The Tech Tinkle

Microsoft IllumiRoom

Microsoft IllumiRoom and the CES 2013

Microsoft’s approach towards unveiling the curtains on its IllumiRoom Technology seemed rather queer to many at the CES. The software giant, who has been allegedly known to boast off their projects accompanied by tons of research papers and technical jargons, adopted somewhat a different strategy. Microsoft’s chief technology strategy officer Eric Rudder joined the Samsung keynote and showcased a video of an augmented reality projection unit designed uniquely to extend gaming onto nearby walls. The demo showed off a concept that appeared finely tuned, using what felt like a marketing video.

Based on what we saw at this year’s CES, the IllumiRoom adapts the science of 3D mapping, integrating it with the Microsoft’s Kinect sensors in order to “blur the lines between on-screen content and the environment we live in allowing us to combine our virtual and physical worlds.” Although Microsoft is trying to keep a hush hush on further details, the Illumiroom has already sparked interests of many around the world debating whether if it really is the future of gaming going beyond just our television sets or just another disappointment for its fans. Nonetheless, Microsoft is most probably going to release further details about the illumiroom in April at the ACM SIGCHI Conference at Paris about their plans to either develop the IllumiRoom as a consumer-friendly product or to use it as a jumping off point for further forays into the world of immersive gaming.

IllumiRoom and the Xbox rumors

As far as the rumors about its association with the next generation Xbox is concerned, Microsoft team has managed to remain smartly quiet about it. However, Rudder did share earlier that it's simply a proof-of-concept project and “the LED is projecting for a frame and then turning it off and Kinect IR is reading those layovers." "Then the Kinect turns off for a frame and then the projector goes on and then Kinect will go back and forth."

Based on what we heard from Rudder, Microsoft is indeed an incredibly sophisticated technology allowing you to project on almost anything irrespective of whether the surface is flat or not.

A glimpse behind the curtains:

The IllumiRoom system is self-calibrating and designed in a way that could work almost in any living room. The current prototype of the Microsoft Illumiroom uses a Kinect for Windows camera along with a projector to transfer content onto walls along with capturing both the color scheme and geometry of the room whereas the projector displays all of the visuals around your television set. Moreover, it also adds value to your games by not only extending the content, but also highlighting the edges of games and enhancing the selected game components such as weapons, fire and even explosions.

Additionally, the IllumiRoom also saturates the room colors by either making them appear as black and white or highlighting the edges of your living room. Microsoft is also rumored to be working on lighting effects in order to capture the motions from the game and display it within a living room thus extending the reality of the game objects and dispersing them out of the screen and onto a living room floor.