While the world are in awe of the capabilities of their iDevices, a quiet achiever continues to innovate.

Since Microsoft released its first Kinect it has been used in many creative ways. Originally designed for gaming, many other industries soon realised it’s potential. From monitoring play groups to identify kids that may potentially have autism to guard dog robots.
Now with the release of windows 8 imminent and it’s focus now inluding apps, the kinect once again presents ways for companies to use it in innovative ways.

Check this video by Nissan USA as an example.

The Kinect for Windows crew will be releasing updates to the runtime and software develoment kit (SDK) on October 8
Here is an excerpt from their blog

This release has numerous new features that deliver additional power to Kinect for Windows developers and business customers. Here are some highlights.

•Enable businesses to do more with Kinect for Windows
We are committed to opening up even more opportunities for the creation of new end user experiences. We’ll be adding features such as expanded sensor data access—including color camera settings and extended depth data—to continue to inspire innovative uses of the Kinect for Windows technology in new and different places.

•Improve developer efficiency
We continue to invest in making our platform easier and more powerful for developers. That’s why we’ll be releasing more tools and samples in October, such as a new sample that demonstrates a “best in class” UI based on the Kinect for Windows Human Interface Guidelines.

• Extend our Windows tools and operating system support
We want to make it easy for our customers to be able to build and deploy on a variety of Windows platforms. Our October update will include support for Windows 8 desktop applications, Microsoft .NET 4.5, and Microsoft Visual Studio 2012.

Exciting times are laying ahead for Windows and Kinect. I am certainly curious to see what else the Kinect can be used for…