Natal, AI and a new form of interactive storytelling

In a few months, Microsoft will begin selling its Kinect for Xbox 360. The technology is based on the company’s Project Natal technology that allows users to interact with video games without use of a controller or a wand.

In this TED presentation, Peter Molyneux, head of Microsoft’s European gaming division, unveils a new form of interactive storytelling which incorporates Kinect and artificial intelligence. The user interacts with young boy named Milo without the need for any devices. It’s obviously beyond the reach of most newsrooms to leverage this at the moment. But it still provides an interesting glimpse of a new form of storytelling that will begin to evolve over the next decade.

Molyneux says:

“When I saw a piece of technology called Kinect — it was called Natal — I was inspired, and I thought for a moment, maybe it’s possible to address that one problem of storytelling, to create a character which seemed alive, which noticed me, that could look me in the eyes and feel real, and sculpt a story about our relationship.”