14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft's research division has unveiled a brand new prototype called RoomAlive, which takes the previous IllumiRoom concept and expands it to turn a whole room into an interactive arena for all sorts of games.
Microsoft has a huge research and development department, but many ideas that are thrown around within its confines rarely escape and are revealed to the world. This is due to them not being feasible for mass scale production or because competitors might swoop in and steal some ideas or concepts.
However, a few really clever technologies do reach the public, even if they can't be applied to our modern-day lives. Such is the example of IllumiRoom, which was revealed some time ago and allowed people to see much more of their environment while playing a game on a TV, using a projector.
The RoomAlive concept evolves the old IllumiRoom tech
Now, its evolution, called RoomAlive, has just been revealed via the ProjectionMapping site, and turns the whole experience into an interactive one.
"RoomAlive is a proof-of-concept prototype that envisions a future of interactive gaming with projection mapping. RoomAlive transforms any room into an immersive, augmented entertainment experience through the use of video projectors."
"Users can touch, shoot, stomp, dodge and steer projected content that seamlessly co-exists with their existing physical environment. RoomAlive builds heavily on our last research project, IllumiRoom, which explored interactive projection mapping surrounding a television screen."
A Kinect, a projector, and a computer are essential to the technology
More specifically, in order to turn a room into an interactive arena, a gamer needs six so-called procams, which consist of a computer, a Kinect sensor, and a projector. Once the room is scanned and processed, players can start experiencing the RoomAlive concept in all its glory.
"The core building block of RoomAlive is a projector depth-camera unit, also known as a procam. These consist of a commodity wide field of view projector, a Microsoft Kinect sensor and a computer. The projector is used for display and the Kinect is used for tracking. Normally video projectors are used to display PowerPoint presentations on flat screens. RoomAlive uses cheap commodity video projectors to animate every square inch of your living room, this technique is known as projection mapping."
RoomAlive examines the future of gaming
The developers emphasize that, right now, RoomAlive is still in a concept phase, as it's been developed to figure out where gaming might go in the following years. Even so, you can check it out in action in the video and gallery below.
