Just weeks before Microsoft's promised 21 May announcement concerning the next phase of its Xbox 360 gaming platform, the company has released further details of its projector-based IllumiRoom technology.
In a video published yesterday, Microsoft shows computer graphics escaping the television and lighting up the walls of the surrounding room with graphics, colours and other immersion-enhancing effects.
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Combining a projector and a version of the company's existing Kinect motion and object scanning hardware, Microsoft gives a strong impression that IllumiRoom is still far from the status of releasable hardware, but nevertheless shares the company's "vision" for "productised" version of the technology.
"Our vision for a productised IllumiRoom system is an ultra-wide field of view device that sits on the user's coffee table and can cover a large area surrounding the television," reads a voiceover as the video displays a variety of possible effects.
"Self-calibrating and designed to use in any living room," the device shows the ability to change the colours of walls and furniture in a room to reflect what's on the screen, subtly glowing light sources to indicate in-game, off-screen objects that can be navigated to, or even snow falling and settling on the carpet, or physics-equipped balls rolling across the floor and under furniture.
Microsoft's demo even shows furniture in the room, such as bookcases, remaining unaffected by the lightshow and suggested "a world beyond the living room".
Microsoft's 21 May announcement is expected to see the company continue to expand the Xbox platform beyond a "box under the television", with streaming media cloud subscriptions, full crossover with other Windows 8 devices and even rumours of interaction with existing television services.
Rival games hardware company Sony announced its PlayStation 4 hardware on 21 February, describing a system that will mix considerable hardware capability with a focus on social interaction features.
