The beginning of the next big thing?

Last year at the games industry exhibition E3 Microsoft revealed its new direction for gaming technology on the Xbox 360 platform in Project Natal. Now in 2010 Natal is nearly ready for release to the public with the announcement last week at CES in Las Vegas that it will be on sale late this year.

Natal is a new technology that uses infrared light to scan and track gamers in front of their screen allowing them to control the on-screen action through motion and voice control only. The system is designed to push past the perceived “barrier” of current game controllers and allow users to interact with games more completely.

Depending on the associated costs, and even more importantly the games supporting it, it’s possible to see a high level of demand for the technology that will help to create a truly immersive experience. Added to this is the beginning of the push towards 3D television that has also been announced and it appears that we are at the beginning of the next big push of home entertainment technology.

It will be interesting to see how quickly these technologies are adapted to the internet. How long will it be before “surfing the web” becomes a virtual reality – with the display of virtual data and the visual layout of the internet being customised to suit a user’s preferences? How long before the technology progresses to the point where the world really is in the Matrix?