At US Berkley EECS Professor Claire Tomlin and Patrick Bouffard has created a quad-helicopter than can avoid obstacles this it can see. Using a Ubuntu computer running an Atom CPU at 1.6Ghz, the coptor gather data from the attached Microsoft Kinect and Vicon Motion-capture system as it moves about staying level. Almost puppet like, the robot demonstrates its ability to avoid objects and move around in its environment.
I envision a future world when everyone has a hovering robot companion documenting their every move, helping navigate, and aiding in retrieval of whatever the person wants. combine this with voice commands you could, "Bot, go back to my office and get the documents on my desk." Or, "bot, take me to Cicero and avenue X," and it would move ahead and guides you.
The Kinect innovations cease to amaze. Keep them coming!
Eavesdropper