Extending the Gaming Experience with IllumiRoom, Microsoft Research

IllumiRoom is a Microsoft Research concept to enhance the gaming experiences of the hardcore gamers. What it does is, it augments the area surrounding your television screen with the projected rays to enhance the living room entertainment experience.

How it works ?

IllumiRoom system uses a kinect for Windows camera and a projector to blur the line between on-screen content and the environment we live in, combining our virtual world with the physical world.

Like for example, the IllumiRoom can change the appearance of our room, extend the field of view and will enable a new gaming experience.

It uses this kinect technology  for Windows camera to capture the geometry of the room and automatically adapt the projected visual in real-time.

You can see the image below which has been captured live and is not the result of any special effects added in post production.

You can watch the video below to see how it works:

The IllumiRoom will definitely increase the gaming experience of hard core gamers, by extending the image on your TV screen by projecting visuals onto the walls of your living room and will make you feel like you are inside the game you are playing.

What you gamers out there think of this Microsoft Research concept?

Source : Microsoft Research 

Microsoft's new Lumia 535 : the "5x5x5" smartphone

The all new Lumia 535 is the first Lumia to feature the Microsoft’s branding. 

Lumia 535 is the entry level smartphone which is all set to launch this month starting from China, Hong kong and then to other parts of the world.

The Lumia 535 is an affordable smartphone with the following specifications:

·         1.2 GHz quad-core processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 200

·         5-inch IPS LCD display

·         1 GB RAM and 8 GB of internal storage which is expandable to up to 128 GB

·         5 MP rear camera and a 5 MP front facing camera too

·         1905 mAh battery

Microsoft have included a good 5 MP front camera in Lumia 535 which will be a welcome spec for the selfie lovers who all want to click good selfies that too with a budget phone. The front facing camera on Lumia 535 is the same wide-angle camera on the so called made for selfie phone, the Lumia 735 and Lumia 730.

Microsoft announced the new device via the Lumia Conversations blog , said, “ Today sees the launch of the new Microsoft Lumia 535, our “5x5x5” smartphone package bringing a 5-inch screen, 5-megapixel front and rear camera and free integrated Microsoft experiences to more people at an affordable price.” 

The Lumia 535 is set to launch in two variants :  3G single SIM and 3G dual SIM.

The price range of Lumia 535 is expected to be around $140.

Watch the Microsoft Lumia 535 - Big on experience video :

Source : Wcentral

The new update for Skype on Windows Phone now allows you to draw and doodle

Microsoft’s latest update for Windows Phone Skype app will allow users to actually draw in the app along with some other new features and improvements.

In a blog post by Microsoft, it is stated that the update will allow Skype users to “get creative on a  canvas, add silly touches to a photo or draw a fastest route on a map and share it with your friends and family.” Users can enable this feature by tapping on  the ‘+’ icon during  a chat, then open ‘drawing’ to draw pictures.

Users are also allowed to use pre loaded pictures from their gallery or even draw on a Bing map. Along with all these features Microsoft also added HD screen support for the app.

Microsoft stated: “On Windows Phone 8.1 to save time you can now automatically sign in using the Microsoft Account linked to your phone. Plus, we’ve heard existing users ask for the flexibility to sign in with their Skype account, so we’ve added the ability to do this too.”

This update will surely offer faster app resume times. Skype app is supported for Windows Phone with 512mb RAM.

So will you be using this new feature provided by Microsoft in Skype update??

Source : Windows Central, Skype blog J

Still Using Windows XP? Well you should better upgrade..

By now we all know that the Windows XP is officially retiring on April 8, 2014, Microsoft is doing every possible efforts to switch the users of Windows XP which has almost completed 13 years.

"Friends don’t let friends use#WindowsXP. Support is ending on April 8!"
— Microsoft Europe (@MSEurope)

This tweet is dated February 11, 2014.

With this tweet, Microsoft Europe asked all its followers to encourage their friends to switch from the Windows XP as they are taking away support for the OS is ending on April 8.

This is really important as  29% of personal computers still use the Windows XP, and they are aiming to cut Windows XP's share down to 13% by April end.
Putting the iceing on the top they are promoting the latest Windows 8.1.

Well considering the possible scenerio.People still don't care infact talking about the education scenarios in Indian colleges and banks windows XP is still ruling.

In higher studies students still are forced to use Turbo C/C++ even when we have options of Visual Studio and all these PC's are running Windows XP.

Do comment below giving your opinions on the same?
Is this the right move  from the Microsoft ? Should people upgrade to Windows 8.1?