All About Microsoft posted a news story that Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie conducted an interview on July 15 with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo using Avatar Kinect.

The concept, which Microsoft originally shared in the fall of 2010 when its officials talked up the idea of holding virtual meetings using the company’s Lync unified communications technology, is a little creepy at first. Instead of using a Webcam image of yourself, you use an avatar to interact with others in a multi-participant conversation over the Web. It’s probably not as weird to gamers as it might be to enterprise users. But that’s a big part of the potential audience Microsoft sees for the technology.

  Microsoft shows off Avatar Kinect shortly before expected release