Microsoft IllumiRoom Releases Virtual Gaming From Your TV To Fill Your Lounge

Microsoft has revealed IllumiRoom, the latest fruit of its virtual reality research, using Kinect and projection systems to turn your living room into a huge, immersive gaming environment. The proof-of-concept, shown off today at CES, uses projected visualizations rendered in real-time to extend gaming from your TV to your whole environment.

"The effects in the video are rendered in real time and are captured live," Microsoft research says, "not special effects added in post processing." The system uses a Kinect for Windows camera paired up with a computer-controlled projector, with the sensor bar mapping the geometry of the room and then overlaying the digital graphics on top.

None of the visuals are pre-processed, with the whole IllumiRoom system figuring out the skew of the walls and how the images need to be modified to suit in real-time. "Our system can change the appearance of the room, induce apparent motion, extend the field of view, and enable entirely new game experiences" Microsoft suggests.

Full details of the system haven't been revealed yet, with Microsoft saying that it will be detailing the whole system in an upcoming paper. Exactly how the company might leverage the technology into a commercial product isn't detailed, though we think it might be a while before Xbox gamers can fill their living room with gameplay.