Using the kinect with processing and python

Question

With the help of Making Things See I wrote a few programs on Processing for the Kinect. More recently I followed the instructions here for working with the Kinect in vPython. Now the old Processing programs won't run. I get errors when I try to run them. One throws

Null Point Exception: null array (referring to kinect.depthMap())

Another gives

`SimpleOpenNI Version 0.27

A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:

 EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xc0000005) at pc=0x60051f35, pid=6924, tid=5692

 JRE version: 6.0_37-b06
 Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (20.12-b01 mixed mode windows-x86 )
 Problematic frame:
 C  [OpenNI.dll+0x11f35]

 An error report file with more information is saved as:
 C:\Program Files (x86)\processing-2.0.1\hs_err_pid6924.log

 If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit:
   http://java.sun.com/webapps/bugreport/crash.jsp
 The crash happened outside the Java Virtual Machine in native code.
 See problematic frame for where to report the bug.

Could not run the sketch (Target VM failed to initialize).
For more information, read revisions.txt and Help ? Troubleshooting.

I suspect that when I installed Kinect SDK it somehow messed up the drivers I installed for the Kinect to work with Processing. I reinstalled OpenNINITE. What must one do to toggle back and forth between using Processing and Python with the Kinect? (Processing version is 32-bit 2.0.1. Python is 2.7.5)

Answer 1

I reinstalled NITE and then updated the SimpleOpenNi library in Processing. Several of the commands have changed in the new version of the SimpleOpenNI library - e.g. there is no SKEL_PROFILE_ALL parameter - but once I modified my code in Processing, my programs worked and I can also use the kinect in Python.