Kidzworld's Official Blog

Put your faith in Microsoft, they are serious about entertaining you. Their motion tracking technology, Project Natal, is aiming to go up and beyond the Wii. It has voice and face recognition and detects motion with nothing else other than a camera placed in front of the TV. There is no Wiimote, no wand, and no strange infrared LED glasses.

It is almost too good to be true and many gamers are following the entire thing with a healthy amount of skepticism. Afterall, the when the Wii first came out, it was toting near 1 to 1 movement tracking and is anything but that.

However, it has been revealed recently that Johnny Chung Lee, a TED speaker and Wii hacking enthusiast, has been hired by Microsoft to be a part of the team working on Project Natal. Of course, he is but a small part of a talented team, but he does bring ten years worth of interfacing and sensing technology experience with him, as well as a certain level of ingenuity.

Lee no doubt has had some school winning science fair projects of his own in the past. Using infrared LEDs, some Wiimotes, and his bluetooth enabled laptop, he has been able to create cheap electronic whiteboards and a head tracking program. So impressive was his work that Steven Spielberg wanted to put head tracking in the then upcoming game, Boom Blox.

The video games previewed for Project Natal are very impressive, like Milo and Kate’s life-like AI. We will have to put our trust in Johnny and hope that it can deliver everything it promises to.

Project Natal was first revealed during E3 2009. To see other big announcements that went on during the event, visit our safe kids website.

E3 2009 was a resounding success in everyone’s mind. While previously downsized for various reasons, it has now fully returned to its former glory, much to the excitement of gamers everywhere.

However, it is important to calm down and sit away from the edge of your seat. After all, the vast majority of the really cool stuff shown at E3 this year won’t be released before the new year. And that’s not including the delays and other complications that games are heir to.

During the Nintendo press conference, many games were announced, but of the video games previewed, those that we can expect this year are: Super Mario Bros Wii, Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Wii Fit Plus, and Mario and Luigi DS. These are the only upcoming games that we can hope for before Christmas. (Gift ideas guide: lots of great games come out around Christmas, so keep a close eye on them if there is a gamer on your list!)

Super Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid: Other M, Golden Sun, and the mysterious Zelda Wii game are far off in the distant future and will probably get a reprised role at E3 2010. Remember that Nintendo is nefarious for delaying game releases, so curb your enthusiasm even more regarding Big N first party games.

As for the motion capturing trend that was demoed this year, Sony is hoping to bring it to store shelves by next year while Microsoft has yet to even release a projected date (but it can be assumed to be sooner than Sony as their presentation featured a nearer-to-completion demo). At the very least, as far as hardware goes, we can expect to see the PSP Go this year.

While all the announcements are very exciting, it is important to not burn yourself out and become desensitized to the hype surrounding these products. After all, you will want to save some of that giddiness for when you actually have the product in your hand.

Be sure to check our safe kids website for our video games guide to third party games shown at E3 2009.