IllumiRoom too expensive for a consumer release: Microsoft

Microsoft had earlier revealed the IllumiRoom, which was a proof-of-concept that aimed at turning a gamer’s entire room into a game. Those hoping to see the IllumiRoom with the Xbox One will be disappointed to learn that the technology isn’t ready to be deployed at the consumer level yet. Xbox One’s head of Product Planning Albert Penello revealed to AusGamers that IllumiRoom is “just research” and that it is too expensive for consumers.

According to Penello, the concept is great if you can afford it, and the developers could easily afford it thanks to money from Microsoft. Regular users, however, would find it hard-pressed to spend thousands of dollars for it. “I wouldn’t expect you’ll see that,” said Penello. “It’s really super-neat if you’re in the lab and you’ve got Microsoft money and you could totally set up this awesome lab, but… we looked at it, but for an average customer it’s, like, thousands of dollars.”

Most people can’t afford an IllumiRoom set up

Microsoft used a Kinect for Windows camera and a projector for IllumiRoom. Microsoft’s Eric Rudder said back in January that the technology could be used to enhance anything—even TV shows and movies. According to Microsoft, the system uses the appearance and geometry of the room, which was captured by Kinect, to adopt projected visuals in real-time without the need to pre-process the graphics.

Rudder had introduced IllumiRoom onstage during a Samsung press conference in January. Animated snowflakes appeared on the wall when it snowed, stars floated around the room when traveling through space and the walls rippled to imitate the reverberation of a gunshot in an FPS.