The Kinect news just keep getting better as a new version of the Kinect SDK (1.7) will be released today. The Kinect is a device I wish I had way more time for as its coolness seems pretty much unlimited.
so keep your eye on
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/develop/developer-downloads.aspx
as today is 1.7 day!!
This looks cool. One quick question though, whats the difference between the kinect for windows at £199 and the kinect for Xbox at about £100??
The former can be used for commercial projects, while the latter can only be used for development and testing purposes on Windows.
I think some of the more recent additions to the SDK (such as near mode) also require the Kinect for Windows sensor.
@ devhammer - So the hardware is different, right?
The differences in hardware are based more on connection / power supply then actual differences in the Kinect hardware itself (ie connecting to a xBox vs a PC). Near mode is Windows Kinect only as that is the only place it makes sense.
I think that Duke has the right of it, but to be honest, I am not certain whether there are hardware differences or not…not really my area of expertise…I’ve just used the SDK on a few projects (enough to know that it’s…AWESOME!!!). 
The new SDK exposes new API’s for access to hardware within the Kinect but the Xbox Kinect and the Windows Kinect are different animals so not all features will work. The API knows based on the version which features are available and does have flags for you to use to hide/show features depending which version of Kinect is attached.
For example, in version 1.6 they exposed access to the IR Sensor to use it as an IR Camera and not just a depth sensor. They also exposed access to change color settings (white balance, tone, brightness, contrast, etc) on the color camera. The IR API works on both Xbox and Windows versions. The color settings only work on the Windows Version as the Hardware is not the same.
In version 1.7 they added some new 3D scanning features as well as many other features. The 3D scanning will work on the Windows Version but will NOT work on the Xbox Version of Kinect.
So In the end… the answer is… the Hardware is different. The Xbox Kinect is built specifically for the Xbox’s needs. The Windows Kinect is designed for Developers, has access to more features and is available for commercial use with your own software products.
Thanks for the clarification, i guess i need to save up and get a windows kinect now. Another one on the list of things to hide from my wife 
Hi everyone i just made an acount in your forum. I want to accomplish a project that i will have to control a robotic arm via kinect and the question is following. Is any deference for which version of kinect i will use?
As a rule, it’s best to start a new thread in the forum when you want to ask a distinct question from the original thread.
That said, for what you want to do, you probably want to use the Kinect for Windows sensor.
Use the Kinect for Windows SDK to translate the gesture information into simple values/ranges that you can send to the mainboard over a TCP socket connection.
Ok sorry for that i searched at google and i got here not mention to do it anyway…thank you for your responce and i want you to ask what features of SDK do u think i will need for that project ?
Well since the thread is back from the dead you might want to check this out:
and you might want to have a look at:
and
http://www.dotnettoscana.org/natural-user-interface-con-kinect-e-gadgeteer.aspx
There are other examples out there where people have used the Kinect with Gadgeteer, but this their stuff always impressed me.