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"In our latest issue of our iPad magazine, we talk about the importance and benefits of teaching kids how to code. This lively video by Stephen Howell in the Dublin Interaction Design Association (IxDA) conference tells us all about how he developed a toolkit 'Kinect2Scratch' that teaches kids programming by using Scratch and the Kinect."

"You can connect your Scratch projects to the physical world using several different kinds of devices. MaKey MaKey LEGO WeDo Kit PicoBoard (also known as ScratchBoard) Kinect2Scratch, using Microsoft Kinect GoPiGo for Raspberry Pi Each of these work with Scratch 1.4. Currently MaKey MaKey works with Scratch 2.0, with support planned for the other devices."

"If you want to do some 3D scanning, you usually have to get either a dedicated scanner or a less-than-elegant add-on. Microsoft Research and the University of Oxford think there's a better way, though. Their MobileFusion project captures 3D models using only an app on your smartphone. The software scans objects by comparing image frames from your phone's camera and creating stereo depth maps from the results -- you just have to walk around an object to get more detail. It's much like Kinect Fusion, but you're not tied to either a PC or a clunky peripheral."