kinect

A good starting point could be the wikipage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect

and the OpenNI page for programming it: https://github.com/OpenNI/OpenNI/tree/3d355acc8e31ec16253336ae9acea769ec088e04

software resources:

• Processing has a nice porting of openni: http://code.google.com/p/simple-openni/
• OSCeleton can come in handle when dealing with human body: https://github.com/Sensebloom/OSCeleton

other

• a creative way of using a kinect: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/07/smart-trashbox-is-kinect-enabled-making-sure-you-will-never-miss-another-shot/