Whether you find gaming on smartphones, PC’s or even inch LCD screens too confining then Microsoft’s RoomAlive might be for you. It turns your whole room into a gaming environment. Similar to that of a Holodeck.
RoomAlive was actually developed two years ago under the less attractive titles Beamatron and IllumiRoom. Microsoft bring together two relatively mature technologies; LCD projectors and Microsoft’s Kinect motion tracking system.
Using the Kinect Fusion room modeling technology the Kinect builds a details 3D map of the environment including the floor, walls, furniture, and anyone who is standing inside of it.
It then combines the room with the Unity game plug in and a projector to display images that change the look of the room and the people inside it. For larger rooms there are multiple projectors, each with its own Kinect and computer.
RoomAlive covers an entire room something similar to a Holodeck. It can even run a virtual river through a room.
One of the most entertaining games may be Whack-a-Mole, which expands the popular arcade game into a room sized hunt for annoying moles to whack or shoot with a special game controller.
Currently this is still a research project, although Microsoft’s choice to change the name indicates that Microsoft is gearing up to make a product using the technology.
If this does come out it looks like it is set to blow the competitiors right out of the water. Oculus Rift, for example requires headgear that completely covers the eyes. With RoomAlive the room becomes the virtual environment.
And although this sounds like it could be a significant step in virtual reality gaming, RoomAlive faces some obstacles. One of which is the cost of the necessary HD projector coming in at around €500, not to mention the V1 Kinect motor control and RoomAlive software package. The whole kit would inevitably cost around €1500. Unless the setup was to retail at around €500 it looks like this could be a major setback.
