At the bottom it says : "Product vision. Actual features may vary." or something similar to that.
If Microsoft has a 2D camera that estimates 3D data, that's not the same thing. In practice if you want accurate 3d data you need a 3d range finder, a piece of hardware that returns 3d vectors directly, based on lasers and what not.
Trust me I would like nothing more then to be able to purchase a REAL 3d range finder for $200. I have a lot of ideas personally that could benefit from a $200 range finder. If Microsoft could somehow make it happen with some crazy economics of scale or
whatever the hell that would be amazing, but the fact of the matter is right now they cost thousands of dollars. That would be a massive drop in price. Seems almost unrealistic.
It seems like you think know everything, except you choose to ignore the technology in Project Natal. Why would you do that? Instead of aguing with me about it and stating as fact that it does not contain a 3D camera, why don't you do the basic research?
You bothered to post a reply here, why not also do a quick search on the subject to get more up to speed?
I realize you are very anti-MS, but that is no reason to be in denial about the technology in Project Natal. It doesn't take much searching to find all sorts of information about the camera technology in Natal, which proves you 100% wrong.
Since you refuse to do that little bit of reaserch, I'll do it for you, and hopefully you will stop being in denial.
"The 3D sensor itself is a pretty incredible piece of equipment providing detailed 3D information about the environment similar to very expensive laser range finding systems but at a tiny fraction of the cost. Depth cameras provide you with a point cloud
of the surface of objects that is fairly insensitive to various lighting conditions allowing you to do things that are simply impossible with a normal camera.
But once you have the 3D information, you then have to interpret that cloud of points as "people". This is where the researcher jaws stay dropped. The human tracking algorithms that the teams have developed are well ahead of the state of the art in computer
vision in this domain. The sophistication and performance of the algorithms rival or exceed anything that I've seen in academic research, never mind a consumer product."
"The device features an "RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone, and custom processor running proprietary software", which provides full-body 3D motion capture, facial recognition, and voice recognition capabilities. The Project Natal sensor's
microphone array enables the Xbox 360 to conduct acoustic source localization and ambient noise suppression, allowing for things such as headset-free party chat over Xbox Live.
The depth sensor consists of an infrared projector combined with a monochrome CMOS sensor, and allows the Project Natal sensor to see in 3D under any ambient light conditions. The active depth-sensing range of the depth sensor is adjustable, with the
Project Natal software capable of automatically calibrating the sensor based on the gameplay and environment conditions, such as the presence of couches."
This link shows a video demo of the depth camera that was created by 3DV Systems, which is the company MS bought to get the hardware for Project Natal. BTW, research into Project Natal was going on years before they bought 3DV Systems. It is much more than
just the 3D camera.
An interview with Shane Kim, corporate vice president for strategy and business development at Microsoft’s game division:
"It uses an RGB camera (image sensor), a 3-D depth camera (which determines how far away an object is from the camera), and a multi-array microphone."