Will a C# library for the xbox kinect work for the windows kinect SDK?

Question

Basically there are two Kinect devices. One for the Xbox and one for the PC.

I have written a .NET dll for the Xbox Kinect with C#. The Xbox kinect will be replaced after a couple of weeks with a PC Kinect, which has some hardware improvements (nearby tracking etc).

I'm still working on this dll. But since the device will be replaced I started to wonder if it will work with the PC Kinect.

Should I wait for the new Kinect before extending the dll? Can I expect problems to occur with the dll on the PC Kinect?

Thanks.

Answer 1

As long as you are using the Kinect for Windows SDK version 1 it will work with both the Kinect for Xbox 360 and the Kinect for Windows hardware. Per Microsoft,

Although you will be able to download the SDK and use it with an existing Kinect for Xbox 360 for your own, personal development purposes, we recommend using Kinect for Windows sensor in your Kinect for Windows application development, as it is the only sensor optimized for this use. Customers are licensed to use the Kinect for Windows sensor with Kinect for Windows applications. We do not recommend using Kinect for Xbox 360 to assist in the development of Kinect for Windows applications; developers should plan to transition to Kinect for Windows hardware for development purposes, and should expect that their customers will be using Kinect for Windows hardware as well. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/news/faq.aspx

If you are still using the Beta SDK for programming against the Kinect for Xbox 360, you will need to uplift your code to work with the Version 1 SDK if you want to support the Kinect for Windows hardware.