… From the day it was released last fall, the Kinect captured the imagination of experimenters, starting with programmers, roboticists and tinkerers. Research scientists have long used pairs of cameras and specialized algorithms, but Microsoft’s machine handled all the hard work. The Kinect was the first relatively low-cost way to capture three-dimensional information about the world.Because the Kinect is inexpensive and easy to work with, the experimentation grew more mainstream, and people began sharing their software and reporting on their exploits using sites like kinecthacks.net.
www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/technology/personaltech/kinect-hacking-finds-a-wider-crowd.html