Israeli outfit PrimeSense said that 3D gaming is only a few months away. The outfit has come up with 3D sensing technology which is being jacked under the bonnet of Microsoft's latest Xbox.

PrimeSense and several other Israeli companies have been developing hardware and software for Project Natal. The software means that XBox users will be able to place themselves literally 'in the game,' by attaching a box made by PrimeSense to their systems. When a user walks into the range of the PrimeSense 3D sensor, anything he or she does 'live' will be reflected in the actions of the avatars.

The PrimeSense sensor has a new chip the company has developed based on a technology called "light coding." The device receives an infrared pattern as an input, and produces a VGA-size depth image of the scene. It works in full 3D, capable of translating depth and distance into games - unlike another Sony gaming device it has been compared to, called the EyeToy, which could only understand 2D.