Despite what analysts are saying, jobs for engineers are still a bit scarce. I know a few who have been out of the market for years. Now it is time for these people to "engineer" their way out of the financial hole. Microsoft (MS) is here to help.
With the new "Kinect Accelerator" program, ten groups of people are going to be chosen to build something innovative with the Kinect. Any type of project is acceptable, from gaming to surgery. The ten groups will receive $20,000 USD, various dev-kits, and as much technical help MS can offer. The deadline for the application process is January 25th, 2012. Upon the start of the contest, all the teams will only have 3 months to complete their work. Most projects take longer than that, but financially hungry people do amazing things.
One possible contender comes from two students at the University of West Bohemia. Their SandyStation interactive sandbox uses the Kinect to create an alterable animated image on a 3D surface. Make piles and have a lush green mountain, put a hole in it and have a volcano that flows lava. The system can make pools of water and flow that virtual liquid down paths made by the user in real time. Sounds like this will provide minutes of fun.
However, the system looks like a great way to plan landscapes, map battlefields with troop movement, and demonstrate physics in motion. I am sure we will see this at all our local tech museums in the near future. I bet their Kinect Accelerator application has already been filed.
Cabe
More Kinect based projects:
Holodesk, the virtual 3D desktop
Robotic shopping cart, follows its user around
Advanced robot tech for the masses