We learned about terrorist attacks on London subways almost at the instant the attack happened and this was not through newspapers or radio stations but by the average citizens using a cell phone to text or transmit photographs.  This scenario suggests that the Internet and mobile networks have enabled every person to be a contributor of information. 

Android has appeared. It is an operating system for smart phones and is intended to be open.  An average citizen can become an application programmer and sell applications to phone makers or phone user communities. 

Extrapolate this trend and we get Xtion.  Xtion is similar to Kinect which is a 3D visual sensor first launched by Microsoft for XBOX in October 2010.  Kinect is the 1st device in the commercial world capable of capturing human gestures in digital form.  Kinect includes many entertainment games that respond to your gesture in front of the Kinect cameras.  Xtion is an Asustek product that looks similar to Kinect.  It is the 1st device open to any application developer for the PC platform in the world, and it is now made available to the Compucon channel immediately by Asustek.  The idea is not for channel peers to design more games for PC with natural human gestures.  The idea is to get prepared, understand the implications of natural gesture as a man-machine interface, and get involved with the development of applications for anything or everything. 

The session will introduce this amazing device and the eco-system that is in its embryo stage for helping the average citizen and bright IT practitioners make a splash on the world without the financial muscle of Microsoft or Adobe.    As usual, a short Outside the Square theme will precede this session.