So the Kinect is out and even though the actual games don’t impress me that much, I am surprised by the things that hackers are already doing with the hardware. Creating 3D Holographic Videos with Microsoft Kinect I’m seeing many applications outside of video games. Imagine in a few years being to pan around sporting events watching the game from any vantage point you want, or a new type of store kiosk that uses facial recognition, which is already built into the Kinect. What do you guys think? Are we going to be seeing this type of technology popping up all over the place in a few years? Where would you like to see it applied?
I think it’ll be huge…eventually.
Theres a ton of ways I think this tech could be applied in all kinds of situations where you have the need for input modalities that need to be free from any kind of controls. You could imagine a car where the dashboard is completely absent and been replaced by projected controls on the windshield that you can just reach out and grab.
One thing I also read that is cool is that with slightly higher resolution video (I believe the current camera only captures QVGA) you’ll be able to do mapping down to the finger level - which could mean things like real time interpretation of sign language and things like that.
That demo you posted also means you could use the input for 3D point cloud scanning at a price point of under $200.
This could be the element that eventually brings scanning of an individual’s body shape for customization. Clothing immediately springs to mind.