>>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12707160
>
>One interesting aspect is that MS was initially trying to pull an Apple with the Kinect, and lock it in to the XBox. The FOSS community offered a bounty for someone to create a driver: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect#Open_source_drivers . MS later claimed it was a "misunderstanding" if anyone thought the device was closed.
>
>So, once again, MS got prodded to do something it should have done in the first place. Over time they'll sell more of them, and they'll probably get feel-good stories about how Kinects are being used to help disabled people etc.

Looks like an SDK on the way: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/kinectforwindowssdk-022111.aspx

"This release will leverage Microsoft Research’s deep connections to academia worldwide and its long history of releasing software tools to the research community to foster creativity, experimentation, and new research directions. "

:-}