The delightfully understated Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has opened his cheque book and started to haggle for an Israeli Virtual reality outfit called 3DV Systems.

3DV Systems make some kit called the Zcam which allows users to control games with their hands rather than needing a handset.  Steve has started negotiations at $35 million.

ZCam puts out short infrared pulses and then measure the reflections off objects. Algorithms think about the reflections and it means that it can judge the distance of different objects.

Focusing on the player's hands means that it can run a variety of applications depending on what the person is doing with their head, torso, hands, or fingers. If Vole can get it working on the Xbox it means that it would be able to do all the things that the Nintendo Wii can do only with much better graphics and fewer wires. 

The downside is if you do anything else with your hands while you are playing you could end up doing something dumb.