Is Illumiroom Microsoft’s Diamond Sword In The Next-Gen Battle?
Xbox has released more information on their clever bit of tech, known as the IllumiRoom. It is a projector which brings the game outside of your TV and projects it onto your wall. Pretty neat.
This is Microsoft’s coffee table-top projector, what you have to do is place the projector on the coffee table and it extends your living room into part of the game, (and if you don’t have a coffee table, you might need to buy one.) this will provide you with a more immersive experience when gaming, and if I don’t say so myself, it looks pretty amazing.
Here’s the original video, that started it all off back in January:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=re1EatGRV0w
As well as the Illumiroom, Microsoft also have the Kinect 2.0 on their side, apart from general improvements I’d love to know what other features it can bring, I can’t think of any, being as I’ve never used it. But nevertheless, it is an updated model so it will always have something more to offer the gaming community, which could possibly win over fans.
The Illumiroom looks like a revolutionary bit of kit, and I cant wait to try it out. (If I ever get it, or go round a friends who has it.)
The only annoyance about this would be that of you were going to use the illumiroom projector, after you’ve finished it and want to use the kinect, you’ll have to move it your of the way, then move it back once you’re done to use the Illumiroom again. But you can just stand on top of the coffee table, of course.
This is the sort of tech that if executed and marketed right, will succeed greatly. However it could possibly and unfortunately fail. I don’t want it to because it looks amazing, and am really excited about it. I’m not sure how pricing would be with this, but I have a feeling it will be a separate purchase, and quite pricey at that.
Here’s the new video:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L2w-XqW7bF4
Upon browsing Amazon, the cheapest projector I could find with some decent specs was about £150 (about $230). But bear in mind that this projector will need to include brand new technology, a HDMi cable, or even wireless connectivity with your Xbox, a high quality picture and you might even have to buy a coffee table. (or even just a stool) However, the second video looks like it is still quite some time away from being in your living room. So I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.
If you fancy reading a little bit more on this, Jd8531 reported on it when it was originally announced back in January. Read it here.
The title is a Minecraft reference, if you didn’t get it.
I must apologize on my blog post announcing the Xbox conference, for sounding like a fanboy, of course. I’ve tried my best to be professional and stay impartial on this article, but if my fanboyism leaks through, sorry!
***, I’m interested in knowing how it works, but even more on when Microsoft will shut up and take my money.
It hurt me when they said “proof of concept” at the beginning of the video, which says as you mentioned that it might not be there yet.
That being said, I see nothing in there that wouldn’t work out of the box on a typical xbox360+kinect. There doesn’t seem to be anything that requires new technology in there, it’s just very clever use of existing technology + awesome algorithms and ideas.
It looks really good, but at about 4 minutes on the second video they start letting you know that it is completely up to the developers to enable the Focus + Context mode (the extended game screen). That kind of upsets me, but we’ll probably see more at E3. Maybe they’ve fixed that.
Also, I want to point out Super Tux Kart.
Really you wonder how this works wololo? There is no tricks or mirrors here.
A camera takes a picture of the room from the perspective of the projector. This image is used to generate geometrical vector data using edge detection algorithms. This image is also used as a colour reference, for example my wall is red, the colour the game wants to project is yellow, so the projector emits green light onto the red wall.
All of this can be achieved to some extent using any projector that connects to a computer. All the software and algorithms required already exist in open source Linux repositories.
This effect will often require extra work on the programmer’s behalf. Extra CPU/GPU is required to process both the projection colour and the extra geometry/visuals. The demonstration of a movie using this technology is unrealistic, and would not apply to your existing movie collection.
Its a gimmick that will never overcome its physical limitations – background colour and ambient lighting will render this useless for all but the most committed gamer who enjoys solitary confinement in a white washed room with the lights turned off.
Nope, I am not wondering how it works. I was just saying that the explanatory video they published is interesting, but that I would be more interested in a release date than technical videos at this point. I guess my point got lost in translation 🙂
(Edit: yeah, I can see how my wording was poorly chosen. What I meant instead of “***, I am interested in knowing how it works, but…” was “***, I don’t mind technical explanation videos like these, but…”)
I wanted to know 🙂 thanks !
that last paragraph summarize what I was gonna say, yet another gimmick that won’t add anything to gameplay and will be extremely limited, and possibly expensive.
And 5 years from now on consoles will still have so much spare power that it’ll in no way be a decision between bad looking game + projector thing and good looking game + without projector thing.
I guess PS 4 games will either generally look better than their Xbox counterparts or be dragged down to Xbox levels. Unless of course all that extra stuff isn’t reducing the performance at all.
WOW , microsoft have my money with this , something new and better !
WIIU = FAIL
oh the irony……
lol 😆
If Microsoft made a projector that can encompass an entire room then this would great but now that i know that its a projector on the edge of a table then i think it’s a total waste of technology.
It makes sense, it seems slightly above a gimmick feature if the room was setup perfectly to execute such a feature. This could possibly help some people stay focused during gameplay being more immersed into the game at hand. Tricking the brain isn’t always an easy task and the “virtual reality”/motion controls we have nowadays just don’t cut it.
So reality sets in and the room or tech just won’t be perfect & we are stuck with another expensive gimmick.
I already posted it back than when ilumiroom was announced:
It turns the TV completely obsolete. Why needing a TV when the beamer/projector could A: project the main picture and B: the “ilumiroom” ambience lightning.
Because the projector will not have the brightness, contrast, and resolution of your TV. If you’ve ever played video games with a projector you’ll know what I am talking about.
Well that’s only partly true, most led beamers are already better in ways of contrast then any tv could be, they only lack in brightness on the projected surface.
But this is only a matter of time as development never stops.
And I have played games with projectors, back in the days when the gamecube was NEW and the xbox just hit the shelfs. I had a sony VPL-EX1 and that was an awesome tool. I had my whole gaming setup down in the basment where we could be as loud as we wanted. I still remember those days when I was playing halo in coop and halo 2 and zelda four sword with the gbas… I miss those days.
i agree with you, there’s no point of a tv because a LED projector could replace it, but it would be heck too expensive, so the unique logique i see here is that: this microsoft projector will be surprisely cheap, otherwise it won’t succes.
still, it won’t be able to focus the projections and project looming amlight effects on the wall at the same time, you will either get the focused game or the out of focus effects not both at the same time from one projector.
The same thing with a monitor compared to TV
Not this is not correct, it could be done.
As microsoft stated it scans the surface where it is being projected on, so it is possible to focus both the effects as well as the main picture. And additionally the indepth and focusing data is available for the xbox as it calculates it.
You would be right if it were 2D video data, as there are no indepth information so focusing on two different things becomes impossible.
i beg to differ, any projector with darkchip technology can far surpass a lcd in all 3 aspects. a half decent projector set up will run you about 2500$ bucks and thats only half assing it.
projectors are really a “you get what you paid for” product.
this is just stupid, it projects a blurry image onto what ever *** you have around your tv and room and is rather distracting
well, it’s not for everyone.. you and me, for example..
but it’s interesting..
the kind of thing i’d visit my friend’s home to try out..
and then return home to my playstation
I think the concept looks very cool, but i cant really see how it will enhance the gaming experience a lot. You’re going to be focusing mostly on the screen itself, so seeing all the details around in the room might be difficult.
But i’m interesting in seeing the product anyway =)
I would say it’s unnecessary.
Likely 200+ dollars, totally not worth it.
Might as well buy a mirror and set it next to your tv.
I don’t think it will be worth it the effect doesn’t look good and developpers won’t focus on it since they’ll do multi platform games. On top of that.. Why an fps on the picture why not an rpg or an adventure game where you can appreciate the environment?
Because it is an Xbox and shooters are what it is made for.
Kind of interesting, but I couldn’t see myself using it with every game. Some games though this may be perfect. It’s definitely not a system seller to me, but a little added feature is always welcome, long as the price is decent.
Another useless gimmick brought to by Microsoft
Took the words right out of my mouth.
this gonna be like the 3d on the ds, used only one time and leave you stupid and blinf and you dont use it anymore…
howcomes my ps3 cfw 3.55 only does wanne update to official firmware ? are u sure ur the hypervisor hackers ?
so what about ps3 game save exploits in km that could do like vhbl and load eboots (no more return to xmb?) and a savegame exploits that keeps comfort to included multiman with psp psx ps2 classics support or am i still dreaming next gen … akak this gen xD
thanks to u all 😉
I disagree with your statement about this being next gen gaming. We’re on the verge of VR with the Oculus Rift! Seeing how you’ll be immersed in the realm through a headset, contradicts having a projector in the room. No thanks M$, but I’l take the Rift over this projector any day!
Well the concept is fairly simple and has nice results, the issue is actually with projectors, they have a very low resolution and short lifespan. Its actually very easy to make, people did a simular thing with raspberry pi’s and leds around a tv. (which is in essence the same concept)
But the problem is the projector 🙂
Another *** like 3D with glasses. It will be fun the first 10 games you play and then it will become something you really don’t need or want at all.
This is power consuming and distracts the player from the game.
Where talking gaming here, where you push your supercomputer (/GPU) to render a nice view you pass in less then 3 seconds and 95% of the player doesn’t notice, power consuming is not a problem in gaming industry.
As long as it remains ‘background’ its actually common to how humans watch, we focus our attention on a small place (== screen) but also see more then only the screen (=the surrounding). So I doubt it will be distracting, in fact this is where i’d say you are more in the game.
Is this Microsoft’s plot to rid the world of epileptics? Because I’m fairly certain they’re all going to seizure and die once exposed to this contraption.
don’t be nasty! I have epilepsy 🙁
contrary, epilepsy can be induced by watching a highly refreshing light emission screen, while this actually way less emitting then your computer screen;
Got to agree with you Minimur this looks like a fantastic bit of kit that will add peripheral vision to gaming (something even the Occulus Rift can’t boast). The beauty of it is that it doesn’t need to be high resolution… Infact it can be very low because it doesn’t really need to show any real detail.
I would love the PS4 to add support for the Rift that’d really make it the perfect console for me.
gimmick
AWESOME is all I can remember, Sony learn from them…maybe you will make something like SAO one day.
They will. Then they will update it and remove the logout button.
XD yeah and when you die ingame then you really die… think about it, they wouldn’t be able to sell any new games or dlc anymore XD
But they would make it like, if you die you’ll have to pay for another live and if you want to log out they will charge you again 😛
Gimmick to get people to buy this online drm piece of a crud console.
this would make me buy an xbox
Im using Illumi Room already 😛
Just smoke some weed, its *** awesome every time.
this *** will be awesome when im high!! looks like im getting an xbox!!!
The idea is just fantastic, but i can only imagine how much a game would cost for a new gen xbox with that feature and i hope microsoft wont do such stupid things like their own only-comptable projector like sony did with their memory cards and other ***..
as Wololo stated, actually this is a very cheap option; in some older games you can set FOV (Enemy Territory), making it you see more of the sides. This is a similar idea; The biggest issue is stuff that is next to the screen and stuff but in a empty room any tech geek/hardware hacker could make something similar.
As to projector, your right; though m$ is kinda smarter in that; also hardware = mostly loss. games pay the bill 😉
Too many gimmicks for next gen. Head might explode
Looks lame, and I’m not going to pay by usage rather than a one time buy… Especially not going to pay for my son to watch me play (look at kinect patent to detect people for purpose of charging based on how many viewers). The future of gaming is either ps4 or wii u (could go wii u depending on the drm Sony decides to go with…)
Now I know what that crapy ilumiroom reminds me off.
Philips ambilight. Very similar ***, it only disturbs the ambience.
this is funny. this is not going to happen
Leave it to Microsoft to think everyone is rich and has a huge room for gaming. Most of us don’t. This is one more reason Japanese gamers will have for not buying their console. In Japan homes are really small.
wololo do you play league of legends xD if you did youd make a port for it on the vita
This is 2000&nice yea I bought this ***!
Imagin Halo 5 on this!!! Awesome
The fanboy brigade out in full force these days?
All console makers are banking on gimmicks. Microsoft with Kinect 2.0/ illumiroom, Sony with the Playstation Eye/ weird light bard on the controllers (and let’s not forget rear touch panels on the Vita!), and Nintendo with its tablet-controller. They’re all looking for the next “Wii.” Considering how much money the Wii made Nintendo, can you blame them?
cool but i think this is really expensive. .and i can play games with anykind of tv screen. .