Numerous developers are researching possible applications of Kinect that go beyond the system's intended purpose of playing games. For example, Philipp Robbel of MIT combined Kinect with the iRobot Create to map a room in 3D and have the robot respond to human gestures,[98] while an MIT Media Lab team is working on a JavaScript extension for Google Chrome called depthJS that allows users to control the browser with hand gestures.[99] Other programmers, including the Robot Locomotion Group at MIT, are using the drivers to develop a motion-controller user interface similar to the one envisioned in the film Minority Report.[100] The developers of MRPT have integrated open source drivers into their libraries and provided examples of live 3D rendering and basic 3D visual SLAM.[101] Another team has shown an application that allows Kinect users to play a virtual piano by tapping their fingers on an empty desk.[102] Oliver Kreylos, a researcher at University of California, Davis, adopted the technology to improve live 3-dimensional videoconferencing, which NASA has shown interest in.[103]
Alexandre Alahi from EPFL presented a video surveillance system that combines multiple Kinect devices to track groups of people even in complete darkness.[104] Companies So touch and Evoluce have developed presentation software for Kinect that can be controlled by hand gestures; among its features is a multi-touch zoom mode.[105] In December 2010, the free public beta of HTPC software KinEmote was launched; it allows navigation of Boxee and XBMC menus using a Kinect sensor.[106] Soroush Falahati wrote an application that can be used to create stereoscopic 3D images with a Kinect sensor.[107]
For a limited time in May 2011, a Topshop store in Moscow set up a Kinect kiosk that could overlay a collection of dresses onto the live video feed of customers. Through automatic tracking, position and rotation of the virtual dress were updated even as customers turned around to see the back of the outfit.[108]
Kinect also shows compelling potential for use in medicine. Researchers at the University of Minnesota have used Kinect to measure a range of disorder symptoms in children, creating new ways of objective evaluation to detect such conditions as autism, attention-deficit disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.[109] At the Institute of Forensic Medicine Virtopsy Project at the University of Bern in Switzerland, researchers have devised a way for surgeons to manipulate imaging techniques (such as MRI) to guide surgery, using a Kinect to capture their hand motions to direct the imaging, freeing their hands from having to use computer keyboards, thus also reducing the chance of contamination.[110] This technique is already working at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, where doctors use it to guide imaging during cancer surgery.[111