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Equally, the XBox Kinect was an innovative product that truly deserves credit.

They didn't invent it though, they licensed the most critical parts

http://www.primesense.com/casestudies/kinect/

It was just Kinect glued to the head :/

PrimeSense Capri 1.25 http://www.primesense.com/solutions/sensor/

From least to most expensive, here are some mid budget items that would get me excited:
In the $200 range, and because I enjoy programming:

• - A kinect with either the Microsoft API
• - A primesense 3D sensor with the OpenNI API

For super extra bonus fun, integrate the sensor with the robot operating system so that you can use their cool 3D visualization tools.

Another sweet toy, slightly more expensive at $400, is the Lytro camera.

My final toy choice would be a very open 3D printing platform, like the 3rd generation Solidoodle, which at $799 is actually only accepting pre-orders now.

If I had all that stuff, and had enough time to play with it, I'd be pretty happy.

Didn't Microsoft buy the company that created it?

Not even that.. they licensed the technology. PrimseSense is currently showing products at CES. ASUS showed a Primsense offering as well.. the WAVI Xtion at last year's CES.

I think the Microsoft Marketing department had more to do with Kinect hardware development ( putting the logo on the reference design ) than Microsoft Research. I wonder if MS even did the XBox driver for Kinect.

Here's the Microsoft press release

If it was such an interesting feature, TV manufacturers could just licence the tech from PrimeSense, the company behind Kinect, and built it straight into TVs...

Microsoft did not make the 3D technology in the Kinect, they licensed it from PrimeSense. Props are due to MS for recognizing the good tech and brining it to market in a big way.

Unfortunately, the price isn't listed; but one of their salesdrones would probably give you a number upon request.

I know it's just a rendering...
http://www.primesense.com/?p=487 ...but why is the Kinect so much larger than their reference design?

4 microphones array for audio 3d localization

I know it's just a rendering...
http://www.primesense.com/?p=487 ...but why is the Kinect so much larger than their reference design?

The hardware(though apparently not the supporting software used on the XB360) is basically pure Primesense. However, given the 'you-have-to-ask-and-don't-want-to-know' pricing of previous Primesense-based products, it was quite nice of Microsoft to deliver the first one priced for the mass market...

Owner of technology is is PrimeSense

Right on, thanks! For anyone interested, that's a new development from this month, and the company was involved in Kinect development: http://www.primesense.com/ and http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/10/primesense-releases-open-source-drivers-middleware-for-kinect/

The important technology in the Kinect is supplied by PrimeSense. (Microsoft supplied the case and packaging materials.) Their web site describes the operation of the depth-sensing system, including the Structured Light projection used:

http://www.primesense.com/

Not that I'm agreeing with the premise that Microsoft never has any innovations of their own, but in the case of Kinect, PrimeSense developed the hardware. I don't know if Microsoft further developed it, or provided requirements for PrimeSense to develop it into something to use for the XBox, but it didn't begin with Microsoft.

There is another possible consideration: the producer of the technology.

Primesense created, presumably holds patents on, and did the reference design for, the "Kinect" camera/IR projector range mapping stuff. MS didn't buy them, they just bought/licenced enough of their stuff to produce Kinect hardware.

It is quite possible that Primesense also sells one or more much expensive motion capture solutions/SDKs/whatever based on the same technology; but agreed to give MS a sweet deal, in $/unit terms, because of the number of units expected to sell.

If the Kinect becomes generally useful, with independently produced drivers, anybody will be able to buy an instance of PrimeSense's fancy tech for $150 at any gamestop.

Consider an example from the old days: the first "Airport" cards were actually just rebadged Lucent gear; but with the pins deliberately switched around so that they would be incompatible with a PCMCIA slot. The Lucent branded equivalents were more expensive; but worked with normal PCMCIA slots. Obviously Lucent wasn't taking a loss on the "airport" cards; but they were having it both ways: sell a bunch of units to well-heeled consumers via Apple; but don't cannibalize the deep-pocketed connected enterprise market, thanks to deliberate incompatibility. There could be something similar going on here.

(and my parent post - down...)

You are absolutely right; what an unfortunate development (on top of that MS bought out Zcam team shortly before they were to release their webcam; I think now I'm angry instead of eagerly waiting - MS doesn't dissapoint yet again)

http://www.primesense.com/category/reference_design
^this is the tech on which Natal is based; essentially it is Natal, as you can see from the diagrams. While interesting in its own right, at least for indoors usage & when geared towards noticing humans, it's certainly not what I was hoping for. I guess Cenesta is next in line in possibly providing cheap TOF system...