Microsoft: ‘Natal can replace remote’
Creepy or Clever? You decide.Published 30/11/2009 at 17:00 by Tuffcub
Crytek UK Trademark “Self Defense” [14]
Codemasters: No Motion Control [18]
Developer: Move Is Better Than Natal [40]
Marc Whitten, the general manager responsible for Microsoft’s Xbox Live service, has been talking at the Streaming Media West show in America and described how Natal is going to replace your remote control.
“With the flick of my wrist I can change a channel,” he said, “With the power of my voice I can start a movie.”
As we all know, Skynet is going to be made up of a super-brain cluster of networked PS3s controlling the U.S. Military. Xbox and Natal are making their own bid for world domination but instead of taking over missile silos to rain death from above, they will take over your living room.
“Watching a movie is a passive input, but a TV should understand what you’re trying to do,” Whitten added. “Laughter is an input, yelling at the TV when I know an answer on ‘Jeopardy’ is an input. Attention is an input. The number of people in the room at one time is an input.”
According to Whitten in the future Natal will identify the users in the room by their voices. Knowing the identity of the users and their specific entertainment preferences, Natal will automatically offer up a variety of games and media suitable for those present.
Personally this sounds all a bit too creepy for my liking, I don’t want my games console spying on me. Imagine if you and your partner were feeling rather frisky – will Natal recognise the “ooh” and “ahhs” and Clippy from MS Office will pop up on screen saying “I see you’re about to have sex – would you like some porn?”
Source: Yahoo Tech
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
52pickup | 30/11/2009 17:05
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“With the power of my voice I can start a movie.”
I presume, vocal commands will extend to many other uses like volume and changing channels etc… So what if you have a chatty missus (the type who talks through movies, and she happens to say the word “stop”, and it switches the movie off). That would be a pain in the well… you know!
theshockwave | 30/11/2009 17:09
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Oh yeah, and that too. If it recognises your voice and you talk while watching TV, even if you say something random, it will try to do something (ie change the volume or something).
Then again, it may be very, very clever and have ways around this.
Raen | 30/11/2009 17:15
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Something as simple as needing a prefix would stop this. For example saying “360 Stop” rather than just “Stop”.
theshockwave | 30/11/2009 17:20
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So what about the movements? You just flick your wrist and the channel changes. Do you need a prefix for that? Because then, pedantically, it isn’t just flicking your wrist.
Tuffcub | 30/11/2009 17:42
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You could probably flick through all 800 channels on Sky if you.. *ahem*
Raen | 30/11/2009 21:39
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I would imagine it’ll be similar to the gestures that are becoming common on touch screens where it’s not something you could easily do by mistake.
theshockwave | 30/11/2009 17:07
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Haha, great article, love the final paragraph.
The idea is a cool one, but ‘with the flick of my wrist I can change a channel’, lovely, but I can just as easily press a button on a remote. It really isn’t strenuous to use a remote.
DeforMAKulizer | 30/11/2009 17:11
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I agree… I mean my grandma learnt how to control the remote… So it isn’t tough nor tiring..
But that final sentence is LOL material!
Raen | 30/11/2009 17:16
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True, but I loose my remote all the time
Sting_HP | 30/11/2009 18:15
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The dreaded couch monster that is related to the dryer monster.
Dexter17 | 30/11/2009 17:12
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Clever or Creepy?
Creepy. Oh so creepy.
colmshan1990 | 30/11/2009 17:20
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It’s creepy and clever. Just like the neighbourhood pervert. You know he’s out there, with his MW2 goggles, but can you find him?
TheShepanator | 30/11/2009 19:09
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Your making me paranoid… whos that in the bush!?
tantalus_blank | 01/12/2009 14:24
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I loled
RadioactiveMouse | 30/11/2009 17:19
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If Microsoft are so good at all the things that Natal is meant to contain why haven’t we seen this in their current software. I think that vocal commands are great but pointless in the grand scheme of things. I have taught all the people who live in my house to be able to play a DVD/Blu-Ray and none of them struggle with a control/controller.
It’s all well and good having ambitious plans for Natal but Microsoft should realise if they don’t deliver there will be hell to pay with the consumers who will wondering what all of that development time was for
colmshan1990 | 30/11/2009 17:23
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If you don’t already have a 360 remote it would be good. I know my parents couldn’t work the PS3’s Blu-ray until I got the remote. No matter what I told them, they kept accidentally pushing the shoulder buttons or the analog sticks. Very frustrating for them and me, as you can imagine.
Raen | 30/11/2009 21:42
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The reason you don’t see it in current software is that a) the camera is hardware, so of course it won’t be in software and b) the voice recognition is either partly hardware based/hardware accelerated and therefore can’t just be bolted on or they want to save it all for Natal so it’s not a lot of ‘old tech’ bolted together. Well less so than it is now. Bill Gates has already hinted that Natal will be coming to the PC anyway, so that may well be why they’re not just adding it to Office.
seedaripper1973 | 30/11/2009 17:23
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Cant think of anything witty to say (for once eh lads…eh…lads?) oh ok i’ll sod off then…
Kevling | 30/11/2009 17:31
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This all sounds like the stuff Sony were coming out with when the original EyeToy came out. They said things like “the next Playstation will have Eye Toy built in to the console, and it will be able to recognise the expression on your face to see if you are enjoying the game or not, and change the difficulty accordingly”.
Bobbins.
theshockwave | 30/11/2009 17:34
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To be fair, that was last generation. Technology has moved on since then.
Kevling | 30/11/2009 17:38
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True, but it’s the same sort of “pie in the sky” marketing hyperbole – “our new toy is so fantastic it will do X Y and Z, whilst making a cup of tea with one arm tied behind it’s back” – then when you get it, all it can do is fart in a teacup.
colmshan1990 | 30/11/2009 17:40
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I know people who would pay good money to see a 360 fart into a teacup.
carlosfilippsen | 30/11/2009 17:36
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haha last paragraph made me LOL
Danlord | 30/11/2009 17:52
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The comments made me laugh so much I actually thought of a mock advert Sony could do to take the p*** out of them.
“The New Motion Sensor , you ARE the controller – scratch your armpit to turn the volume up, pick your nose to turn subtitles on, and scratch your crotch to fast forward to the next chapter”.
Will it balls replace the remote, Microsoft have very little for Xbox 360 next year and they’re going to put too much into Natal and I think it might flop, I can’t see it taking off as much as the hype may be letting on.
hazelam | 30/11/2009 19:05
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i can see it now, you pick your nose and it switches to a porn channel
Danlord | 30/11/2009 19:08
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I’d hate it if someone sneezed and it changed the audio language to Arabic or something
hazelam | 30/11/2009 19:20
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like that episode of friends where the monkey set their tv to spanish.
Danlord | 30/11/2009 19:48
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Gotta love Marcel
hazelam | 30/11/2009 19:53
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in the jungle the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight.
oooooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo wimamumoooaaa
TheShepanator | 30/11/2009 19:12
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Does this mean we have to sit perfectly still all of the time to avoid chaning channel from our, “interesting” viewing choices. It may be a problem watching what I want to without moving my hands…
hazelam | 30/11/2009 19:23
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that reminds me of a book or comic i read, where every tv monitors your eyes to see where you’re looking and changes the channel every time you get bored or something like that.
can’t remember if it was a book or comic or tv show, could have been a movie, can’t remember where.
BIGAL-1992 | 30/11/2009 20:07
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I’m starting to get bored of this chest-beating from Microsoft and Sony. Does anyone else agree?
Danlord | 30/11/2009 20:31
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What do you mean by Chest-beating?
BlingOnMyWrist | 30/11/2009 21:02
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Hahahahahahaah! Oh my god I actually laughed out loud at that. Tuffcub is officially my #1 favorite TSA member.
nofi | 30/11/2009 21:05
Wants a custom tag.
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Mine too. =)
Tuffcub | 01/12/2009 08:47
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Does that mean I get more biscuits?
Imaruler | 30/11/2009 21:59
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The last paragraph is creepy.
skibadee | 30/11/2009 23:12
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I’m not sold on natal yet.
bunimomike | 30/11/2009 23:44
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Tuffcub “Hi Natal, can we watch a film?”Natal “Of course, Tuffcub. Would you like to carry on where you left off with you and New User from last night?”
Mrs Tuffcub “Who the fuck is New User?”
Tuffcub “Natal, could you call me an ambulance as soon as possible”
C_S15 | 01/12/2009 00:29
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I don’t think Mr Tuffcub will quite like being called a Mrs….
bunimomike | 01/12/2009 00:30
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I was implying his current lady would be Mrs Tuffcub and she would want to know about “New User”.
cc_star | 01/12/2009 00:51
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Errm
bunimomike | 01/12/2009 01:30
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I give up! My strange sense of humour isn’t working tonight/this morning. *returns to Clown College*
Tuffcub | 01/12/2009 08:46
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Mr Bunion : There are two Mr Tuffcubs, and no Mrs Tuffcub. Get the idea now?
bunimomike | 01/12/2009 09:43
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Gender aside, you know what I mean.
There’s smart technology and then there’s “being too clever for itself” technology. If MS are sensible, Natal has the chance of being implemented well and supported by developers. If MS take full advantage we might see it revolutionise how we interact with our hardware. I know I’m preaching to the converted but if they just all learn to push things from our perspective (instead of the hardware) we’ll all be very happy… now and in the future.