Ever since Microsoft went official with its motion-based games controller, the Kinect (formerly known as Project Natal), quite a lot of people have been wondering about the technology that makes it all possible, not to mention what other possible uses it might have, besides gaming, that is. Unfortunately, providing an answer to at least a couple of the questions mentioned above is still difficult, but it seems that we can now at least make some suppositions, based on this thing's internal hardware configuration.

So, our lucky colleagues over at T3 had the chance to take a very close look at this very innovative controller from Microsoft, including here the hardware powering it, and actually found that there's a lot more to this thing than meets the eye.

Without a doubt, the coolest part of the Kinect is represented by the motion sensor, which is apparently built out of a small projector and an IR VGA camera, which bounces out a lasers across the whole field of play. Based on the received data, it can accurately identify the users' position (and differentiate them from the objects in the background, for example) at any given moment and with an impressive level of accuracy.

Once this process is completed, the device will automatically convert the user's body into a skeleton with moving joints, which can take up to 200 different positions (while the cameras will also be able to interpret the positions in-between these pre-set ones). Additionally, the device comes packed with a built-in motor, used for calibrating usage depending on the setup and users' height, as well as an advanced array of microphones, used for picking up verbal commands.

All in all, the Kinect really seems to be an awesome piece of technology, and we can't wait for the moment when we'll be able to take a first-hand look at it and the wonders it can perform.  


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