Microsoft mogul Bill Gates has laid down his vision for the future of the Xbox 360 and its successors. Instead of using an interface like the Nintendo Wii does - with a motion sensitive controller - gamers will be able to interact with consoles using real world objects, he said.
"As we get natural input, that will cause a change... Software is doing vision and so, you know, imagine a game machine where you just can pick up the bat and swing it or the tennis racket and swing it."
Gates said that this vision is different to that of the 'limited' Nintendo Wii because it would use interactive cameras to see real objects, instead of using a controller to simulate them.
"No, [it's not like the Nintendo Wii]. You can't pick up your tennis racket and swing it. You can't sit there with your friends and do those natural things.
Bill Gates speaks out
"That's a 3D positional device," Gates said. "This is video recognition. This is a camera seeing what's going on."
So are we going to see Microsoft developing a new control system to be integrated into the existing Xbox 360 console? Or is Bill looking a bit further down the line? No one knows. But if Microsoft were to develop such an interface, it would certainly take away some of the appeal from the less powerful Wii console.
Despite what some might say, Microsoft is a keen innovator in many fields. Last week it revealed details of its new 'Surface' PC technology which is a hyper-intelligent touch-sensitive tablet PC.
