One day soon, Natal's reach will extend beyond the walls of Xbox 360 and into Windows. This is what Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said in an interview with CNET, delving into the concept of depth-sensing cameras.

That "soon" is in fact closer than you'd think. Said Gates, "I'd say a cool example of that, that you'll see... in a little over a year, is this (depth) camera thing." This "thing" won't only be for games, "But for media consumption as a whole, and even if they connect it up to Windows PC for interacting in terms of meetings, and collaboration, and communication."

He says that the idea of how motion-control technology can be used in everyday natural settings, like in the office, is "pretty exciting."

I think the value is as great for you if you're in the home, as you want to manage your movies, music, home system type stuff, it's very cool there. And I think there's incredible value as we use that in the office connected to a Windows PC. So Microsoft research and the product groups have a lot going on there, because you can use the cost reduction that will take place over the years to say, why shouldn't that be in most office environments.

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