Microsoft has completed the acquisition of U.S. company Canesta, whose expertise in the field of 3D-sensing technology has already helped in the development of Kinect, and whose CMOS-based single chip 3D sensor looks set to be used in the development of other Natural User Interfaces (NUIs) in the future.

All Kinect peripherals that launch this year include a 3D-sensing chip provided by Primesense, a rival of Canesta. However, the new chip, which is said to be cheaper to produce, could feature in revisions of Kinect over the next couple of years, and will almost certainly be used to help in the development of NUIs for other Microsoft products, including Windows 8.

Speaking about 3D-sensing earlier this year, Microsoft Research spoke of its plans to revolutionise the way we interact with our technology.

“Specifically, by instrumenting the body and turning it into the input device, we hope to create technologies that allow us to build a deeper connection to always-available computing.”

The technology also looks likely to be used to create no-touch smartphones.

Desney Tan, senior researcher in the Visualization and Interaction for Business and Entertainment (VIBE) group at Microsoft Research Redmond, spoke earlier this year on the subject.

“Just as cellphones and mobile computing have changed the way we operate in the world, so, too, will this vision of ‘intravenous computing’ revolutionize the way we use—and rely on—computers.”

“We are literally trying to put all the world’s knowledge and computing at your fingertips.”

Kinect, which launches in Europe on November 9, is right at the forefront of bringing this technology into living rooms worldwide, but with Canesta under its wings there's much much more to come.