It’s been only two weeks since the highly anticipated release of Microsoft’s Kinect sensor for Xbox 360, but already we’ve seen a number of incredible, creative hacks surface. The revolutionary technology in this gestural interface is only part of what’s driving the rapid pace of development—there have been a number of monetary rewards offered for open source hacks to sweeten the deal. The implications of this new technology and all of its intended and unintended capabilities have yet to be fully realized, but if the things we’ve seen over these past two weeks are any indication, it is, in a word, game-changing. Hat tip to all of the talented developers included in this round-up, and any others we may have missed, for their innovative work.

A round-up of some of our favorite Kinect hacks thus far:

3D Video Capture With Kinect

Kinect Sensor In Mobile Robotics

Multi-Touch With Hacked Kinect

Kinect + OpenFrameworks 3D Drawing Tool

Kinect Object Recognition On PC