Last year Microsoft announced its Kinect Accelerator program, pledging to help ten startups bring their ideas for the motion-sensing video game controller to fruition. Well, after receiving more than 500 applications the company has made its decision, and ended up choosing 11 projects in all. Each startup will spend April to June in Seattle with office space and $20,000 in investment from Microsoft. While some of the projects are still under wraps, most are linked to on Microsoft's Kinect Accelerator page and a lot of the startups have some pretty innovative ideas.

For example, GestSure Technologies is working on motion-controlled interfaces for surgeons to operate medical equipment, Styku's project involves full body scanning to help people virtually try on clothes on and offline (reminiscent of the Retail Experience Platform demonstrated by an ex-Microsoft marketing agency), and Freak'n Genius is developing Kinect-driven animation software. We've already seen a lot of alternative uses for Kinect, but Microsoft's direct backing of projects like these should at least result in some more interesting products than the company's own Kinect Fun Labs.