Back when I was a child, myself and a couple of friends would always pretend that the floor was lava and you would have to jump around the different pieces of furniture and avoid the floor in doing so (parents loved this). Now a days, you still see children play this game, only pretty soon you might actually get to see the lava on the floor.
Last year Microsoft demoed something called “Illumiroom” at CES 2013. “Illumiroom” was a proof-of-concept that expanded what you were viewing on your television, onto the walls and floor of your living room. Since the keynote was shown at CES, we really haven’t seen anything about the project until now. Instead of “Illumiroom”, Microsoft is back with the project, only this time it is known as “RoomAlive“.
By expanding upon their original idea, instead of just encompassing the nearby walls close to the television, they use the entire living room as the playing space. By using multiple Kinect peripherals and projectors, this will allow a fully augmented playing area that you will be able to interact with. This technology is far from complete, and too costly for most consumers, so don’t expect to see this anytime soon, but if Microsoft keeps on expanding and evolving this project, I might have to channel my inner child once more and hop around my own furniture. If you want to check out what it looks like in action be sure to click the video below!
