E3 2009: Microsoft Execs: Natal is Not Derived from 3DV

Submitter: Starlight - (http://www.eurogamer.net)

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Category: XBox 360

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.

Following the announcement at the platform holder's E3 conference on Monday, many assumed that Natal's technology and 3DV's (seen in late 2007 prior to the company's acquisition) were one and the same, but Kim told VentureBeat, "At Microsoft Research, we have had a lot of working going on for a long time."

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

"None of those rumors did justice to what we were actually doing with Project Natal. People expected a controller you put in your hands," Kim said to VentureBeat.

"We have done a lot of work in natural user interfaces. Voice recognition is one of them. That's why we have been able to deliver development kits for it this week."

Microsoft hasn't gone it completely alone though, as Kim admitted "it's a combination of partners and our own software", and some have theorised that acquisitions like 3DV's were designed to insure the company against similar patents.

"You have to be very aware," Kim said. "We want to ensure that we have great intellectual property protection. You have to have a strong legal approach, and this is not easy stuff. It has to be all buttoned up, legally. We have had a very concerted focus on this."

Elsewhere in the interview, Kim implied that Natal was as good as a new console anyway. "We firmly believe that the Xbox 360 has a life cycle through 2015," he said when asked about future plans for Xbox.

Posted 170 days ago

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By GZA1984 on 24 weeks ago:

Impressive piece of hardware, but... From all the words Microsoft could pick they choose Natal?

I mean in portuguese this word means Christmas. Why would you call a piece of hardware "Christmas". I wonder what Microsoft's connection is with all these latin derrived words nowadays.

First Vista (means Sight in portuguese) and now Natal...

By effbee on 24 weeks ago:

I hope Natal (nah-tall) isn't going to be it's retail name, maybe call it Big Brother and see how that will affect sales.

By tekken57 on 24 weeks ago:

Natal is the name of the province I live in here in South Africa. Google Kwa Zulu Natal to see what I mean. Strange name indeed. :lol: