What many don't know: The exact chips and technology behind the Kinect v1 (as developed by PrimeSense) are still in use today in many products:
We (that is -- shameless plug -- my company DotProduct) combine a Primesense Carmine sensor (basically a smaller version of the Kinect) with an Android tablet and our software to create a self-contained portable 3D scanner (www.dotproduct3d.com).
Occipital has created their own version of the sensor which they call the "Structure" sensor, but it's still based on Kinect/PrimeSense tech (www.structure.io).
Matterport (a YC company) is using the tech in a tripod based scanner to create 3D interior walkthroughs (www.matterport.com).
The reason these sensors are still in use is largely that PrimeSense (at the time they released the Kinect) was technologically about 7 years ahead of every other 3D camera manufacturer in the market. Only very recently we're starting to see sensors that rival the Kinect/Carmine in terms of overall quality.
We (that is -- shameless plug -- my company DotProduct) combine a Primesense Carmine sensor (basically a smaller version of the Kinect) with an Android tablet and our software to create a self-contained portable 3D scanner (www.dotproduct3d.com).
Occipital has created their own version of the sensor which they call the "Structure" sensor, but it's still based on Kinect/PrimeSense tech (www.structure.io).
Matterport (a YC company) is using the tech in a tripod based scanner to create 3D interior walkthroughs (www.matterport.com).
The reason these sensors are still in use is largely that PrimeSense (at the time they released the Kinect) was technologically about 7 years ahead of every other 3D camera manufacturer in the market. Only very recently we're starting to see sensors that rival the Kinect/Carmine in terms of overall quality.