no offense to your thread but i thought your indepth analysis lacked depth or analysis. soo...i did a quick search of my own and found this, seems like a pretty good explanation of the technology (natal) as a whole as well as it's limitations.
13 min long demo of this "3D depth sensor" from a Microsoft research tech fest in 2007.
(if some can embed that i'm having issues).
also, i found this which is interesting to say the least, http://www.gesturetek.com/3ddepth/introduction.php
notice at the bottom: "selected gesturetek licenses: eyetoy, xbox 360."








