In fact, there are so many that it's getting hard to keep up with all these cool Kinect hacks, so we'll be bringing you a regular roundup of the best ones out there.

The first hack comes from the Center for Biomolecular Imaging at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, US, where Josh Tan and colleagues are using Kinect to manipulate 3D models based on data from CT scans. The software is used by surgeons to visualise the internal organs of their patients, but this currently involves reaching for a mouse in the middle of an operation. The Kinect can track a surgeon's hand to create a virtual mouse pointer, leaving them free to stay focused on the procedure while still providing the information they need.

Next up is a Kinect art project (pictured) by James George and Alexander Porter. They strapped a Kinect to the bottom of an SLR camera then hooked it up to a backpack full of batteries and a laptop, letting them take 3D pictures on the New York City subway by combining the depth readings from Kinect with high quality photos.

Last but not least, Labsid, a computer graphics research firm based in Torelló, Spain, have combined Kinect with Nvidia's PhysX technology to create augmented reality objects that behave like the real thing. Virtual cloth and falling blocks are placed in the scene at different levels of depth, allowing the researchers to stand in front or behind them and interact with them in a realistic way.