To make the Xbox Live experience even more lifelike, Microsoft announced at their CES conference that Avatar Kinect will be released sometime this Spring. In Avatar Kinect, your Avatar will recognize facial gestures that you make in real life, like mouth movements, eyebrow gestures, and the like, and recreate them as best as they can on screen.

The purpose? A visual chat room where you use your Avatars to communicate with your friends! You can even share conversations over Facebook and view it on mobile devices; probably Windows Phone 7 of course!  1UP also notes the possibility of direct control over the Avatar, with the evidence being the Avatar jumping out of a chair when one of the users did.

An interesting concept indeed, but, will this make you guys go out and buy a Kinect by Spring time?
Avatar Kinect will be out for free this Spring via Xbox Live.

Destructoid – Avatar Kinect Trailer