At the Monday news conference that marked the beginning of the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo - E3 - in Los Angeles, software biggie Microsoft Monday unveiled its "no-controller" technology for its popular Xbox 360 video game console.

The new system, which the company is presently calling Project Natal, boasts of camera and sound sensors that detect the users' facial and bodily movements, along with voice commands as well - thereby doing away with the standard 12-button controller.

The E3 conference had the Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft detailing the Natal technology, and finally saying that in the case of its singular "no-controller" system: "You are the controller!" In fact, Project Natal is not only an endeavor by the company to expand further than the Xbox 360 platform's core audience of young male gamers, but is also its apparent take on the motion-sensing remote and pressure-sensing balance board of the Nintendo Wii.

Talking about Natal, Microsoft's Corporate VP of strategy and business development for interactive entertainment, Shane Kim, said: "We want Xbox to be the next-generation social and entertainment network."

Reiterating that the company can direct "an era interactive entertainment" without requiring the launch of a new console, Microsoft intends integrating Natal into its existing Xbox 360. The cost-effective move would also help Microsoft keeping its 4-year-old console on store shelves for at least six more years.