Natal consumes 10-15% of 360 CPU power

Natal may have been scaled back since its original concept, but it's still going to take a neat chuck of 360's processing punch when it releases later this year.

Natal's lead developer Alex Kipman told New Scientist at CES this week:

"Natal has to work on the existing hardware without taking too much hardware processing away from the games developers," noting that Natal consumes between 10 to 15 percent of the Xbox's computing power.

"When we train this 'brain' we are telling it: this is the head, this is the shoulder. And we're doing that over millions of frames," Kipman added.

"When it sees a new image it can tell you the probability it's seeing a certain body part based on that historical information."

It was rumoured earlier that a processor has been cut out of the motion-sensing system in an effort to reduce retail cost.

Microsoft confirmed Natal for a 2010 launch in Las Vegas last night.

Thanks, TechRadar.