Question: what happened to scanning items in?

Answer: the exact same thing that happened to (a) detection of subtle movements (b) processing of more than 2 persons at one time (c.) processing of gamers sitting down (d) a Milo & Kate release (e)tc...

Milo & Kate is still being worked on, launch titles are only capable of 2 players at a time but future software determines whether to support more players or not, they had a demonstration recently of Milo being played by a guy from Lionhead at a recent tech expo while "gasp" sitting, the way the scan ability is used in Kinectimals doesn`t rule out the ability to scan certain objects in game  depending on what makes sense in the game or what developers decided to do with it if anything.

Do you mean the video with the skateboard?  If so you'll probably wait a long time.  That implies resolution beyond the camera plus software to take the information and create an object, etc. on the fly.  Then there's copyright issues, etc.

In short - very probably not going to happen in quite the amazing way implied.

Now, scanning in pre-set scenarios for stuff already in a game - like with the stuffed animals - that should work perfectly fine, or scanning in simple objects as shown with the Milo & Kate tech in pre-set ways.

But I doubt you're going to be able to freely scan in any object you like just because it takes your fancy and use it in any game you chose.

So I expect some scanning on a game per game basis, but not on the level implied by the marketing video.

What gave anyone the idea you could scan anything and the game/software would react to any old object.  I always took that hey I can scan my own skateboard in a skateboard game and the skateboard in the game will look like mine and nothing else.  Using the scanner or a 3d barcode like the one in this thread shows that scanning can be done.  All this talk about Kinect cant do X that it may have showed in concept videos is BS if thier isnt software now that does it.  One the thing hasnt launched yet and two even at launch you arent going to see full capabilities.  At launch of a piece of hardware when have we ever seen full capabilities.

It's definitely happening... Kinectimals does it.  But you have to buy the stuffed animals.  Buy a new one... scan it into the game then you have a virtual pet.

I'm assuming from the OP he's referring to some early marketing videos MS showed which featured scanning of object and immediate use of that scanned object in a game environment.

I always took this as marketing hype as clearly, unless you hook up Kinect to something like LBP engine you're going to be restricted to pre-configured content for games and while some scanning will be supported it's unlikely to be anything like that shown in the videos.

It's not the same at all.

Kinectimals is the equivalent of buying "Eye of Judgement" playing cards (only one at a time and with each card being sold with a stuffed animal) and having the camera scan in the data code on the card to activate the in-game character on screen.

The stuffed animals are not only unnecessary (you just need the card) they have nothing to do with the way Kinect "sees" what it's supposed to activate in game.

I wouldn't be completely surprised if you could just print out a copy of the card itself and use that instead of one bought with a toy, assuming the cards don't use any special inks (IR based or otherwise).

It's not anything like holding a stuffed animal "Cookie Monster" in front of Kinect and seeing it magically appear in Kinectimals.

i believe the stuffed animals need to be bought per se, as i understand it they are part of a advertising campaign by Microsoft together with burger King. 

It's from E3, I believe Naz has one as well from that hilarious kinect cirque du sole (probably didn't spell that right) event him and Loaded went to

I assume that as well.  I watched the video. The kid scans a skateboard and then a skateboard that looks like his is useable in game.  My assumption is that it was a skateboarding game and the software simply skinned the in game skateboard to look like his.  So maybe sometime in the future a skateboard game will do just this.  Honestly something simple like a flat board on a skateboard should be perfectly doable.