November 16, 2010 | Present

From labs.laan.com

Microsoft’s just launched Kinect is generating a lot of buzz right now. But it’s not the platform’s games that are most exciting — instead it’s the implications for future gesture-based interfaces. For example, check out Wes Keltner’s article about the possibilities for Gesture-Based Advertising.

But I think what’s even cooler is the degree to which designers and programmers are working to hack Kinect and invent all sorts of new applications for the technology, and new way to think about gesture interactions. Microsoft seems to be pretty unhappy about this, but maybe, instead, they should embrace this energetic culture.

Much of the work is based on software which is downloadable from the OpenKinect project. People have been posting videos of their work, and it’s a lot of fun to check out. There’s something about the whole-body interaction that has shades of Myron Kruger.

Engadget has a good post about some of this early exploration for capturing motion and 3D data. And there’s tons more out there to explore, such as the YouTube channel KinectHacks.

Golan Levin hacking Kinect

UPDATE: Here is even more…