Microsoft's new IllumiRoom puts a living room in your Xbox (Durango?) (images)

Many expect Microsoft to announce its next-generation Xbox (720 or Durango maybe?) but it could be missing one its best features - a projector which extends your video over an entire wall.

By Andy Smith, Contributor May 17, 2013 at 2:23 p.m. PT

1 of 8 Brett Jones, Microsoft

Microsoft has given all indications that its yet-to-be named, next-generation Xbox will be unveiled at its "A New Generation Revealed" event May 21 at 10am PT / Noon ET. One feature that is expected to bring the Xbox 720 to a new level (but might not be ready at launch) is IllumiRoom which Microsoft first showed off at this year at CES.

Microsoft Research describes it as a system which "augments the area surrounding a television screen with projected visualizations to enhance the traditional living room entertainment experience."

Here's a video that Microsoft prepared to show off the basics of IllumiRoom.

As usual, rumors about what is going to be included in the new gaming console are flying everywhere but Microsoft, following the footsteps of Apple and Steve Jobs, has dilvulged almost no information and no one has left a device in a bar, as yet.

The name of the new device is not even known. Most people and publications are calling it the Xbox 720, but some say it was given the code name Durango which could stick. More on this and other rumors later in this gallery.

IllumiRoom projects across an entire wall.

2 of 8 Brent Jones, Microsoft

This is Microsoft's demonstration wall, one you might see in any cluttered living room with your TV or gaming monitor right in the middle.

3 of 8 Brent Jones, Microsoft

This is Microsoft's demonstration wall, one you might see in any cluttered living room with your TV or gaming monitor right in the middle.

4 of 8 Brent Jones, Microsoft

Microsoft uses a Kinect for Windows camera and a projector to erase the borders of your TV set and lets you see images on an entire wall, regardless of its setup.

5 of 8 Brent Jones, Microsoft

According to Microsoft, illumiRoom "can change the appearance of the room, induce apparent motion, extend the field of view, and enable entirely new experiences." Selective focus creates and effect in one section of the room.

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IllumiRoom can even produce effects outside of the TV screen, like this explosion.

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Kinect cameras and projectors are used to transmit the IllumiRoom images.

8 of 8 Andy Smith/ZDNET

Rumors were going crazy after a gamer created his own logo and posted it on Twitter. Next thing you know, many in the press saw it and decided it was real and that the console will called Xbox Infinity.

Xbox Fusion has some support after several sleuths found that Microsoft was buying domain names with that title. And there's Xbox Loop and maybe Xbox 8. Again, borrowing from Apple, how about the Xbox 3, Xbox 360s, or the new Xbox? Here's a connection IllumiRoom does begin with an i.

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