Pardo questions precision of Natal technology
Blizzard exec sees difficulties with spatial and gesture recognition
Blizzard's Rob Pardo has questioned the precision technology of Microsoft's forthcoming motion-sensing device, Project Natal.
Microsoft claims the tech will be more precise than hardware currently on the market, such as the Wiimote and the MotionPlus add-on, but Pardo has said that after hands-on time with the device, he thinks it's still "imprecise".
"I’ve got to play with Natal a little bit, and it seems like the difficulty with it is still spatial recognition with moving your hands and doing things," Pardo told VG247.
Discussing new control methods for real-time strategy games - in particular using Natal to to drag and drop units using hand gestures - Pardo doubted that Microsoft's technology could match the accuracy demanded of the genre.
"You’d actually still need an interface that you could do that with, and Natal is still going to be pretty imprecise in the way Wii is today," he said. "I mean, I could see the future one day [allowing it], but I don’t know if Natal’s it. Maybe it’s a step towards it."
However, Pardo did admit that he's not looked into the possibilities of using Natal too deeply, and that Microsoft could have solutions to imprecision that he isn't yet aware of.
"I’ve thought about it for all of five seconds right now, so there could be some genius there that I don’t immediately see," he offered.