Echo Lake - Young Silence from Dan Nixon on Vimeo.

That’s the video for Echo Lake’s “Young Silence” which was shot by Dan Nixon and Dom Jones. Once they had the video footage it was run through a bunch of effects to create the very ghostly effect, it reminds us a lot of Radiohead’s “House of Cards” video.

Anyone else got some awesome new uses for the Kinect sensor? Let us know in the comments section.

With 8 million Kinect sensors out there that suggests there’ll be a lot of users on the new Avatar Kinect service launching soon, it should also stimulate some interest from the big games companies and encourage them to work on some new Kinect games.

If you’ve got a Kinect we’d love to know what you think of it, and what you use it for. Leave us a comment and let us know.

Avatar Kinect, the new avatar based chat service, will be released for free this Spring and is available to Xbox Live Gold members.

We’ve also tracked down a video of the ASUS Wavi Xtion in action, ASUS are working with Kinect developers PrimeSense to bring the motion tracking interface to PC users. It’s not coming out for at least 18 months so expect the tracking and responsiveness to improve by the time it hits the market. That said, it is quite impressive already considering it’s just a demonstration model which was being shown at Las Vegas’ CES convention. It’ll be really interesting to see how ASUS’ efforts compare to the Windows Kinect experience when Microsoft add official support.

Video from Engadget Spanish.

Microsoft have sold over 8 million of the motion tracking camera which can be used to play games and control the Xbox 360’s various menus. A move into online communication, Avatar Kinect, is also in development which is set to be released this Spring. Could these uses make it to the PC when Microsoft add official support? Perhaps the Kinect will allow you to do something along the lines of controlling Windows Media Centre with gestures or browsing the web Minority Report style. We’ll let you know when we find out more.

Avatar Kinect uses facial recognition and body mapping to mimic the movements of the Xbox user to through their avatar. Avatar Kinect will come with multiple environments, recording options and Facebook integration to let users share recorded discussions with others. The software will be a free download for Xbox Live Gold members this March.

Ballmer appeared on screen as an Xbox avatar to introduce Avatar Kinect. Using Avatar Kinect players will be able to interact and chat in real time with friends and other Kinect users. Virtual rooms and environments will be opened for the avatars to use. The Kinect will detect a user’s voice and facial expressions and map them to the avatar producing the virtual equivalent in real time. Up until now the only way to express through your avatar is to press the “emote” prompt on screen and pick one from a pre-rendered selection. The chat environments are similar to the Playstation 3’s virtual “Home” where player made virtual characters interact however the Xbox environments evoke a kind of talk show feel.

Avatar Kinect will be released as a free download this Spring for Xbox Live Gold members.

Microsoft have denied any link between the faults and the Kinect and stated that the Kinect is “designed to work with every Xbox 360 sold to date”. The console failure, often referred to as the “red ring of death”, was a common problem with the first few shipments of Xbox 360 consoles when it launched in 2005. The popular hands free controller, Kinect, has sold more than 8 million units.

There won’t be any official details until Microsoft hold their conference later this week but many are speculating that it will be some sort of Second Life style social network letting Kinect users chat to their friends and other Kinect users through their Xbox Live avatars. The Xbox 360 supports communal watching of content like movies; could Avatar Kinect take this to a new level? Perhaps Avatar Kinect will make an Xbox Live avatar mimic your reactions to the action on screen. The Sky Player on Xbox 360 already has a control wheel that lets viewers choose from a range of pre-set emotions to make their avatar react to the video onscreen so it’s probably not a massive stretch to guess that the Kinect could let users have greater control over the avatar’s reactions.

We could all think of a million ideas but it’s all just speculation until Microsoft’s official announcement later this week.

ASUS and PrimeSense’s aim is to bring immersive, controller-less interaction and extend personal computer usage into the living room, normally the domain of entertainment set ups. Users will be able to browse through content, use the internet and social networks in a user-friendly way just by moving their bodies.

ASUS plan to release the Wavi Xtion in February but it will be on show at CES in Las Vegas later this week.