Time Magazine has released their “Top 50 Best Inventions of 2009.” This year’s list included Microsoft’s controller-free device Project Natal, which was first shown off to the world at this past E3. Natal was also considered one of the better inventions, coming in at the very respectable number 5, beating out such world changing ideas like teleportation, a cyborg beetle and the AIDS Vaccine.

The reason for the publication to mentioned Natal is because it breaks the “barrier that stood between gamers and ‘Tron’-like immersion.” I’m already seeing people complain about Time giving Project Natal such honors because the peripheral has yet to hit stores, and could be a year before we even see it. But if you look at the list that Time has published, you would easily see that most of the inventions have yet to be available, and will take years before any of us will even experience them in our day-to-day lives.

Remember, the press and people inside the industry have already got to swing their arms around and see how well Project Natal works. So if anyone wants to exclude the hands-free device, the reasons above are not valid.