Kinect IllumiRoom makes TV screen as big as your walls

 

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By David Bayon

Posted on 10 Jan 2013 at 12:15

Microsoft Research has demonstrated a Kinect-based gaming concept called IllumiRoom at CES 2013, which extends the picture beyond the boundaries of the TV screen.

The technology uses a Kinect for Windows sensor to capture "the appearance and the geometry of the room". A projector mounted behind the user then beams adapted images onto the walls around the TV screen "in real-time without any need to custom pre-process the graphics".

There's no word at this early stage on the additional demands this places on the system. Microsoft insists everything in its promotional video, below, is captured live, with no additional post-processing or effects.

Microsoft withdrew from this year's CES, but that hasn't stopped executives gatecrashing other companies' keynotes. Steve Ballmer made an appearance with Qualcomm, and IllumiRoom was demonstrated by Eric Rudder, Microsoft’s chief technology strategy officer, in Samsung's keynote.

In a follow-up blog, Rudder added some more information about the technology.

"This wasn’t a product launch but I’m excited by the potential shown in the research that we shared," he wrote, adding that the demo "only covers educational and entertainment scenarios but the possibilities are endless".

More will be revealed at the CHI 2013 human-computer interaction conference in April.