Kinect hack offers Holographic chat for cheap

Microsoft’s Kinect sensor has been used in many cool hacks and now the folks over at the MIT Media Lab might be coming up with something that we’ve been dreaming of playing with since we were kids, holographic images. While it’s not as cool as those that you see in Star Wars just yet, but we’re definitely getting there, and don’t forget that we’re using consumer-grade hardware. The Kinect-powered hologram transmitter uses a single-camera and can update transmissions at a speed of 15 frames per second, which is hardly fast, but good enough to prove a point. You can check out a video of it in action after the jump, and while it won’t replace FaceTime anytime soon, Darth Vader might want to consider stocking up on Kinect sensors.