Microsoft Illumiroom could push the new Xbox beyond the competition

Microsoft’s Illumiroom technology could well be an ace in the hole for its next gen Xbox (720/Infinity/Durango).

Illumiroom was unveiled at CES and uses a system that, to me, is a progression of the Philips Ambilight tech first seen back in 2007 – but Illimiroom blasts it clean out of the water.

The system employs a projector to extend visual cues from the game beyond the edges of the TV display to the walls of the room in which the user is playing.

The Verge reports that Illumiroom is now being described by Microsoft as “a next-generation gaming console with a projector that sits on your coffee table and surrounds your television with projected light”.

The video below shows the new possibilities for developers, including the stretching of the game screen to cover an entire wall, the ability to distort to appearance of the playing space itself, the illusion of objects travelling beyond the confines of the screen or more immersive visual augmentations drawing on select in-game elements such as gun fire or explosions.

Illumiroon requires both a forward facing projector directed toward the screen and Kinect, which isn’t a huge problem unless you want to play a Kinect game at the same time as using the Illumiroom. That could well require another Kinect camera adding to the set-up.

With Microsoft remaining deadly silent about its next Xbox, Illumiroom’s likely inclusion with the new Xbox is nothing more than a guessing game for the time being. Thankfully, we only have to wait until Microsoft’s Next Xbox showcase on May 21st.