Microsoft's planned hands-free controller Project Natal, planned for Xbox 360, is going to go beyond the realm of consoles as well as video games, according to a new interview with corporation founder Bill Gates.
By the sounds of it, we can expect the new technology to be Windows-capable, and to come with all sorts of functions. It's not too far off, either -- Gates notes it will happen in just over a year.
"[It's] not just for games, but for media consumption as a whole," he reveals. "If they connect it up to Windows PCs for interacting in terms of meetings, and collaboration, and communication, you put the camera in now it's a cool thing, and it's just an example where Microsoft research did the original stuff to show, with the depth information, something great could be done. Then both the Xbox guys and the Windows guys latched onto that and now even since they latched onto it the idea of how it can be used in the office is getting much more concrete, and is pretty exciting."
Gates later comments they're already using it in the Microsoft office on a Windows PC -- the way they see it, the question is "why not?"
It's not clear whether or not Natal will be used for PC gaming, but we're assuming so. Anyone else dreaming of a top of the line projector screen, 7.1 sound, Natal-based setup, and playing Mirror's Edge 3?
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