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[metaldevil]

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what is amBX?

amBX is shorthand for ‘ambient experiences’. Driving the next generation of home entertainment, it’s a scripting language, a software engine and architecture.

But it’s what amBX does that makes all the difference.

With amBX, multiple devices in your room work in harmony to deliver new entertainment experiences: surround lighting, sound, vibration, air movement and other effects. It takes what’s pretty much a ‘virtual’ activity - games, DVDs, music - and turns it into a far more tangible, immersive experience.

immersion and interaction

If you’re a gamer, the virtual world reaches out from your screen. You feel the action: the movement of vehicles, shifts in lighting, rumbling explosions, ricocheting bullets, wind in your face. The mix of ambient lighting, vision, sound and tactile sensations mean the gaming experience will never be the same.

The applications of amBX are only limited by the imagination and creativity of content creators and, ultimately, end users. Just imagine ambient room lighting and other changes tied-in to your favourite music, to web content, interactive toys and games, books, or even to reflect the time of day and your changing moods?

An amBX-enabled world is starting to emerge around you – Bringing a new dimension to entertainment.

If you’re into movies and DVDs, amBX will take you into the action through the use, ambient surround lighting that feeds your senses in the same way surround sound heightens the audio experience.

That sounded vague but interesting so I read their "games" page:

QUOTE

games

In the amBX-enabled world you don’t just play games - you experience them.

amBX is revolutionary technology that’s designed to give you the gaming experience you always dreamed of.

By the end of this year you will be able to buy amBX enabled games amd peripherals and experience amBX for yourself.

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 immerse yourself

The world of gaming is changing. Using amBX technology, multiple peripherals in the room around you work in harmony with the game to deliver a new sensory experience: surround lighting, sound, vibration, air flow and other effects.

The difference between amBX-enabled games and non-amBX games has to be felt to be believed. The game no longer sits in front of you on the screen, it’s wrapped around you. The game reaches out, and you become part of the action.

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 amBX + game + peripherals = immersion

If you buy an amBX-enabled game and have peripherals in your room, you get the amBX experience.


amBX-enabled peripherals join in automatically based on the content, timings and experiences specified by the game creator. This isn’t about programming: it’s a way for games developers to take the ideas in their head right to the heart of the gamers’ experience.


Check these pages regularly as we’ll be announcing details of amBX peripherals and where you can buy them along with new amBX- enabled games and existing games that have been retrofitted with amBX content.

If this amBX malarkey turns out to be true, the cost for consumers will be astronomical. In my humble prediction, I think this will be another "Infinium Labs-like" company.

[Deezee]

WOW! That sounds crazy!! I never went to their site. I found the video link on ebaums. I just couldnt resist showing you guys here!

[metaldevil]

Oh, I thought you knew. Well, here's the link to their site:

http://www.gamesbreakout.com/

[adfinder23]

That would be pretty sweet. You could play a game with a dimming lamp that would change with the game. Like playing Doom 3 or Condemned and have the lights go out when they go out in the game. It could be multicolored to match the color of light in the game too. The fan could blow cold or hot air, and someday maybe we'll get scents that go with it so you can smell the monster's breath, or fart. EWWW.

Maybe I'll win the lottery and have software designed for me and a house built around it. So if in the game a sound is heard upstairs, a speaker upstairs will make that sound. The entire house will lift up on hydraulics and shake during an earthquake in the game. I'll get on top of that Rose.

[esdubu]

QUOTE

If this amBX malarkey turns out to be true, the cost for consumers will be astronomical. In my humble prediction, I think this will be another "Infinium Labs-like" company.

amBX is actually part of Philips electronics and there have been at least 2 articles in UK gaming magazine EDGE on the technology. Philips have spent a lot of money on R&D for this technology and are already providing game developers with the tools for the amBX software. In the latest article on it in EDGE Philips have said that the technology is scaleable so you could for example go the whole hog and spend a fortune on equipment for this technology or you can go for a lower experience and get less equipment for a lot cheaper. If i recall correctly the minimum spec will be a couple of lights and a fan i think. No more than a couple of hundred at the most.