We never really know where the next game-changing innovation will come from. The smartphone started out as just that — a smarter phone. But when Apple opened up its API to developers, that open source project started to unlock the true potential of a handheld, connected touchscreen computer. Nowadays, the ability to make a phone call might just be the least important thing your smartphone does for you.
In the next few years, we might be saying something similar about the Microsoft Kinect, which has a similarly open software development kit. What began as a video game controller is rapidly becoming much more, as developers turn the power of computerized gesture recognition onto a bevy of healthcare uses.
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Alex Butler