3d scanning smartphone from Google.
This is going to open up a lot of possibilities.
If it works like this, it will be pretty good (skip to 5m 7s):
I’ve used a Next Engine scanner and I mustn’t be using it right- it takes hours to scan anything.
Funnily enough, that scanner is based on $200 tech from the same people who made the Kinect;
Frustratingly, they essentially have the same exact design and form factor I wanted to use to make the product. >.< Oh well, you snooze you lose I guess. 
I don’t believe they’re using Primesense tech, namely because Primesense was acquired by Apple and no longer exists.
There are other depth sensors available from Soft Kinetic, Intel and others out there.
It’s a big software egg to crack, there’s tons of work being done on SLAM research (Simultaneous localization and Mapping) which gives computers the ability to figure out where they are and where they’re going. It’s just a matter of getting the code to play along but there is tons of research in the field and it’s pretty awesome.
It will be fun once we get there. I had done a huge pitch on why depth sensors and SLAM were going to be hugely important in the future but apparently my lack of being a software genius means that telling people it will be cool isn’t as important as building it out yourself. And with all the universities and start ups pushing on it it just meant I get to sit and watch.