Hacking the Kinect

[nobody important]

I have one question, though.  What purpose would an accelerometer have in the Kinect?  Perhaps it was put in there being forward thinking (for future use), but I can't come up with anything more useful than being able to sense if were mounted upside to flip the camera image.  This alone would be accomplished at a lower cost by using a simple switch, like the sensor inside the 360 itself.  Anyone have an idea for a use of this?

The accelerometer is used to detect orientation.  The sensor auto-rotates video capture streams so that 'down' in the image is gravitational down, even if the sensor is on a surface that is not horizontally parallel to the ground.

[scopen4]

More Interesting Development involving kinect:  http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/14/hack-turns-kinect-into-mindblowing-3d-video-capture-tool/

[inspuration]

That 3d video is really neat. I don't think that anyone would disagree that the non-gaming applications of the kinect are pretty mindblowing.

[grosbedo]

Don't know if this is pertinent for you, but here is an early application of Kinect in mobile robotics :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRPEns8MS2o