Microsoft has launched it’s Kinect SDK beta for Windows.
Download Link:
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/kinectsdk/download.aspx
According to Microsoft Research:
“The Kinect for Windows SDK beta is a programming toolkit for application developers. It enables the academic and enthusiast communities easy access to the capabilities offered by the Microsoft Kinect device connected to computers running the Windows 7 operating system.
The Kinect for Windows SDK beta includes drivers, rich APIs for raw sensor streams and human motion tracking, installation documents, and resource materials. It provides Kinect capabilities to developers who build applications with C++, C#, or Visual Basic by using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.
This SDK includes the following features:
-
Raw sensor streams
Access to raw data streams from the depth sensor, color camera sensor, and four-element microphone array enables developers to build upon the low-level streams that are generated by the Kinect sensor.
-
Skeletal tracking
The capability to track the skeleton image of one or two people moving within the Kinect field of view make it easy to create gesture-driven applications.
-
Advanced audio capabilities
Audio processing capabilities include sophisticated acoustic noise suppression and echo cancellation, beam formation to identify the current sound source, and integration with the Windows speech recognition API.
-
Sample code and documentation
The SDK includes more than 100 pages of technical documentation. In addition to built-in help files, the documentation includes detailed walkthroughs for most samples provided with the SDK.
-
Easy installation
The SDK installs quickly, requires no complex configuration, and the complete installer size is less than 100 MB. Developers can get up and running in just a few minutes with a standard standalone Kinect sensor unit (widely available at retail outlets).”
Sensor Range Requirements
Playable Ranges for the Kinect for Windows Sensor
| Sensor item | Playable range |
| Color and depth stream | 4 to 11.5 feet (1.2 to 3.5 meters) |
| Skeletal tracking | 4 to 11.5 feet (1.2 to 3.5 meters) |
Kinect Sensor Array Specifications
| Sensor item | Specification range |
| Viewing angle | 43° vertical by 57° horizontal field of view |
| Mechanized tilt range (vertical) | ±28° |
| Frame rate (depth and color stream) | 30 frames per second (FPS) |
| Resolution, depth stream | QVGA (320 × 240) |
| Resolution, color stream | VGA (640 × 480) |
| Audio format | 16-kHz, 16-bit mono pulse code modulation (PCM) |
| Audio input characteristics | A four-microphone array with 24-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and Kinect-resident signal processing such as echo cancellation and noise suppression |
Is OpenNI still Viable ?
Note: this SDK doesn’t necessarily invalidate the OpenNI.org Kinect support.. In fact Microsoft has provided much of what it already does without need for a socket server. So which will you choose ? Which is right for you ? I prefer open standards myself and I would have hoped that gestures etc. Would become an interchangeable sort of things. It’s really obvious that Microsoft is at Beta 1 with this support. It would have been nice if they were a bit more open thinking and had embraced and extended open standards here, so NUI has an interchangeable future with cross platform development for humans animals etc.. Besides audio there isn’t anything here in the kit that I can see that hasn’t already done by the community..
See my previous walk-through post for more information..
Getting started with OpenNI and X-Box Kinect
Editor’s Comments:
Some questions I am left with
I am really can we say disappointed with this SDK after using OpenNI for sometime with the sensor. Thank gosh this is only Beta 1, and why isn't Microsoft being more open with their architecture here allowing for extension via third party middleware.. After the amount of time we have waited on this, I would have expected a more open standard that encompasses OpenNI and gesture portability across other devices.. Really shocked that there isn't room for third party extension here, though in Microsoft's defense this is a "Microsoft Research" project..
I would hope we will see something official *NOT* Microsoft Research at http://buildwindows.com/ because if they do announce system direct support (not just these drivers) I'd expect this is somewhat of a false start.. But so goes anything with the word "beta" attached.. If they don't jump on this and offer something more than “Microsoft Research” support and add OpenNI device/gesture support/ interoperability they are making a HUGE mistake with both Windows 8 (if it’s not supporting this directly) and the opportunity that is really presenting itself here..This isn’t the number one selling device for no reason.
Please folks let’s not fracture the fledgling and growing NUI community with Microsoft only research that doesn’t work elsewhere. Microsoft has the patents and owns the technology. Being “open” with this is a really good idea.. I would really like to see this end up here, with Microsoft leading the market, not making developers choose between it and the next big NUI device from someone else. Let’s make NUI an open standard like HTML 5..
How about putting this SDK out here as well..
