Turn your room into a video game with Microsoft’s RoomAlive

Remember IllumiRoom? It’s the Microsoft Research project that pairs an Xbox Kinect with a projector to extend your TV onto a wall, resulting in an immersive experience. Redmond has just revealed that IllumiRoom 2.0 is now called RoomAlive and is a huge leap over what it was last year. The new system projects content throughout a room that you can interact with.

Last year’s “Illumiroom” concept turned a lot of heads when Microsoft showed it off at CES. Now Microsoft’s research division is back with something even more complicated: “RoomAlive,” which turns a living room into an interactive augmented reality space. Illumiroom was eye catching, but all it did was extend the field of view for a traditional video game beyond a television screen, projecting a larger image surrounding it onto the walls and floor. RoomAlive, though also in the research stages only, is even more complex, and brings the user off the couch to interact with the environment it renders on the furniture and other surfaces.