Year: 2010
Project Natal: Innovation or Illusion?
Innovative technology has earned the current generation the name “Generation Y” through creativity and technological advances that have reinvented how people live; one of the newest contributions is called Project Natal.
Gaming is something that people have always held dear; previous generations entertained themselves with cards, chess pieces, board games, etc.
With the technological surge and creativity of the last few decades, game designers are able to create video games that are astonishingly life-like and visually impressive.
Microsoft has always been at the helm when it comes to breakthrough computer technology.
Project Natal is an attempt to close the bridge between human and computer interaction, meaning that the individual playing the game has the opportunity to feel as if they are actually the character on the screen.
“Not everyone will get into it right away, it’s going to need time before it takes off,” said GameStop employee Ian Silverman. Silverman has been playing video games since the age of five; he has been a video game tester and is currently going to Devry for game simulation programming.
The question that seems to be most appropriate is: Is Project Natal innovation or illusion?
The visionary
minds of Microsoft are impossible to contact for information regarding their coveted Natal. However, they have a webpage dedicated to the project where people can view videos of the project that was unveiled at the gaming convention “E3” back in June 2009.
Michael Zyda, the director of USC’s Gamepipe Laboratory and creator of their game and game development programs, stated when regarding Natal, “I love the notion of a camera looking at me, however I have a scientific responsibility that tells me that we built the language that allows the computer to do what it does.”
The Xbox system has been relatively successful in holding its own with Nintendo, who has been the bully of gaming platforms for the last couple of decades, and also with Sony whose Bluray wielding Playstation 3 has been extremely well met.
It is no wonder why Xbox seems to regard its Project Natal as their new golden ticket, revealing what it is able to do but concealing how it is able to do what it does and why it is able to do it.
Nintendo already has a motion controller with its Wii system and PS3 is coming out with motion controllers. Xbox will counter with its Natal boasting no need for controllers.
Xbox makes it seem like natal is capable of all kinds of things including the ability of the camera to scan and recognize certain materials in the real world and portray them on the screen.
Cognizant thought for a machine is impossible as of right now. “It has to give you the illusion of intelligence,” said Zyda. On the Xbox.com website, they would have the viewer believe that it is possible for the machine to interact with the gamer. This part is true if and only if both the computer and the individual playing the game understand that part of the programming. For example, there is a demo for a role playing game called Fable 3 on Xbox.com that shows a gamer having a conversation with a character created in the game. It seems like there is full interaction and understanding between the gamer and the character in the game. This is true if the gamer talks about scenarios in the game’s programming. If the gamer were to talk about something outside of the game’s programming, communication between both game and gamer are lost.
Project Natal has some very interesting and exciting abilities, including video chat and controller free gaming. Other abilities include the individual’s ability to sit on their couch and drive a racecar merely by holding out their hands and grasping an imaginary wheel, or by flipping through their Netflix queue by the wave of a hand.
Gaming has taken leaps and bounds from its pixilated cousins of yesterday. Human imagination coupled with computer technology has made many things that were once thought impossible, possible.
Farm welcomes newborn goats
Every year the animals at the Pierce College farm give birth. This year about 30 goats have been born and will be used to help the Agriculture Department students get the hands-on experience they need.