While there are no specific products or implementation announcements at this time, Sony and Philips reached a middleware licensing agreement that will allow amBX "to bring amazing light, rumble, sound and air movement experiences to [PS3] users." A licensing agreement may not sound like a big deal, but when you're talking about advanced peripherals that need very specific driver/code support, they simply couldn't appear on a console without being sanctioned. Hopefully we'll see some interesting PS3-specific amBX peripherals shortly.

amBX ANNOUNCES TOOLS AND MIDDLEWARE LICENSE FOR PLAYSTATION®3
4th February 2009 - Redhill, UK - amBX today announced that it has concluded a Tools & Middleware License agreement for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) with Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI).

Originally conceived and developed for the PC by a UK team within Philips Research, amBX is a technology that delivers real-world sensory experiences - using light, colour, rumble and even air flow - through licensed amBX peripherals, to the virtual worlds of video games, music, movies, Internet and TV entertainment. The Tools & Middleware License agreement with SCEI will allow amBX to develop its ambient experiences technology beyond the PC market and into the worldwide game market.

"This is a major milestone in the development of amBX as a ubiquitous standard for entertainment sensory experiences," commented Jo Cooke, Chief Marketing Officer, amBX. "amBX has already proved incredibly popular and successful within the PC games, music, movies and apps markets and the Tools & Middleware License agreement with SCEI will allow us to bring amazing light, rumble, sound and air movement experiences to game users."

amBX has already licensed the technology to many content developers and publishers in the gaming sector and the amBX developer program has recently launched a new, free SDK to allow many more hardware and entertainment developers to add this innovative technology to their products. A support forum also provides advice and best practice information as well as a complete toolbox that will unlock the most advanced features of amBX at www.ambx.com.

You might think that taking the AmbiLight idea and applying it to speakers is a bit whack. Well, you're wrong. Imagine having 16 million colors illuminating your computer corner, desk or batcave, responding to the sound and vision in your home. Under the AmBX name, these peripherals come in either 2.1 or 5.1 the speakers being 40W and subwoofer 80W. No price or release date yet but I expect gamers will be keeping an eye out. More pics after the jump.

– Ad Dugdale

Philips Brings AmbiLight To PC Peripherals [TrustedReviews]

11:11: Lucas Covas and his sexy European accent takes the stage. Points out the dudes wearing "luminous" clothing that has a display built-in hanging around the room. Also points out their 2007 17 CES Innovations Awards.

11:15: Talks about a bunch of old stuff like Skype phonea and amBX gaming speakers, and Ambilight TVs.

11:17: Stewart Miller, President of Philips North America joins Lucas on stage. They then show off the 1,000,000th Ambilight TV manufactured that's all tricked out with 2,000 diamonds. Classy.

11:20: Philips is focused on flat TVs. In 2007 Philips will offer 30 new models of flat TVs, with larger sets being 1080p. Perfect Pixel HD Engine is a chipset dedicated to pumping out 1080p HDTV resolution, decreasing motion blur, increasing contrast, etc.

11:22: 120Hz refresh rate give 4ms response time on their new LCD TVs. New 32-inch, 47-inch, and 52-inch amilight LCDs coming this year.

11:24: Ambisound gets rid of surround sound speakers and puts everything up front. Shows it off with a Fantastic Four clip. Here's the deets:

Ambisound HTS8100
Price: $ 999
Availablity: second quarter 2007

Ambisound
HTS6600
Model: HTS6600
Price: $ 599
Availablity: second quarter 2007

11:27: Supreme commander video game clips with crazy lights all over the room. Showing off the amBX speakers with lights. It blows all sorts of wacky lights all over the place and vibrates your wrists while you play. Some crappy looking games like "Broken Sword: The Angel of Death" are already programmed to use amBX stuff.

11:31: Blu-ray rah rah rah. 25GB discs out now, 50GB discs on their way. New BR player plays the discs and upscales DVDs.

11:32: VoIP phones. Philips HD voice technology improves call quality.

11:34: Digital picture frames in 7 and 9-inch models. Internal memory holds the pics, holds albums, does slideshows with transitions.

11:36: Portable DVD players that can also view digital photos, comes loaded with video iPod docks. New surge protectors as well, including the squid design.

11:38: Wireless HDMI can transfer uncompressed 1080p HD over the air. designed to replace wiring between TV and components. It supports HDMI 1.3, which is nice.

11:43: And that's it. Pretty underwhelming if you ask me. Ah well, can't win 'em all.

–Adam Frucci

Philips's gave us a tour of their amBX gaming system last night running on Far Cry. It's comprised of some LED driven lights that bathe your room in lights similar to on screen colors, fans that blast you with air when your avatar is sprinting or getting knocked around, rumble pads and a 2.1 audio system that's pretty loud. Here they've got got two kits daisy chained together for more...ambience.

Playing Far Cry in this particular setup reveals that you really do see flashes of white light before you die. –Brian Lam

Philips amBX [philips]

Sounds like a cool idea on paper, but I highly doubt it will be able to take off as an actual product. – Travis Hudson

amBX [Via CrunchGear]

Imagine the room of the future, where all electronic devices are amBX-enabled. The treacherous road to Saigon will turn your room jungle green, swimming with dolphins will splash it deep blue, 'Halo' jumps will turn your fans on full, lightning storms will strobe your white lighting, and attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion will blast on your heaters.

Press Release [Via Red Ferret]