There are a couple of dev teams working on something similar with Kinect(s) and Oculus Rift. The two main applications I've seen are VR "movies" that would record a scene with both video and depth information which would allow you to walk around in a recorded "scene" as it plays back. The other is focused on using depth cameras to capture depth and video information and then compress and transmit it to create a more immersive form of telepresence.
I think that sort of thing is a much "bigger" application of VR technology than the gaming focus that it's starting out with. Gaming makes sense as a starting point since there are already engines and frameworks in place for generating 3d content that can be rendered from different angles to create the 3d illusion.
Still, I look at it like the early nickelodeons and parlor games seen at the advent of motion pictures. I think it will be much more useful when you can place small, inexpensive depth cameras near the top of each wall of a room (for example) and use that to capture depth and video information. That could be used to build a real-time 3d map of a room and people in the room and used in recorded or live communication. I think it's already at the point where this stuff can be done in a prototype form but as head-mounted displays and processing hardware is refined, it will be able to move from something requiring ski goggles and beefy workstations to streamlined specs and consumer-electronics base station appliances.
I think that sort of thing is a much "bigger" application of VR technology than the gaming focus that it's starting out with. Gaming makes sense as a starting point since there are already engines and frameworks in place for generating 3d content that can be rendered from different angles to create the 3d illusion.
Still, I look at it like the early nickelodeons and parlor games seen at the advent of motion pictures. I think it will be much more useful when you can place small, inexpensive depth cameras near the top of each wall of a room (for example) and use that to capture depth and video information. That could be used to build a real-time 3d map of a room and people in the room and used in recorded or live communication. I think it's already at the point where this stuff can be done in a prototype form but as head-mounted displays and processing hardware is refined, it will be able to move from something requiring ski goggles and beefy workstations to streamlined specs and consumer-electronics base station appliances.