In lieu of the new Captivate.com Gamer's Edge video game blog (debuting soon!), I'm ecstatic to share the news that Microsoft is letting people play with Project Natal (pronounced na-'tahl).

Wait: What is Project Natal?

A few months back at E3, Microsoft's XBox division debuted this unbelievable new technology that lets you play video games and interact with them in a way never possible before ... *without a controller*. Yeah, it's totally, completely hands-free. Hell, there aren't even body sensors or strap-on pads for the machine to find.

Using motion capture technology from a concealed sensor mounted on your TV (that's how the Wii does it, too), the XBox recognizes your head, arms, hands, etc., and translates them into a digital signature of your body that interacts with the game.

I've seen demonstrations of this, and I swear it's fake. I mean, I know it's not, but the idea that I can stand in front of my TV, or sit on my couch with a bunch of people and steer a car without anyone else's movements interfering ... well, that just blows my mind. It knows and remembers your body and can tell your hand from someone else's.

Think of it like this: Remember how LONG it took for the developers to create technology for Lord of the Rings' character Golem? With all those green screens and ping-pong balls taped to the actor's body? (The balls were used as points of reference for developers animating his body.) Think of Project Natal like that -- only in your living in real time. Yeah, it's that impressive.