Kinect For Windows is one of Microsoft’s best projects to date. It’s a bit gimmicky and not that great for games, but it’s been amazing for app developers on the PC. Back in September, a developer created an email system for his mother who suffered from aphasia after a stroke. Now Microsoft is adding a new tool that will inspire a whole new range of applications.

At BUILD 2012, Microsoft announced that Kinect Fusion will be coming to Kinect For Windows. Kinect Fusion is software that creates a 3D model of an object, or even the environment, in the Kinect sensor’s view. The tool can be used for any number of applications, from augmented reality to 3D printing.

So how does it all work? Chris White, Senior Program Manager on Kinect for Windows explains:

Kinect Fusion takes the incoming depth data from the Kinect for Windows sensor and uses the sequence of frames to build a highly detailed 3-D map of objects or environments. The tool then averages the readings over hundreds or thousands of frames to achieve more detail than would be possible from just one reading. This allows Kinect Fusion to gather and incorporate data not viewable from any single view point. Among other things, it enables 3-D object model reconstruction, 3-D augmented reality, and 3-D measurements.

The team making Kinect Fusion uploaded a video back in August that shows off the tech. As far as Kinect goes, it’s really impressive.

Kinect Fusion will be available in a future release of the Kinect for Windows SDK. It will be interesting to see what new applications developers will build with the technology.

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