GestureTek. Project Natal not so new?

GestureTek's 3D depth tracking and control system uses depth sensing cameras to track full body movement and hand gestures in 3D space.

[Bot Smasha]

Its a laggy rip off of the eye toy , it shows those buffoons at M$ cant think of anything original.

[bennyace]

It's a Wiimote rip off. And the N64 came up with the rumble pack and then Sony released the feature on their PS1 controller. Get over it everybody copies everybody.

[nogolis]

The eye toy has been doing this for how long now? That Aqarium game or the PSN did what natal does to a T and it cost like 2 bucks.

[Microsoft Xbox 360]

Of course it's nothing new. We've seen this kind of tech way before the announcement of Natal. It's only new because MS is doing it.

[Bigpappy]

The 3D motion camera tech was around before Natal. 3DV with the Z-camera was a pioneer of the tech and was shown demo'ing the tech on PS2. Lots of PS fans still thing the demo was done with the Eyetoy. Anyway, MS bought out that company last year. This video, shown here, was posted a few months before that deal when public, but there are other companies that are working with the tech. 3D cameras are used on some high end cars like the Lexus, have been for a few year now, to give info of the surroundings to hep with backing up and what not. Sony had nothing to do with the Z-cam though, that tech was developed by 3DV in Israel. Natal is a bit different in design because it uses to cameras instead of the Z-cam's one camera and inferred sensor. Natal also uses M$ proprietory software with customized gestures and voice recognition. We will soon know what Natal can really do. I know for sure M$ is not the only company working on the tech. I they are successful with it, expect to see different versions of it on the market with in a year. M$ though are the ones who are spear heading the tech in the general public and gaming industry. They are the ones taking the big financial risk with the tech to try and bring it mainstream. I appreciate that effort.

[Saaking]

PS3 Motion Control = Upgraded Wii mote

Natal= Upgraded PSeye.

It's really that simple.

[JokesOnYou]

So now, ps3 extremists with duplicate accounts go trolling Youtube, have no source article, create a Natal headline+? and post it as news= approved of course.

I wonder what would happen if >>I<< went trolling Youtube, nah who am I kidding, doubt I could find anything to question sony in a "slightly" negative light, and if I did, its unlikely that I could think of a creative headline questioning how great all of sony idea's and motives are....if I was to be so brilliant/lucky no doubt it would be approved on n4g, right?

OK, good job so now you have exposed micro's dirty little secret, "OMG micro didn't invent full body motion tracking!" those evil bastards had us ALL fooled all this time. Well now that micro has been busted, no need to go ahead with plans for Natal, nobody likes a company using existing tech/idea's, improving on past failures and pushing things beyond whats been done before. 'meh, who would want a company to do that? So what's all this "un-deserved" interest and excitement from media, developers and GAMERS about? pfft, the haters no best.

hmmm, I starting to think those f#$&'s are lying about being the creators of the wheel too. Oh the lies!....Oh the EVIL!...OMG micro has destroyed gaming! /I hope that makes you feel better "Microsoft Xbox 360" lol

JOY

[OmarJA-N4G]

What the hell is Natal?

[sikbeta]

xbox crew can say whatever they want about natal, but Spielberg came first with Minority Report @_@

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

:P

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

PS Eye got their technology again from GestureTek:

"GestureTek's patents and software for motion-controlled gaming have been licensed by companies including Sony for the PlayStation EyeToy, Microsoft for the Xbox 360 Live Camera, Hasbro's PlaySkool for the ION Educational Gaming System, and Japanese wireless operator NTT DoCoMo for gesture-controlled mobile games."

source: http://www.gamasutra.com/ne...

[Bigpappy]

PSeye is not a "3D" camera.

[Saaking]

@Bigpappy

Exactly which is why I said it's an >Upgraded< PSeye.

Just like the PS wand is an >upgraded< Wii mote.

[lightningsax]

Here's one dude that's backing you up on your comment. It was markedly non-fanboyish and a pretty simple explanation.

PS3 is taking the Wii Motion Plus idea and making it much more precise and a heck of a lot of fun.

Natal is tech that is advanced beyond the PSEye, adding much more depth, as evidenced by the work that the Tel Aviv company did before Microsoft bought them. It's an improvement on the PSEye idea, and it's a way to bring primitive mo-cap into the home, which is neat!

Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to both of these. I'm happy that I won't have to go out and get a PS3 to experience their motion controller, since I've got one, but *if* Natal is supported by great games and I get the job I'm pursuing, I'll be getting myself another console. I'd much rather experience as many great games as possible than pick a side on this one. This is going to be an interesting year for making gestures at your TV!

[Oner]

This is nothing new. It has been proven time and time again. The PS Eyetoy has been shown to be used with a controller interface LONG before the Wii or the Wii motion Plus & DEFINITELY before Natal! If you want to be informed accurately here are some more videos showing it

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

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

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

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

An article about it

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

And a bit of key info from the Wiki ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

"The EyeToy was conceived by Richard Marks in 1999, after witnessing a demonstration of the PlayStation 2 at the 1999 Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California.[3] Marks's idea was to enable natural user interface and mixed reality video game applications using an inexpensive webcam, using the computational power of the PlayStation 2 to ****implement computer vision and gesture recognition technologies.****"

That's over 10 years ago. And with the interaction of a controller about 8 years ago. The info is out there people and easily enough to find, verify and confirm for yourselves.

[NewZealander]

it may not be new, but its new to people who play consoles at home, just imagine how far its come, i personally think its a great idea, and i dont see how its anything like the eyetoy, i dont have to look at myself on the screen and natal works in a 3d space, eyetoy was just for mini games and didnt get alot of support.

natal may not be the hit that MS wants it to be, but i believe in waiting till the product is out before counting it out.

[THE MAX SPEED 21]

Of Course natal is not new. MS just bought the 3DV(or sumthing like that) Conpany that Was working on the device and renamed it NATAL. that's about it.

[ApocalypseShadow]

microsoft bought the company they saw sony working with and wanted to get those patents.cornered the market with prime sense too.

(7:24)
http://www.google.com/url?s...

http://www.google.com/url?s...

but nothing new.

[THE MAX SPEED 21]

I remember those videos.They even have the Block game.

[40cal]

Yep, I remember seeing that video a long while ago, good stuff. So no Natal is not "new" and yes Sony has been playing around with it for quite some time.

[n4gn4gn4gn4g]

to find out that MS buys up someone else's tech and pawns it off as revolutionary.

/s

[lightningsax]

Dude, that's how business works. It's a little sad that inventors don't get all the credit, but big guys buy little guys' ideas, and the little guys get some cash out of the deal.

Microsoft's role in all this isn't inventing the technology. As you all pointed out, it had been done, and MS put more money forward than Sony to make this happen. Their role is to get support from game creators and have games come out for Natal.

Use this barometer: if the games stink, it's Microsoft's fault. If the games are great, it's Microsoft's fault. It's also Microsoft's fault if Natal itself doesn't work, due to their monetary investment in the idea, their PR campaign to get it sold, and their modifications to the product.

However, it's silly to argue that Natal wasn't completely their idea. They know that - it's not even an argument. If you really want to argue, focus on the outcome: Is the target audience just casuals? Are the games great, or are they another Tony Hawk Ride debacle? Is it worth the price? These will be the questions to look out for.

[KillerPwned]

When you look into Microsoft`s dark ways of the business in any type of tech its pretty sadly shallow.

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

Not to act like a 360 fanboy or anything but everything shown in this video was only demonstrated about 2 days ago at the CES 2010, so Natal in some ways is still new because these guys demonstrated their technology 2 days ago whereas Microsoft demonstrated Natal about 6 months ago.

Just because I'm a PS3 fan doesn't mean I stop being logical and become illogical.

[40cal]

You should watch this
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Its 5+ years old.

[heylo]

Lies all lies!! Microsoft never copies the ideas of others
/s

[kewlkat007]

they will sue and make money. That's how it works in U.S. Besides technology building on others ideas or being used in a differnt manner. Patents will tell the story.

[Kushan]

Define "nothing new". There hasn't been a games console that has this kind of technology on it before, so its new to that field. In the same way that touch screens have been around for years, but the DS was the first to make it part of a games console. Even Wiimote like controls have been around for years and years, it just so happens that Nintendo were the first to do it on consoles.
Natal, or at least the concept behind it, is definitely nothing new and although the PSEye has done similar things, Natal is the first to do it in 3D on a games console, at least as a released product when it comes out (I believe there were some PS2 tech demos showing something similar).

Suffice to say, although this video is kind of similar, its clear that Microsoft's implimentation is better. Watch closely, the people in the video always seem to use very clear arm movements. They never obscure their arms in any way, presumably because the software couldn't cope (whereas Natal's can).

Anyway, its true what they say - originality is dead. Microsoft will blatantly rip stuff off, yes, but so will both Sony and Nintendo (Trophies? Obviously an Achievement rip-off - but its a GOOD thing because we all love them). And Apple and just about every other business out there.
If it means, at the end of the day, that I get better games or a better console, I'm all for it.

[djreplay]

I don't think Natal will be the second coming like Greenberg keeps saying, the only people that buy up these things are fat b!tches thinking they will shift 5 stone in 5 minutes. Besides it's gonna cost a bomb unless you retards think it will be £99, more like £299. This is Micro$oft we are talking about.

[mac4u10]

I think Sony motion controls will be much more cheaper than Natal because half of the requirements for it has already been out for years, im definitely looking forward for it.

[bujasem_89]

Eye toy anyone???

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

Yo I know Natal is outdated but I was just speaking on behalf of what's shown in this video in this article. The guy who posted this article says Natal is outdated because of what was shown in that video (which was demonstrated at the CES 2010 2 days ago) but the truth is Natal has been out of date since 2005 (according to the video you posted)

But I totally agree that Natal is outdated.

Anyway's check out this vid http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Ingram]

"On April 25, 2007, Sony announced the PlayStation Eye. This is an updated version of the PlayStation 2 peripheral, the EyeToy. The camera is capable of capturing 60 frames per second video at 640×480 resolution and 120 frame/s video at 320×240 resolution. The four-channel microphone on the Eye can block out background noise. The camera will support live video chat and voice chat without a headset, and will be launched in the United States on October 23 for US$39.99"

The only thing required to top natal by doing depth capture is stucking 2 Playstation Eyes together and even then it would capture @60Fps, not 30.

[bligmerk]

The fact of history is that Sony was looking at the 3DV camera system over 5 years ago with the PS2. There is a video up on Youtube of Dr. Richard Mark, the guy behind the Eyetoy giving a presentation on it from 5 years ago. Take this in conjunction with what Sony said during E309. They had evaluated just strictly visual cues, even with depth, and found them unsuitable, so that is why they went to a physical wand controller in combination with a video camera.

MS is saying Natal has nothing to do with 3DV. And yet, they felt the need to buy out the company, then squash it. Some may have seen the news that MS bought out 3DV but very few noticed the follow up news right after the buy out and MS fired almost everybody in the company.

Now, since MS says Natal is new, then it must be new. You have been given your marching orders. Follow them like good, obedient zombies.