Is Microsoft inventing the holodeck?

So remember all those awesome episodes in Star Trek that involved the holodeck?  You know, the holodeck, that room that could become any landscape from any time period, filled with fictitious people, scents, and sounds?  It’s like if virtual reality got really awesome all the sudden.  What if this all got better with Kinect?

Well alright, perhaps we aren’t near a Star Trek level holodeck quite yet, but Microsoft is well on the way down that tech path.  We all know about the Kinect by now and that is by no means a holodeck.  A new ‘patent application’ is taking gaming to beyond the barriers we all know.  Instead of putting you just in the game, Microsoft is putting the game into your room.

This tech would involve a 360 degree view of a virtual scene.  This takes players away from the controller into a whole new world where a virtual creature could literally sneak behind you.  By using a depth-sensing camera system, virtual environments can be replicated.  The device would use two-cameras with light sensing similar to the Kinect.  There is even a system to make the environment continue to look natural even when the player is moving around and in the way.

This ‘patent application’ is still in a very early stage and still is a ways off.  I’m quite curious in the technology so I’ll be keeping a watchful eye on it.  The line of evolution easily goes Kinect, this device, holodeck. 

Star Trek.

[Arstechnica]

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