Xcast Online

Sometimes I'm truly amazed at how long it takes people to see something and proclaim "Ah ha! I see what they did there!" This is no different. Last week when Engadget broke news regarding Microsoft's allegedly-to-be-announced-at-E3, waggle-free motion sensing camera, we immediately drew the conclusion that if real, this was based on the "ZCam" technology that 3DV Systems (the company that Microsoft recently acquired) had developed and shown off at CES last year. Needless to say I was quite surprised to see that few sites managed to point this out when running their articles. But not everyone picks up on things so quickly.

A few days have gone by, things have sunk in, and now come the grand, news-making revelations. Ars Technica believe, like we did, that this new, hands-free motion detecting sensor bar is indeed based on the ZCam. Amazing.

"Every feature discussed in the Engadget report—every single one—we saw in action [at CES] in January 2008, by a company that Microsoft was reported to be in talks to buy, using sub-$100 technology that was mature more than 15 months ago."

3DV indicated back in 2008 that upon release, their camera device would be released at a price point under $100 - and that was just for the technology and application that they had come up with at that point, pre (alleged) Xbox 360 advancements. As a reminder, the rumor is that this motion sensing device will be able to offer 360 users "full body and hand gesture control of games / characters" ; "video conferencing and games with video"; "trivia games over the internet with live images of each person playing"; ability to "move objects on your screen" and the ability for the camera and sensor to distinguish the player from background distractions.

E3 will be interesting.

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