In a press conference earlier this morning, California based VM Labs revealed their
long-under-wraps “Project X”. It is a flexible and scalable addition to future digital consumer devices, such as DVD players, digital satellite receivers, digital set-tops and the upcoming digital TVs, to give them interactive capabilities. It adds computer-like functionality to those devices, hopefully expanding the market of interactive digital entertainment media. VM Labs hope that many manufacturers will incorporate their “Project X” technology in their future designs of consumer electronics, even more so as the powerful addition can supposedly be implemented at almost no additional cost for the manufacturers. While the basic idea sounds nice, it still has to be seen how the distribution and pricing of “Project X” applications is received by the masses. It is one thing to have “Project X” capable devices in every home of the US, but it is a completely different story whether people will actually utilize it. In a world where many people are still not able to program their VCRs, it remains to be seen if they actually want to be “interactivized.