C H A P T E R  8

Beyond the Basics

In the preface to his book The Order of Things, the philosopher Michel Foucault credits Georges Luis Borges for inspiring his research with a passage about “a certain encyclopaedia” in which it is written that “animals are divided into: (a) belonging to the Emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) suckling pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present classification, (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine camelhair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher, (n) that from a long way off look like flies.” This supposed Chinese Encyclopedia cited by Borges was called the Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge.

After doing our best to break down the various aspects of the Kinect SDK into reasonably classified chunks of benevolent knowledge in the previous seven chapters, the authors of the present volume have finally reached the et cetera chapter where we try to cover a hodge podge of things remaining about the Kinect SDK that has not yet been addressed thematically. In a different sort of book this chapter might have been entitled Sauces and Pickles. Were we more honest, we would simply call it et cetera (or possibly even things that from a long way off look like flies). Following the established tradition of technical books, however, we have chosen to call it Beyond the Basics.