rumble before sony..flashback of da n64 rumblepack ring any bells..yea thought i shud point dat out..

n who had first ethernet...cheap category!!..u shudve put first 2 get online..cuz in dat case it wud b dreamcast..or 2 b technical snes was da 1st wit online wit there 14kbps modem attachment

but overall ya points still proven..

Sony FTW

@ Cupid_Viper_3

yea we did ask 4 rumble but if u dive deep into it u wud c dat it was taken out 4 a reason...sony did not have da idea of takin out rumble..y wud dey??itll b crazy.. da ps3 didnt launch wit a dualshock3 cuz of law suit dat was goin on...dis lawsuit was settled wit i believe 80 million dat was forked over...after the case a done deal dey released rumble....hence y we got it late...but us begging is not y we got it...if it was like dat den sony wud give us voice messaging n xross Game invites

no beef no beef
lol =p

Edit... AK
umm dreamcast had a dial up port. 56K MAN!!!!!
but yea dey kinda established da idea

choochoo rocket....woohooo!!!

[AyeKay47]

Actually, the dreamcast had the idea of using DVD in their console first, sony stole that Idea. Sony stole the idea of the analoge stick from Nintendo, they just added another one. And sony stole the force feedback from nintendo, who had the rumble pack before sonys dual shock.

The dreamcast also had an ethernet port before sony.

[Elven6]

PopEmUp: Uhh, are you not familiar with Karaoke? I'm sure in Japan at least that their have been Karaoke games for consoles before Singstar. And Your in the Movies is a Codemasters game, Microsoft had no had in it's development.

[Mike134nl]

A lifespan cycle through 2015, is good news esspecially considering the short life span of the original xbox. Gues that could mean a new xbox 360 as late as 2015

[1983bailey]

sony & microsoft both had great conferences but i don't see how tracking to fixed points with the eye toy (i.e the big f||K off shiny balls on the end of the controllers) compare to tracking full body movements, this really will change the future way in which everyone interacts with technology both in industry, the home and in gaming. and this tech is so simple to use that its accessible to everyone.
how do you walk in real life, how do you get dressed in a morning, how do u shoot a gun simple you just do it same thing with tech if you want to walk in a game then walk on the spot already been noted that the feet have been used in need for speed demo to control accelerator & brakes with hand movements to control boost and gear change, use you imagination a little this relay is industry changing.