It has been confirmed via a company blog that Valve are working on a new piece of hardware, but it's not what you might think.
The Steam Box is a long rumoured piece of hardware apparently being developed by Valve, and it has been the centre of some feverish speculation for a while now. Whilst many expected Valve to reveal plans for a new console platform, a Valve blog by Michael Abrash explains how a different piece of hardware is being developed.
Currently in the experimental R&D stages of development, Abrash is working on creating wearable computer equipment.
He explained what he was working on: "By "wearable computing" I mean mobile computing where both computer-generated graphics and the real world are seamlessly overlaid in your view; there is no separate display that you hold in your hands (think Terminator vision)."
"The underlying trend as we've gone from desktops through laptops and notebooks to tablets is one of having computing available in more places, more of the time. The logical endpoint is computing everywhere, all the time - that is, wearable computing - and I have no doubt that 20 years from now that will be standard, probably through glasses or contacts, but for all I know through some kind of more direct neural connection."
He added: "I'm pretty confident that platform shift will happen a lot sooner than 20 years - almost certainly within 10, but quite likely as little as 3-5, because the key areas - input, processing/power/size, and output - that need to evolve to enable wearable computing are shaping up nicely, although there's a lot still to be figured out."
Whether or not news of this R&D project will dispel rumours of the Steam Box remains to be seen.