Disney Backed MotionBeam Projector Revolutionizes Gaming (And Rental?) Industries

The game industry is worth a lot of money – between $44 and $55 billion, to be exact, so there is incentive for businesses to stay competitive and to come out with the next best thing.

All of the major players are scrabbling to tap into the next motion-system gadget – and we have the Wii and the Kinect to thank for that.

But now developments are taking a decidedly interesting turn, as an innovation resulting from the efforts of Carnegie Mellon University and Disney Research have yielded a cool new product: the motion projector (as a game).

The product, known as MotionBeam, combines iPhones (or iPod Touches), with a handheld projector and a motion sensor unit, to create one nifty game-control device.

The iPhones are first loaded up with games with this specific set-up in mind, and players can then use the MotionBeam to interact directly with the projected images.

The age of holographs is nearly here, but it doesn't have to be all fun and games.

The product is still very much in its demo phases, as evidenced as the rough and tumble videos scattered across YouTube, but it’s a technology that we can expect to see evolve. And there are definite business implications.

According to Disney officials, "We envision a future where tiny, bright and power-efficient projectors are embedded into devices throughout the environment. Combined with ubiquitous sensing and always-on connection to the Internet, these devices will be used for both work and play. Handheld projectors will allow us to interact with digital content, participate in virtual worlds, and collaborate with others. They will enable dynamic augmentation of the environment with intelligent imagery and will even be used to control and actuate physical objects. MotionBeamis our first step to explore this vision and make it a reality."

We offer all manner of projector rental products here at Vernon Computer Source – and pico projectors among them. Since we also support higher-level gaming machines and console systems, it seems only natural that one day we also might offer MotionBeam style technology.

Here’s hoping, anyways!

[Editor’s Note: In the image above, you will note a cat sitting in a chair playing with the MotionBeam. We’re not sure, exactly, what the cat is doing, but our editorial team is kind of hoping that this may eventually become a really cool kitty toy.]