Kinect Holodesk

I swear, just the other day someone left a comment referring the Holodeck made popular by Star Trek TNG.  Next thing you know, bam!  People working with MicrosoftResearch got a frigging YouTube video showing of their very own mini Holodeck, aptly named HoloDesk.  This is another one of those videos you have to see for yourself.  

The system combines an optical see-through display that uses a Kinect to create the illusion of a user interacting with 3D graphics.  The 3D rendered scene is then displayed through a half silvered mirror.  this allows people to reach under the mirror and interact with projected 3D objects in all kinds of ways.  

Facial recognition is able to track the angle at which you're looking at the display so every object you interact with has spot on accuracy regardless of your viewing angle.  The HoloDesk is one of the best uses of the Kinect to come out in quite some time and is definitely worth checking out.  The details are rather skimpy in terms of what was used to develop the application from a programming standpoint but it's safe to assume the Kinect SDK used.