Microsoft’s motion and emotion sensing “Project Natal” device will be “the largest leap of TV experience since the remote control”, at least in the opinion of the general manager of Xbox Live, Marc Whitten. Speaking at the Streaming Media Test show, Whitten says that he personally doesn’t “believe we are currently in the golden age of the television or the golden age of the game console or the golden age of the internet; frankly, five years from now I don’t know that you’ll be able to tell the difference between those worlds.”
Whitten says that Microsoft is looking for ways to make it easier for customers to find and share content as its own Xbox video delivery service continues to grow and grow, and notes that “It won’t be a remote control that consumers use… A remote control is already too hard.” That’s where Natal comes in, with Whitten believing that the technology will be able to recognise the user via appearance and voice and bring up content automatically that they are likely to be interested in viewing.
“The context is not one billion channels, but one,” he says. “One channel, with what I want, when I want it.” Whitten claims that Natal will eventually, and sooner than people may think, be able to bring about a media world where “With the flick of my wrist I can change a channel. With the power of my voice I can start a movie.”
