Now that the Kinnect has been hacked (against the express wishes of Overlord Microsoft), people are figuring out how to put it to better use than merely time-wasting games.
(The Kinnect works by spraying thousands of infra-red dots into the room, and then using a pair of sensors to measure their distance to each one. This allows XBox software to determine the distance and position of your body's various parts as you move about the room, making it appear tha ty ou are "interacting" with the game.)
Infra-red dots sprayed by Kinnect onto human body parts.
Oliver Kreylos figured how how to connect the Kinnect with a camera to help recreate 3D images of his office. There are a pair of video here in which he describes his initial work; the source code is also available at his site.
Kinnect connected to camera.
Although Microsoft sells Kinnect for $150, the parts cost just $56, which means that 3D scanning could become very cheap in the near future.
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