[Philip Lelyveld comment: the 3 min. video describes the Kinect scanning process.]

[excerpt]

The [UC San Diego] students will be using the Kinect as a 3D scanning tool to record the positional details of the items that are found. The same technique is often performed using expensive LIDAR systems. The hacked Kinect system they’ll be using was created by the California Institute for Telecommunications and IT. It taps into the Kinect data stream blending 3D positional data and color video texture maps to make the scans that can then be inserted into a virtual world.

Read the full story here: http://technabob.com/blog/2011/08/03/microsoft-kinect-archaeology-dig/