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.

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 technology could be designed into a range of objects. This runs from ostensibly everyday items like lights, fans and heaters to brand new dedicated special effects peripherals such as furniture rumblers, smoke puffers and even aroma emitters. As long as they are ‘amBX enabled’, they could all be used to enhance the user’s viewing or gaming experience.

“amBX promises to be a triple win-win-win situation for game developers, hardware and peripheral manufactures and, of course, the end user,” says Jo Cooke. “Our vision is that in the medium term, amBX will be a standard feature on all new games – a bit like 3-D graphics are today.”

“In fi ve years we’d like to see amBX penetrating the home cinema market; and in ten for it to be the domestic LED lighting control and home ambient experience ‘mood’ solution,” continues Cooke. As amBX becomes more pervasive it will allow such a compelling experience that stepping back into the real world may come as a bit of a shock.

Perhaps in the near future gamers will have to work very hard to remind themselves that while the adrenaline increasing their heartbeat as the enemy starship appears over the Jovian horizon is real… the game isn’t. And come tomorrow, they’ll have to relinquish command of the Starfl eet and head back to their school or day job.

amBX is part of Philips’ vision of creating ‘ambient intelligence’ that extends home entertainment and day-to-day living environments. Philips’ AmbiLight TV and the Miravision display mirror are concrete examples of innovation in this area.
The amBX team – who are now part of the Philips Technology Incubator based at Redhill in the UK – are currently in advanced stages of talks with a number of leading PC computer game developers and peripheral manufacturers regarding adding amBX to leading games. The fi rst amBX-enabled PC games and peripheral devices will be available this autumn. End users will simply have to connect their amBX peripherals to their PCs to immediately enjoy the benefits.

http://www.research.philips.com/password/archive/27/pw27_ambx.html
http://www.ambx.com/site/about/what