Project Natal Sets Its Creepy, Glowy Sights on the PC

Remember that oddly named motion doohickey Microsoft debuted at E3? Project Natal? Well, while ushering in the Future of Gaming may be its main objective (followed in close second by taking over the world via robot revolution led by conniving A.I. child Milo), Natal isn’t just the tech toy of tomorrow. It can be used to for bigger things, higher purposes. It can be used for office work.

“Both the Xbox guys and the Windows guys latched onto [Natal’s uses for media consumption as a whole] 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,” Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said.

Your office isn’t the only place a series of subtle facial expressions could potentially organize, either. Home’s where the heart is, as they say, and the heart of the home of the Future will apparently be Natal.
 
"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," Gates said. "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."

A flick of the wrist to schedule a meeting. A wave of the hand to organize some files. That’s the future as Microsoft sees it. So, uh, why do we make fun of Apple geeks for needless, overly showy flourishes again?

(…Or a finger motion that totally says, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for” to sort your movie collection. Ok, never mind. This sounds awesome. Like “force-pushing” an automatic door. Come on, we can’t be the only ones who do that.)