Microsoft has released a video of what might be the next step towards virtual reality, with their new Illumiroom project. The project will allow users to “step into the game”, as a projector makes their room the background for their game.
Illumiroom has been in the works for a while now, as Microsoft patented the idea late last year, showing new work on motion and virtual reality. Many suspected this to be Kinect 2.0, but it seems Microsoft are preparing a completely different accessory for this project.
The video shows the Xbox with Kinect, the player says “Xbox, go big” as a command, and the Xbox responds by showing images outside of the TV. Sometimes, these can just be flashes of debris, other times they are a full screen outside the TV.
One of the downsides of this is the immersive feel will only be on the wall and isn’t 3D visual, as far as we can tell. 3D may be dead on TV, but flying bits of debris or gunshots coming towards you would really up the ante.
Microsoft says images “are rendered in real time and are captured live – not special effects added in post processing”, meaning developers will not have to add anything to have the images put outside the projection, we believe.
Developers of the project also said “Our system can change the appearance of the room, induce apparent motion, extend the field of view, and enable entirely new game experiences.
“Our system uses the appearance and the geometry of the room (captured by Kinect) to adapt the projected visuals in real-time without any need to custom pre-process the graphics.”
We suspect this won’t be for the latest edition of the Xbox console, with the Xbox 72o coming sometime this year. Kinect 2.0 and the IllumiRoom may come as separate accessories or be integrated into the console.