Thought Microsoft had come up with Project Natal for Xbox 360 all by themselves? Not a chance; the company has pulled back the curtain and it turns out the 3D optical-tracking wizard is actually PrimeSense, whosePrimeSensor system the Xbox 360 engineering team adapted for Microsoft’s gaming needs.
“The Reference Design generates realtime depth, color and audio data of the living room scene. It works in all room lighting conditions (whether in complete darkness or in a fully lit room). It does not require the user to wear or hold anything, does not require calibration and does not require computational resources from the host’s processor” PrimeSense
Inside Project Natal – and the PrimeSensor reference design – is PrimeSense’s PS1080 SoC, with an integrated USB 2.0 controller, and takes infrared input from the standard CMOS sensor, together with audio, and processes it on-chip rather than relying on the console’s CPU. The image analysed is VGA 640 x 480 resolution at 60fps, and according to the technical specs will track people between 0.8m and 3.5m away.
Of course there’s no telling how much modification the Xbox team made, nor how long – if at all – Microsoft have any exclusive on the PrimeSense system. There’s also still no specific release dates, beyond the existing “holiday 2010″ window and the promise that Natal will make its world premiere on June 13th at E3 2010.
