Kinect related projects that involve Processing and Arduino are always so damn cool! Take for instance this latest demo by P&A LAB. They sought out to develop a tracking system that would control a light source by either turning it on/off or dimming the light. They've set up their rig to include some LED lights that represent the amount of dimming that would occur if this product were actually in use. The video shows a linear actuator move according to the gestures used in order to control the amount of dimming the light source would receive.

Control:mapper is a utility which enables you to use your Microsoft Kinect with almost any existing Windows application. Control:mapper monitors the movement of your body for predefined actions, then converts them to your specified keyboard and mouse commands.

This video demonstrates how their new software, control:mapper, enables you to play existing Windows applications using your Microsoft Kinect and a Windows 7 or 8 PC.

Assign any combination of keys and mouse control to defined gestures, or virtual triggers located in the space around your body.

The technological start-up CoVii introduced today at CES its new software for 3D sensors, which transforms any screen of any size into a touchscreen - ViiHaptic.

The Israeli company PrimeSense™, that created the 3D sensor technology, believes that this new CoVii’s software will revolutionize the digital signage market, because it can transform any screen of any size already used by companies into a touchscreen in a robust manner and with a much lower cost than a real touchscreen.

Fresh out the gate and right on time for all your holiday hacking needs comes the new OpenNI 2.0 SDK (along with a shinny new website to boot!). The Good folks at OpenNI have rebuild their widely used SDK from the ground up with several new enhancements pertaining to the way you build apps using 3D sensors.

Here's a list of using OpenNI 2.0 over the previous version:

Looking to blow some minds with your mad DIY skills? How about fabricating your very own portable Kinect! Thanks to the amazing work of some very talented developers from the University of Bristol, you too can take your 3D depth sensing adventures on the road. Schematics and board layout files along with a hardware shopping list is available for you to check out on their project page if you're interested in learning more.

No, this isn't an announcement for Vi Insanely Improved (wow, a vim joke, never thought I'd see the day…) but rather an announcement about a new Kinect related SDK to hit the market.

ViiM provides all functionalities of OpenNI, adding new high-level features and is packed with an assortment of great tools including 14 recognizable gestures ranging from basic wave to double click or backspace. ViiM is also able to track up to 15 skeletons while calculating individual joint positions, rotation angles, matrixes and quaternions.

If you've been following the scene for a while, I'm sure you're familiar with localization and mapping techniques using SLAM (Simultaneous localization and mapping). If you've seen the movie Prometheus, think of that orb they sent in that scans the entire place in a matter of hours (but a little less high tech).

Ask any developer, having a utility library available when building applications can save a you a lot of troubles. As part of a project to create gestural based character movements in second life (Armadillo); John McCaffery has developed NuiLib, a library which works with the Kinect in order to alleviate much of the heavy lifting and provide a means to ease integration of NUI devices into applications.

A very cool hackathon event is going down on October 5th and 6th at the High Tech Campus (5656 Gestel, Eindhoven, The Netherlands). Participants will pit themselves against one-another by developing a toolkit for 3D design and Print using the Wii remote, Microsoft Kinect, Leapmotion or any other innovative device, not being a traditional mouse, in 32 hours.

AlexD hooked us all up with this robust and incredibly awesome framework developed as a part of his Computer Science Master Thesis. The framework allows users to become immersed in a whole body virtual reality experience. It's something you definitely need to see to believe. But we'll get to that soon enough.