The untapped potential of the XBox 360 Kinect

I’ve always been interested in stereoscopic 3D; while many people write it off as a gimmick I’ve always felt it that raises games and movies to a new level of immersion.

You may be thinking ‘wasn’t this article supposed to be about Microsoft’s XBox 360 Kinect?’

Well what some people might not realise is that the Kinect can be considered a pair of 3D glasses for your PC (or XBox).

The Kinect gives your PC the ability to see the physical world in stereo 3D, but up until now it only gathered what it needed to work as a cool XBox toy.

The KinectFusion team at Microsoft Research have refined it’s capabilities and have given it the ability to build true-to-life 3D renderings of an environment in real time.

Sounds cool; but what does this all mean?

It means Microsoft have created the world’s first real-time, hand held 3D scanner. The possibilities are endless.

Let’s explore some of the practical applications of such a device.

Imagine scanning your room into your XBox and turning it into a virtual splash pool, and because the scanner is real time you’d actually be able to splash around in it.

Cool perhaps, but it still sounds like it’ll get boring quickly.

So imagine having a keyboard which has no wiring or electricity at all but still works.

In fact, you could probably make your own keyboard out of smarties and Prestik; you’d be able to lay it out however you like and map each key as you like, and it would still work.

You could even use rolled up socks as a mouse or a scatter cushion as a steering wheel.

Still want more? If someone decided to make a wireless virtual-reality headset with a Kinect type device attached to the front, you could have your very own HUD in real life.

Furthermore, you could play an FPS in full stereoscopic 3D using your own house as a map, but actually walking through it and gunning down 3D AI in your living room.

Okay that’s probably still a few years off, but with KinectFusion and Nvidia’s Wireless Video the potential is there.

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