Its not a game changer for online fitness trainer Josh Neumann, but he believes a new motion control system for Microsofts video game console Xbox presents new health and fitness potential through gaming.

The co-founder of Stay Fit Anywhere set a benchmark for online training and works with clients around North America. Nothing can replace the benefits and interaction of meeting a trainer face to face, he says.

But the immersion gaming of Kinect comes close, and when users connect with one another using the system someone with dumbbells in one part of the world and another somewhere else with a professionals eye for technique can interact by teleconferencing.

Kinect, which is essentially a narrow camera box that attaches to an Xbox, doesnt just lose the hand-held wands or balance boards known to Sony and Nintendo usersthink Wii Fit. Its motion-sensor camera eliminates the need for a traditional game controller altogether.

You dont need to hold anything. Its just you and the game, Craig Flannagan, a marketing manager with Microsoft, said last week while showing off Kinect at a press preview before its wider release next month.

What Flannagan described as player projection tech translates to a camera that captures a users location and movement within an eight foot range, meaning an avatar on the TV jumps and lifts an arm to spike a volleyball the second the human player in the living room does so.

Theres nothing between you and your game, he said.

For blacktop racing, the plastic replica of a steering wheel is gone. In its place are your own two fists, held as if gripping the wheel. Play mechanicsessentially strategic leaning and a few timely elbow pumpspush your hotrod past the plumbers and over the finish line.

Designed by BigPark, a Vancouver-based design firm, Joy Ride is the first car racing game built for Kinect.

Founded in 2007, BigParks team has ties to Electronic Arts and Microsoft. Its popular franchises include FIFA Soccer, NBA Street and SSX, for snowboard cross. (Joy Ride has road elements that remind Flannagan of a half-pipe, which may be a hint of something to come. It feels snowboardy, he says. You can feel the BigPark roots.)

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Fitness trainer touts Xbox motion control