Paint your game across the entire room with Razer's Project Ariana concept
The prototype projector uses color cues and in-game images to turn any room into an immersive experience.
- Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
One of the more unusual concept pieces Razer has ever shown off at CES is Project Ariana, a high-concept projector that's designed to complement, not replace, your main display.
It combines an ultra-wide 155-degree fish-eye lens and a pair of 3D-sensing cameras to "paint" some combination of in-game footage, related images (like weather effects) and colored lights, via Razer's Chroma lighting system, all in an effort to augment the onscreen game experience and make it feel all-enveloping.
"Project Ariana is a concept design that showcases the power and potential of the Razer Chroma platform in the pre-VR world in bridging the gap between gamers and games," says Razer co-founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan in a press release.
Project Ariana is still just a prototype, but it's designed to also work as a standalone high-def projector, which should help the concept feel a bit more practical. Still, it's too early to expect a potential price or date, and this product may never actually see a commercial release.
But, while Project Ariana is new, you might think the overall idea sounds a little familiar. That's because this treads some of the same ground as the Microsoft Illumiroom, a never-released prototype from CES 2013 that was designed to do something similar for an Xbox console.
Ariana also highlights the growth of Razer's Chroma lighting system, which is built into its laptops and accessories. New at CES 2017, is that the Chroma ecosystem will now be open to third-party partners. Some potential examples include lights from the 16.8 million Chroma color palette syncing across devices such as Philips Hue lights, gaming PC cases from Lenovo and Antec, and even a Lian Li standing desk.
We've seen colored lights in many gaming laptops and desktops over the years, but the Chroma lighting system available in the Razer Blade line is the most impressive so far, so it'll be interesting to see it work hand-in-hand with different products in 2017.