Microsoft at this year’s E3 pre-conference media briefing unveiled SmartGlass, an Xbox-specific function that will be spilling over into tablets, Windows Phone devices and even Android gadgets.
Microsoft envisions a way of offering multi-layered content using all of the devices that the average tech-head already owns. If you are playing a movie or TV show on a console, a connected mobile device like a cellular phone or tablet can be used to deepen the immersion by offering further, possibly interactive, information on the show in question.
This technology will be going both ways. Watching a movie on a mobile device will eventually seamlessly allow viewers to switch to playback from the point where they left off when they come into range of a connected Xbox console. Microsoft’s Marc Whitten is duly excited by the possibilities offered by SmartGlass, which will extend over to Windows 8 PCs as well and will likely also confine itself to Windows 8-based mobile devices. Android should get a look-in regardless of the version.
The tech, as interesting as it sounds, will take a little while to reach to level it was described at during the briefing but you can expect it once a range of developers have had their way with it.