Top Innovators: Microsoft

Nintendos Wii took the couch out of video games. Now Microsofts Xbox Kinect is removing the controller.

Formerly known as Project Natal, led by Alex Kipman in Microsofts Xbox unit, Kinect allows for what Microsoft calls full-body play. Unlike Nintendos Wii and Sonys PlayStation Move, which require handheld devices to manipulate action on the screen, Kinect uses a camera, an infrared projector and a depth sensor to see the room in three dimensions under any lighting conditions. The system recognizes faces and tracks movement. Players interact with games using their entire bodies, without ever touching any hardware. A multi-array microphone even recognizes the players voices and filters out ambient noise, allowing players to control games with verbal commands, speak to in-game characters and chat with friends over Xbox Live without a headset.

The system dazzled audiences at the E3 convention in 2009 and 2010. The device will work with any Xbox 360 system and is due for release this fall.