MS Illumiroom concept

[SiggiG]

Seems like the concept that was illustrated in the leaked Xbox 720 document last year? Is MS bringing a CAVE to every living room?

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/micr ... th-images/

[brantlew]

Wow, the video looks amazing and it doesn't look post rendered at all! What a great way to do ambient effects.

[cybereality]

Looks awesome, but if you have all that why do you need the TV?

[SiggiG]

Looks awesome, but if you have all that why do you need the TV?

Though it's cool the video isn't as clear on the furniture
This picture was in the Xbox 720 leaked docs, maybe they want to take this all the way.

[Flassan]

If this improves and you no longer need the TV I think a lot of people would be willing to paint a room white or make space in their shed for this.

Going back a bit Microsoft produced this demo:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/16/28762 ... ed-reality

and a couple of years ago BBC R&D came up with this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/researchandd ... d-vi.shtml
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/ ... WHP208.pdf

[specfreq]

Looks awesome, but if you have all that why do you need the TV?

You don't. However, if you've got a nice TV (or prefer them to projectors) you might pick up a $30 projector.

If you do have a really nice expensive home theater projector, then you probably aren't the target audience. I guess the quality doesn't need to be much as it's intended for peripheral information... plus you don't need to move furniture or have large walls for a dedicated setup. (small room friendly)

I can only imagine what this might do for horror games

[Zaptruder]

Looks awesome, but if you have all that why do you need the TV?

TV = normal high res.
Project = low res projection

Reduced rendering power required. Otherwise having to render at the same resolution as the TV (the area you're focusing on), would require a projector capable of rendering 4-8k+ (depending on the size of the room).

If it's for the Xbox, it wouldn't be able to spare much extra rendering power on the periphery scene. Especially games that push the Xbox (360 or next iteration) hard, like AAA budget games... it would need to do something other than rendering the rest of the scene at lower rest. Perhaps wireframe, marquee, or just glowing blood effects or some such.

[Flassan]

I was just wondering about projection for the background and google glasses for the foreground, then I remembered where I'd seen something similar: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-574 ... microsoft/
If AR glasses take off they could be used within a VR setup.

[PalmerTech]

Would love to see it take off, but I can't see them actually launching something that needs a projector and Kinect facing at the TV in addition to the actual Kinect and a TV display.

[brantlew]

Would love to see it take off, but I can't see them actually launching something that needs a projector and Kinect facing at the TV in addition to the actual Kinect and a TV display.

If I understand the tech correctly the Kinect builds a model of the room and then generates a displacement map for the projector so the furniture doesn't warp the projected imagery. So really, you only need to calibrate with the Kinect once and then as long as you don't move your furniture or the projector, you wouldn't need it anymore. That's probably not what they had in mind though. More likely they would build a Kinect right into the projector to calibrate on every use - maybe even dynamically so that even people walking across the image would not distort it. (That would be freaky to watch. It might look like cardboard cutouts of people walking across).

Anyway, now that the idea is in our heads even if they don't release it, this looks like something the Kinect hacker community could whip up pretty easily.


Edit: Hmm. I wonder if people walking across the image would look a little like the Predator in cloaking mode?

[Flassan]

This is well worth keeping an eye on:
"Microsoft just teased the next Xbox at CES"
http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/14/38754 ... oom-teaser
If you have a market of tens of millions then you have to anchor your innovation around the TV and living room, but if Microsoft follows this path it will lead inexorably towards more immersive entertainment and thus VR. Whetting the public's appetite for surround video and full body interaction has to be a good thing. That interest will benefit companies like Oculus even if it superficially appears to be in competition. Did anyone get to see it close enough at CES to know how it works? e.g. is it directly projected or via a mirror?

[coresnake]

Another piece of trash for rich kids to waste money on so they can leave it collecting dust in their closet. I can't see this taking off at all.

[Flassan]

I can sympathise with that view although I suppose you could apply it to a lot of the things discussed here.
Sometimes very good ideas come off that back of ideas like this. For instance the Kinect has had a number of medical applications.
Tech. dev. is all about baby-steps and I like to think where these concepts will take us