This first few weeks of this month have produced some spectacular announcements from the R&D teams using Microsofts Kinect accessory, and most of these have been reported in depth on the Verge’s website. Sadly none of these involve gaming directly, but a couple may have features that could enhance the gaming experience for Xbox 360 owners, and future Kinect for Windows owners too.

First off there came a story of 3D holographic teleconferencing using a cylinder topped with six Kinects which you stand in front of to get “mapped” in 3D, and then beamed to another cylinder elsewhere in the world, creating a full 3D rendering of the caller that can be walked around and viewed from a full 360 degrees. This would undoubtedly prove useful in the workplace, but I don’t foresee this expensive set-up proving all that useful in the gaming world.

Secondly, the use of augmented reality in the topography sandbox (a literal box of sand, not the gaming term) means that young visitors to museums can interact with the sand, creating hills and dips that are mapped by the Kinect and represented by projectors as a topographical view, to which virtual water can be added to view how the physical shape of the ground will affect water flow. Again, this is a very neat idea, but not much practical use for the gamers amongst us.

Thirdly, a slightly more useful addition of Premium Agency’s LiveAR software promising interaction between Apple iPad’s and Microsoft’s Kinect. Initially, the video shows only what appears to be visual effects on the TV screen following screen taps on the iPad and some hand gestures aimed towards the Kinect. A little underwhelming at the moment, I think this could be an incredible opportunity to introduce tablet games onto home consoles. Am I the only one imagining a head-to-head with Fruit Ninja on both the iPad and the Kinect versions? It may even be the step Microsoft need to take to compete with the similar tablet/movement combination promised by Nintendo’s WiiU console. (Full video is viewable here.)

Finally, and infinitely more interesting to this gamer, is the MirageTable concept creating an astounding interactive 3D workspaces, which can provide useful video conferencing tools, but could also impact the gaming market with interactive gaming, of the board or casino game variety.

Take a look at the videos, and see if you can foresee the gaming potential of these projects.