Erik Huggers, General Manager of Intel Media, confirmed during the Dive into Media conference that the company will be joining the battle for the television later this year. Their service will also include hardware that people can purchase, and he describes it as something with “beautiful industrial design.”

The set-top box will come equipped with a camera, which will enable users to have a “real social experience.” While there’s a possibility that it will also be used for targeted ads or personalized recommendations, the goods new is that, it can be turned off — no need to worry about your TV watching you while you watch TV. In terms of features, Intel sounds like they got it covered. According to Huggers, they “will have live television, catch-up television, on-demand, [and] a set of applications.”

They also plan to use the HEVC video codec instead of H.264, which will definitely be good news for users with data caps. What’s even more interesting is that Huggers told CNET that the service will not be Intel-branded, and that they plan to bring the service to mobile devices like smartphones and the iPad. The service is currently being tested in the homes of Intel employees.

Huggers says that the reason they want to do this is because  “Intel is very interested in [having] a direct connection to the consumer.” Hopefully for Intel, they know that they’re far from the only ones attempting this. The fight for living room dominance is gonna get pretty crowded very soon.

[via The Verge, CNET, image via IntelFreePress]