I JUST SAW A PEEK INTO THE FUTURE: MICROSOFT KINECT

Last night we were treated to a grand show with Cirque Du Soliel to showcase the arrival of Microsoft's Project Natal, now renamed KINECT. We were transported to a world that looked like Pandora from Avatar the movie. We wore white smocks with shoulder pads and LED lights in them, which made us all feel like we were part of a cult. I was waiting for a virgin to be sacrificed by the "natives". It was a lot of show but no substance and the on-screen demos left us skeptical. I wanted to see the real deal.

Fast forward to today to Microsoft's E3 2010 Press Conference.

The technology is amazing. KINECT is more advanced then we've ever thought with the combination of it's 3d depth sensor, multiple-array microphone and motorized tilt camera all working together.

There are people that will brush off the games and say they are too casual. Those people are looking to chainsaw bodies in half. But those same people can't deny what they saw with KINECT. The technology behind those casual games made them shine and the Wii now feels two decades old.

But i don't even care about the games right now. I care about how we interface with a new platform like KINECT and Microsoft made sure we saw how this is moving us forward and changing everything in the future.

Waving your hand around to easily select icons and navigate the Xbox Live interface was sweet. But even sweeter, using your voice to navigate menus, access media with your voice, play, pause and replay videos, initiate and answer video calls, have those video calls track you when you move around the room and it was all demoed at different times by different people...and it all worked.

There were subtle things that KINECT showcased. In the "YOUR SHAPE" fitness demo it showed how accurate the cameras can detect who your are, even being able to detect and render a jacket someone was wearing and taking off. With certain multi-player games, all you had to do was jump in and the game automatically went to split screen. In the "Kinectimals" demo (virtual pet demo), when the player hid from the tiger, the camera detected that and the tiger started looking for the little girl.

Once you give developers these tools for a year, it's only going to get better.

I don't know if consumers and families will adopt this new tech like they did with the Wii. It matters to Microsoft, but it doesn't matter to me.

What we were shown was a new marriage of tech with software that we have NEVER SEEN before executed at this level. That's something worth getting excited for. And at the very least, it will have a long lasting influence on the way we interact with digital media and content in the future. KINECT goes far beyond gaming.