Microsoft has predicted that Kinect could one day be used for non-gaming purposes such as home security - and monitoring vulnerable OAPs.

The firm is reportedly looking at Kinect for hands-free access to patient files for surgeons, smoother presentation software, and intelligent monitoring systems.

According to Jamie Shotton from Microsoft Research UK, the technology behind Kinect could even be used in a home-security system that would differentiate an unfamiliar intruder from family members.

It could also serve as a remote monitoring system for elderly people - if MS can tweak it to check posture and activity levels.

"The algorithm is essentially there for doing that kind of application, it's just a question of whether this is a socially acceptable thing: having a camera looking in on people," Stotton told New Scientist.

NS reports that Kinect is capable of identifying and tracking body parts to within a four-centimetre cube in space, every ten milliseconds, using just ten to 15 per cent of the Xbox's computing resources.