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Hands-on: Creative Senz3D camera's Portal 2 demo

The gesture control camera, announced at Intel's keynote, will come with a special version of Valve's Portal 2 game to demonstrate its capabilities.

John Chan
2 min read
Creative

TAIPEI -- During Intel's keynote at Computex 2013, the Creative Senz3D Interactive Gesture camera was announced. This camera utilizes 3D sensing technology, and when paired with Intel's Perceptual Computing SDK, allows developers to create applications with gesture control.

The camera has previously been provided to developers working on the SDK, but will be available to the public later this year. No price has been given so far.

Included with the camera is a software bundle that has games and utilities that let you take advantage of the Senz3D. One interesting example is a Skype plugin that allows you to put up a fake background when in a Skype video call.

At Intel's booth, what's being demonstrated is a version of Valve's Portal 2 that lets you move cubes used in the game to solve puzzles.

An Intel employee expertly controlling a cube with his hands using the Creative Senz3D camera. John Chan/CNET

Picking up a cube involves clenching your fist, after which you are free to move your hand in any direction to steer the object to a desired location.

Controlling the cube took a bit of practice, but once I got the hang of it, I was able to move it quite accurately, and also rotate my wrists to get the cube in a certain orientation. Watch the following video to see how it works.