The Revolution of the Hacked Kinect, Part 2: Even MBAs Gotta Have One

It's remarkable that a gaming device (from Microsoft, no less) designed for geeky gamers has incited broad innovation in medicine and robotics. But that Kinect has captured the imagination of hackers-with-MBAs-in-mind is downright amazing.

Below, six videos demonstrating a variety of business/office concepts Kinect hackers have developed. 3D videoconferencing has received the most attention, but German company Evoluce has garnered positive feedback for WIN&I, which allows users to control Windows 7 via Kinect. That software has been further refined by French firm So touch, which now markets a program for using Kinect to control PowerPoint presentations. Beyond innovative office solutions, Kinect is also being used creatively in marketing, as you'll see in Nordstroms' Kinect-powered interactive light-writing display.

(1) WIN&I allows you to motion-control Windows 7. (2) Videoconferencing in an entire virtual office from Oliver Kreylos at University of California Davis. (3) More full-featured videoconferencing software in a real office, by Lining Yao, Anthony DeVincenzi, Ramesh Raskar, and Hiroshi Ishii from MIT Media Lab. (4) So touch's PowerPoint controlling software. (5) Nordstrom's new interactive window displays uses Kinect technology. (6) Here you see a different take on computer interface control with Kinect, this time with a shadow overlay to aide in keeping track of your hands onscreen. By German YouTube user floemuc.

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Next: The Revolution of the Hacked Kinect, Part 3: Gaming Gets Artsy

Just updated your iPhone to iOS 18? You'll find a ton of hot new features for some of your most-used Apple apps. Dive in and see for yourself: