During Microsoft's CES 2011 keynote, the company unveiled Avatar Kinect for the Xbox 360. The software will use Kinect's motion sensor to mimic a user's gestures and facial expressions and display them through an on screen avatar during chat.
Free to all Xbox Live gold subscribers, Avatar Kinect will put user's avatars into a variety of different environments, each with its own theme, where they will be able to chat through their digital avatars and interact with other users within the session.
You'll also be able to record your sessions, to create webisodes or vodcasts and then share them with friends and on the web. Microsoft haven't confirmed whether the service will allow you to directly upload your recordings to YouTube or other popular social mediums yet.
Steve Ballmer showed off the new software during the keynote, taking the stage in digital form and showing how it works. The video showed how Avatar Kinect can recognise a number of gestures and emotions, including the waggling of eyebrows.
Whether it'll record rude gestures, which everyone is obviously wondering about, is yet to be seen. No doubt Microsoft won't be too happy about letting user's digitally t-bag other users, nor would the recipient.
Avatar Kinect will be free to all Xbox Live gold subscribers when it launches in Spring.
