The second day of the 2013 edition of CES wasn’t just a technology and gadgetry show but had a little Presidential pizazz thrown in as President Bill Clinton made an appearance at the Samsung keynote to talk about the importance of technology in the developing world. But we start with some of the biggest news for gamers to come out of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.

Steam Box – Gabe Newell actually calls Valve’s upcoming console the “Steam Box”
As for as gamers are concerned, it looks like The Verge scored the big news scoop of CES. Their interview with Valve CEO Gabe Newell shined a lot of light on to Valve’s plans for hardware going forward.

It’s important to start by mentioning that Newell confirmed that Valve will be selling their own console. As had already been reported, the Steam Box will be a Linux-based unit. Newell says that the unit will be completely open so you can install Windows (though Newell didn’t mention his hatred of Windows 8 in this interview). Keeping with that way of thinking, Newell says that he wants to see more user-generated content on Steam. One example he sighted was people creating their own “Steam stores” with unique product listings. He specifically mentioned team stores or a worst games on Steam store.

When talking about upcoming Valve hardware, Newell said he saw the Steam Box as a gaming server that would stream to 8 TVs with 8 controllers. This would be something that might be possible with the next generation of GPU but not presently. He also suggested that Valve wouldn’t be investing in motion controls for the Steam Box but he is interested in biometric controllers (which is also something that Sony patent applications indicate they’re interested in as well).

While third-party Steam consoles are due out this year, Valve engineer Ben Krasnow told Engadget that Valve won’t be officially unveiling or releasing the Steam Box in 2013.

IllumiRoom – Microsoft and Samsung start us on the path to the Holodeck
A few months back, I remember reading about a Microsoft patent that projected images from a game into a room. The obvious comparison was to the holodeck from Star Trek: The Next Generation. (It was in DS9 and Voyager too but we first saw it in TNG.) During the Samsung CES keynote, the two companies unveiled their combined effort to make games properly three-dimensional.

The IllumiRoom combines a Kinect with a projector to create the effect. The Kinect measures the room and determines where you are in order to process the projected graphics. The video below is a lab demo of the system in action. While the Kinect has been the bane of the Xbox gamers existence since the device was unleashed upon the world, using as part of the IllumiRoom would actually give it a purpose beyond frustrating everyone that uses it.

Alliance for Wireless Power – Samsung and Qualcomm team up for wireless charging
We’ve heard about wireless power in the past but now it’s gone mainstream with big electronics companies such as Samsung, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments, among others, teaming up to develop a new wireless power station. The demonstrated A4WP device is a small pad that’s plugged into the wall. It can recharge multiple compatible devices on or near the charge pad. It does this through what they describe as a “non-radiative magnetic resonance-based wireless power transfer ecosystem.” I have no idea what that means. A4WP say that they’ll be ready to certify Alliance member charging device by the end of the first half of the year. It’s great to see that the future is now.