For all those tech/video game geeks out there you probably already know about E3. For those of you who don’t, E3 stands for the Electronic Entertainment Expo. It is one of the premier release events for everything video games. Some of you might roll your eyes and scoff, but the video game industry is by far the fastest growing entertainment sector. Sales of video games are expected to double those of the music industry by 2011. In 2007 video games accounted for nearly $19 billion dollars in revenue. The incredibly popular game Halo 3 is expected to gross close to $190 million dollars, 3 times what The Dark Knight brought in on its opening week.

So why should you care? Technologies developed by the video game industry are being utilized more and more in everyone’s lives. The released of the trendy Wii console from Nintendo attracted gamers that never would have thought about games 5 years ago. The Wii can now be found in tons of retirement homes and senior living centres, helping society’s octogenarians stay fit and healthy.

Today Microsoft released a new technology that is going to allow an unparalleled level of immersion in digital worlds: Natal. What is Natal? It is being dubbed as a controller, but it doesn’t look like a handheld piece of plastic with some buttons on it. It doesn’t even look like the revolutionary Wii controller with its motion capture technology. It doesn’t look like anything at all. Natal allows a user to control themselves in a virtual environment using their body movements, voice, tonality, and facial expressions. Don’t believe me? Check out the video they released this morning (via GameTrailers):

Hello Skynet!

Originally published on www.terry.ubc.ca