The Kinect was extremely anticipated as a massive game changer in the video gaming world. My employer, Best Buy, was constantly sold out of them, and the day that we had another shipment, they were immediately sold out again. I take that back: not just my Best Buy, but every single Best Buy within half an hour of mine was constantly sold out, and there are a whopping six Best Buys around. The Kinect itself is phenomenal. Then Microsoft gave us the games to go with it, and users around the world cried WTF?! They were all absolute crap. When customers asked me what game I would recommend; I would always start with, “ehhhh…” Now that Dance Central is out, I finally have something to recommend, but that by no means makes up for the crap that Microsoft gave us. So people took it into their own hands to make use of the amazing technology that the Kinect is.



Playing World of Warcraft

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62wj8eJ0FHw&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

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I remember trying to come up with some way that I could exercise while I was playing WoW a long time ago, and this would have been it. I used to do sit ups while I was waiting for my raid to get together and I would flex and do leg lifts while I was actually playing. Playing WoW with the Kinect would have felt much less like a chore…

Playing Minecraft

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LADAxJbd1n0&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

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This was the first Kinect hack that I ever saw, and, although there are some rough patches, it is still pretty neat, and again a really fun way to play a computer game. You can also see how the Kinect “sees” the player in the video at the top.

Making a 3D Image

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-w7UXCAUJE&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

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This is where I could see the Kinect having practical use in many different scenarios, especially security and possibly military. I’m sure the military branches could come up with some use.

Drawing

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkjOPAwa-sg[/youtube]

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In the beginning of the video, I thought “oh, how nice,” and then my jaw dropped. I could see this really work well with children and physical therapy.

Shadow Puppets to the Extreme

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAGnSrdOfyA&feature=related[/youtube]

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I found this one to be adorable, and I think it would be really fun to have at children’s shows (remember those little mini shows we used to go to at the zoo?).

…And I Saved the Best For Last!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDlvn3voblQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

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Editors over at Kinecthacks.net described this one as the best hack they had ever seen. At the beginning of the video, I thought, “well that seems doable.” It didn’t take long for me to outright say, “no way.” Then toward the end, I said, “WTF?!” I’ll just let you watch. They were kind enough to translate the video for us here as well.

So which one is your favorite? And what would you like to see people do with the Kinect? While we are on a roll, what games would you like to see come out for Kinect as well?



