Kinect + Robots = Awesomeness

The Kinect was quickly hacked a few weeks ago and now, the development around this sensor is advancing very fast. The Kinect is a 3D camera made by Microsoft that not only senses a full colour video, but also sees the depth of objects and scenes.

[vimeo 17007842]

In the robotics field, the Kinect has been used to create 3D maps of the environment by mounting it on an iRobot Create as depicted in the video below. The Willow Garage people are also having  fun with the Kinect and are using it to control PR2 and also to provide it with better SLAM capabilities. See the video below for more details. Via OpenKinect.