What the Kinect sensor actually does…

What the Kinect sensor actually does…: "Basically the Kinect appears to be a 640×480 30fps second video camera that knows the *depth* of every single pixel in the frame. It does this by projecting a 3×3 checkerboard pattern with an infrared (?) laser over the scene and using a detector that establishes the reflected intensity (more likely parallax – see comments) of the light for each pixel in the detector.