Microsoft Illumiroom

So, remember that patent Microsoft filed for projecting a game on the room around you without AR glasses? http://geeksmash.com/games/video-games/news-video-games/xbox-720-patent-puts-the-game-all-around-you032

Well, turns out, it’s real. Seriously.

It’s called Illumiroom. Here’s an official video demonstrating it’s capabilities: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=re1EatGRV0w

If this works as advertised, I’m quite shocked, actually. I don’t know if I would actually use it or anything, but…wow. Just wow.

Thoughts anyone?

I see they’re targeting the “people with so much money that they have a projector and a TV in the same room” demographic.

Well, the size and cost of projectors are really going down a lot every year, so maybe it wont be that expensive when its ready for release.

Hahaha. Come to think of it, that would be pretty pointless. Like virror said though, projectors are getting cheaper all the time. Besides, it probably won’t be necessary to have a super-good projector for this anyway. Since it appears to mainly be for your peripheral vision, you won’t need an HD projector, probably. Idk though. Still, they must have thought of all this beforehand, right?

Not in any meaningful way. There’s no real market for this either since it’s basically only going to work with one console. A console very much near the end of its life cycle.

I’m pretty sure MS has long forgotten what “forethought” actually is.

Laughs aside, I have a feeling this is not going to be for the 360. Or at least, if it is, it will also be a part of the next Xbox.

But even then, it requires such a ridiculous home theatre setup that it’s going to see like… no use at all. It basically requires a projector as an accessory, which is a tough sell in the first place because most people likely have a projector or have a TV. How are you going to sell this, especially when it requires the investment cost of a projector (or TV) and a Kinect? It’s a neat tech demo but it’s thoroughly silly.

Yeah, and really, who is going to use it? I mean, it really is cool and all, but how long until the novelty wears off? Or, until someone gets seizures from it. And yeah, setting it all up will be a nightmare…cables going from your Kinect to the back of the room where the projector is…yikes. I’d love to try it out sometime, it looks amazing, but even then, idk if it would be something I would want to use on a regular basis.

Almost makes me wonder if Microsoft decided to get into the projector market, and they just haven’t revealed their version of a projector yet. Haha.

I would take the rift anytime before this thing : )

If leaks are to be believed, this is not going to be an XBox 360 peripheral, but an XBox 720 one.

Dido, there’s nothing that the Rift doesn’t do better than this.
Although MS might sell the projector that goes with it pretty cheap. When the PS3 came out, it was worth something like 2x the cost sony was selling it for. Also I doubt MS will use wires.

Yeah, that’s what I’m wondering. Will this like, work with any and all projectors? Or will it only work with a special projector that Microsoft will sell? If the latter, yeah, I doubt wires will be involved. If it’s the former though…

The rift and this are 2 completely different things IMO. The rift is a VR headset which allows you freedom of movement, and the ability to look around in the game world. The Illumiroom appears to be a peripheral vision enhancer, basically a way to get over the fact that what you are seeing on a flat TV screen is quite limiting.

looks pretty cool.

as a side note: if you cant afford it too bad. no-one cares. Its not like its mandatory to play the games.

Yeah but that’s thing VR in general seems way better than this. It seems to be like comparing a refrigerator to an ice cooler, they do same thing but a fridge is way more powerful. These devices are both trying to get the player more immersed, but VR does it way better. So either the Rift is ahead of its time or this is just really behind of its time.

A lot of people cant use VR headsets.

Personally I cant think of anything worse anyway… I mean it would be cool, but I dont want to wear a headset visor to play games.

I am also wondering how well it adapts to rooms that aren’t the standard 4 walls. What if you have a sliding glass door in your gaming environment? or if it’s adjacent with no wall seperating it from another room.

I just can’t excited about this, especially when it’s compared to the Rift.

Neat, I would use it. I do have a projector and a tv. You don’t exactly need to be a millionaire to buy a $70 projector off eBay. And pretty much everyone has a TV. I don’t know what you’d be doing with an XBox if you didn’t have a TV.

They could be playing on a projector. The problem is that it’s a stupid idea that adds very little to the average consumer.

I’d much rather play on my TV and have the projector handle peripheral vision since it’s lower rez and contrast. I’m not sure why you’re so offended by it; I don’t think it’s a stupid idea. People think every new gadget is a stupid idea until it catches on. Gamers swore that the Wii and Kinect would be horrible failures but they did quite well.

This isn’t a gadget. It’s a tertiary feature on an existing gadget that requires you to buy a piece of unrelated hardware and wire that gadget into it. Much like the Kinect’s existing problem, it’ll suffer from a lack of developer support because there’s little that can be done with it outside of “oh, immersion” which is a hard sell in the first place.