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Bill Gates on Project Natal and Windows

Andrew Fairbairn   on 15 July 2009 - 20:48 · 31 comments & 7490 views

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Project Natal was unveiled as a revolutionary new gesture-based controller for the Xbox 360 during this year's E3 games expo, but while you may be looking forward to using it to control games in your living room it could also find its way into your office, according to Bill Gates.

In an interview with CNET News, the Microsoft chairman and former CEO Bill Gates revealed that the company is looking at ways of using the Project Natal hardware with Windows PCs through the same "software libraries and applications." The ideas started in Microsoft Research, which is the "crown jewel in terms of always feeding neat new things into Microsoft" in the eyes of Gates. "A cool example of that, that you'll see is kind of stunning, in a little over a year, is this (depth-sensing) camera thing... Not just for games, but for media consumption as a whole."

"It's just an example where Microsoft research did the original stuff to show, with the depth information, something great could be done. Then both the Xbox guys and the Windows guys latched onto that and now even since they latched onto it the idea of how it can be used in the office is getting much more concrete, and is pretty exciting," Gates explained, showing how concepts developed in the labs can make their way into commercial products and onto the shelves. "[C]onnect it up to Windows PCs for interacting in terms of meetings, and collaboration, and communication."

Gates indicated that the technology and its uses showed a lot of promise, for both home entertainment and the workplace. "I think the value is as great for if you're in the home, as you want to manage your movies, music, home system type stuff, it's very cool there. And I think there's incredible value as we use that in the office connected to a Windows PC. So Microsoft research and the product groups have a lot going on there, because you can use the cost reduction that will take place over the years to say, 'Why shouldn't that be in most office environments?'"

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(1 reply) #1 Avee on 15 Jul 2009 - 20:59
yh yh yh Bill Gates.. this rocks!
#1.1 excalpius on 15 Jul 2009 - 22:20
I want this on my multimonitor, surrounds me on all sides, desktop NOW! Oh yes!
(2 replies) #2 andrewbares on 15 Jul 2009 - 21:00
Yea, read the full interview over at CNET. Bill Gates is doing soo much for the world, for students, for everything. He's a great person.
#2.1 BoneyardBrew on 15 Jul 2009 - 22:11
Yeah, the amount of money he donates to charities and other organizations is amazing. He is a great person indeed.
#2.2 AnthoWin on 16 Jul 2009 - 04:16
he is, I don't hear other CEOs giving so much time and effort into these causes, or at least publicly.
#3 Ms-7 on 15 Jul 2009 - 21:01
rockzzzzzzz
(2 replies) #4 +majortom1981 on 15 Jul 2009 - 21:02
What does he mean that Microsoft research did the original stuff? There are other companies that do this type of stuff (other then the one they bought out)

Example http://www.gesturetek.com/aboutus/corporatebackground.php
#4.1 excalpius on 15 Jul 2009 - 22:21
Read the article closer. He's talking about the stuff they've coded to refine, demo, and productize the technology.
#4.2 +majortom1981 on 15 Jul 2009 - 22:52
excalpius said,
Read the article closer. He's talking about the stuff they've coded to refine, demo, and productize the technology.


Your right, the quote above is taken out of context. More like microsoft research was playing around with the tech (prob from gesturetek since they licensed other tech from them) and microsoft decided it would be good to make it full blown .

(3 replies) #5 s3n4te on 15 Jul 2009 - 21:03
Bill Gates is like the Obama of the tech world!
#5.1 excalpius on 15 Jul 2009 - 22:22
Except without the charisma and with far more cash on hand.
#5.2 vette on 16 Jul 2009 - 13:26
s3n4te said,
Bill Gates is like the Obama of the tech world!


Horrible comparison.
#5.3 Quikboy on 16 Jul 2009 - 13:56
I really can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
(6 replies) #6 brentaal on 15 Jul 2009 - 21:20
Who's Bill Gates?
#6.1 Kostaz on 15 Jul 2009 - 21:31
brentaal said,
Who's Bill Gates?

The man whose success you'll never reach
#6.2 Imran Hussain on 15 Jul 2009 - 21:52
Kostaz said,
The man whose success you'll never reach

+1 LOL
#6.3 brentaal on 15 Jul 2009 - 21:52
Kostaz said,
The man whose success you'll never reach

Awww
#6.4 +CrimsonRedMk on 15 Jul 2009 - 22:21
Didn't that guy like invent the Internet, or was that Al Gore?
#6.5 Scutley on 16 Jul 2009 - 00:14
Kostaz said,
The man whose success you'll never reach



and the money
#6.6 leojei on 16 Jul 2009 - 00:30
Imran Hussain said,
+1 LOL


+1, wait..., +999999 x bill gate's bank balance
(7 replies) #7 perochan on 15 Jul 2009 - 22:27
so maybe in a couple years we will have something similar to the movie Minority Report?
#7.1 Eastwind on 15 Jul 2009 - 23:45
I prefer Iron Man :p
#7.2 leojei on 16 Jul 2009 - 00:30
I prefer Transformers :p
#7.3 CL114C0777498D on 16 Jul 2009 - 01:50
i prefer mad max
#7.4 AnthoWin on 16 Jul 2009 - 04:15
I prefer Batman :p
#7.5 P1R4T3 on 16 Jul 2009 - 04:54
I prefer "how i met your mother" :p
#7.6 ufis on 16 Jul 2009 - 07:43
Actually the setup that they were using in Minority Report is actually real product. Similar to Microsoft Surface. The setup that they use in Minority Report is called G speak. In Minority report the computers that they used were actually real live systems. Check this out http://oblong.com/
#7.7 Glendi on 16 Jul 2009 - 16:19
I prefer Dragon Ball :p
#8 Pulgafree on 16 Jul 2009 - 01:41
The link of the interview is wroken.
#9 Azyr on 16 Jul 2009 - 06:50
I kind of feel we're heading backwards with tech rather then forward.

Cloud computing is evolving exactly like a terminal system from 20 years ago. Touch screens are cool, but the way they work is more tiresome then using a simple gesture of your hand with your mouse.

Then we have this. Ok, i admit i'm just as god looking as tom cruise, and waving my hand through the air trying to open a fuzzy media file will make me look ultimately cooler - but then again why would i want to do something like that? Why would i want to ditch the comfort and speed of my mouse for something like this? (Then again, the article says nothing about using the tech for a UI/Control system, but this was more directed at you people commenting about "the awesome minority report UI" ).

Don't get me wrong - i like the tech's - i'm just sorely dissapointed at the way they're implemented.
#10 Beaux on 16 Jul 2009 - 10:36
This idea will never fly with Microsoft.

But then Apple will steal it and market it better, and it will be big!

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