It was one of the cooler features it showcased when they introduced the device last year...so what happened to it? Is it still there or just marketing/PR?

Kuda Tsunoda said on one of the interviews that Kinectimals will have stuffed animals that you can scan into the game.  So the capability must be there.

technically possible.  but as i recall...there are legal issues that prevent it from being used.  i think some patent whore owns patents that it would infringe upon.

It's there, it's game specific and they really have not released any info on the games yet. Expect it too come up when Kinectimals is released,that's probably the first game using it.

That is a simple thing to do.  Any web cam would be capable of that.  The depth sensor will just make the function more robust.  Just needs a game that makes sense to use it in.  No need to just throw a function into a game for the heck of it.

it only needs software, they didn't make one yet but they can make it.

Good if it's just a SW issue...I sincerely hope they impliment it in the starwars game cuz if not that's a great chance missed right there

ps: btw you guys remember that kid who scanned in his skatebaord into Kinect? Can such games be possible? I mean wouldn't the camera have a hard time recognizing the board on the ground? :S for some reason it doesn't sound practical to me

You scan the deck, and lean like you would on a skateboard on the ground or just use it still. It'd basically just put your skateboard over the standard one. Much like a Tony Hawk Ride that would actually work...

oooooh so it's more or less like it scans the 'image' in and replaces the one on the game with it instead of tracking the item itself? Cuz if not I would think the cam might have issues tracking the leg movement

Absolutely not : With the stuff animal, you get a bar code and this bar code is scanned by the Kinect to give you the animal in the game. it's not a realtime scan of the stuff