Kinect hacking: Start now or wait for the sdk?

Question

I am a senior student in computer engineering and was looking for some ideas for my graduation project. I loved some of the kinect hacks done, and had some great ideas. I have no previous experience the area so i decided to search for 'Noob' tutorials or as you can say i am starting literally from scratch.

I was looking around and found each project was using like 4 or 5 different programs to either render the data or just make it work.

So my question is: are there any good solid tutorials on the subject so you can start your way? Or am I better off waiting for the official sdk?

Answer 1

The rumour mill has re-started on the official Kinect SDK. Word is that they are going to announce, or at least update us, tommorow during a live broadcast on channel9:

http://channel9.msdn.com/live

Tune in tomorrow [June 16th] at 9:30 AM Pacific Time for an important message about Kinect technology. Following that announcement, we will continue with a Channel 9 live broadcast from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

Update:

They've released the SDK: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/kinectsdk/

Answer 2

Probably best to wait the 24 hours for the SDK.. since it just came out.

Microsoft Kinect SDK includes the SDK and documentation. System requirements include Windows 7, but I'm sure someone will find a way around that soon enough (like they did for the Microsoft Surface emulator).

Good luck!

Answer 3

Microsoft has said that the official SDK would be out in spring, but spring is coming to an end and we haven't heard anything about it recently, so I guess it's up to you.

If you want to get started, you could look up the Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit (FAAST). It (kind of) has a tutorial on how to get the open source stuff installed. But if you have a 64-bit OS, you need to install the 32-bit versions of the NITE and OpenNI programs. One of them needs to be unstable, the other needs to be stable (I forget which). Anyway, after that you could access the raw depth information from OpenNI, or use the FAAST VRPN stream.

I've only been at this for about a week or two, but I haven't found any good tutorial on this stuff yet. Once you get the programs installed, the information passed (at least from FAAST) is pretty straightforward though.

Good luck!

Answer 4

if your pressed for time, you might have to start with the current hacks. It isn't too tough to get going with it but it also isn't super easy to get started like I'm sure the SDK will be. If you can wait another month or two, i would just wait because spring will be over soon and I'm sure enough people will be asking for a new timeframe or at least a comment on what the plan is from microsoft. i would imagine they will announce something in the next month or two about it.

Answer 5

I've been working on a project with the kinect for two months and I'm using the OpenNI and NITE libraries and they work like a charm!

I don't know what kind of project you want to do, but using those libraries gives you a lot of tools to use the sensor.

I'm currently programming in C# and the wrapper has worked so far.

Best of luck