Kinect: What You Need to Know

For Microsoft, E3 2010 was an opportunity to name and reveal the final version of its take on motion controls. It's called Kinect (formerly Project Natal), and unlike the motion-control system from Nintendo and Sony, it doesn't use any sort of controller. The Kinect camera technology detects and tracks your full body and corresponding movements, so when players swing their hands or kick their feet, the games that support Kinect read these movements and translate them into in-game actions. For example, in the game Kinect Adventures, you physically have to lean left or right to guide a raft down the roaring rapids of a river. In the bowling game found in Kinect Sports, players simply perform the bowling motion as they would in real life and Kinect will do the rest.

The Kinect has a self-contained camera and microphone.

What makes Kinect even more interesting is that its functionality extends beyond games and into the Xbox 360 dashboard. Kinect users can tell the Xbox 360 (thanks to a built-in microphone in Kinect) to perform various actions, whether it's pausing a movie or initiating a video chat with a friend. Additionally, users can navigate through menus by simply placing their hand in the air to a corresponding object onscreen.

Of course, with the motion-control systems found on the Wii and PlayStation 3, there's some calibration involved. With Kinect, we've seen games where players are prompted to stand in a specific spot for a few seconds while the camera retrieves general information about your position, but in a lot of cases, we've also seen players jump in and out instantly without the need for the camera to stop gameplay for calibration reasons.

Kinect is currently scheduled for release on November 4, 2010, in North America with a worldwide release before the end of the year, but neither an official price nor bundle options have been announced. Be sure to check out the highlights of GameSpot's E3 2010 Kinect coverage by following the links below.