I didn’t put it in quotes because he more endorsed it than straight up said it was happening, but I think we all know that if the big guy sees it happening, it’s probably happening sometime soon. Gates was talking about Natal in a broad and interesting interview over at CNET, and mentioned that Microsoft Research is deep into working on home and office implementations of the flashy stereo-camera setup. Great, because I’m planning on running Windows 7 for the next five years (or more, if it’s the next XP), and the touch and apparently motion controls being researched are making it a more and more versatile operating system than it already is.

The remainder of the interview (to be honest, the Natal part is only a little bit at the end) concerns Gates’ occupations now that he’s left Microsoft’s day-to-day activities, and he talks about some of his investment programs and what he’s looking forward to from Microsoft and other companies.

He gets a zinger off on Google Chrome OS, not exactly on the company or the upcoming OS, but on everyone who is slobbering over it:

When Google is doing anything it gets this–the more vague they are, the more interesting it is.

Is that not exactly right? I like Bill. I ought to call him up.