Interact With Kinect

Using libfreenect

• Install libfreenect with homebrew(mac) or with source(ubuntu)
• Call freenect-glview and start to interact with the kinect using the keyboard
• Resource: Getting Started - OpenKinect

Type

kinect 1 and kinect 2

The two generation of kinect use different technology to get the depth information.
Gen 1 uses the structured light (light coding) and Gen 2 applies TOF(wiki). A brief explanation

Driver difference

There are two types of kinect available on the market, one is kinect for windows and the other is the normal version used on the xbox360. And note that they are using different drivers so we should pay attention to this while selecting.

Futher information can be found here.

Libraries

The most widely used is OpenKinect and OpenNI.
And there are also quite some variations built out of it.
The collection of links are as follows.

• OpenNI
• OpenNI link 2
• libfreenect2(for kinect 2)
• libfreenect1( for kinect 1)

But note that the maintenance of OpenNI has been stopped.

Other Resources

• Kinect For windows (blog)
• 小明编程（资料汇总）
• pcl Documentation ( the website of point cloud seems to be quite amazing in 3d reconstruction, let's pay more attention to it)

Suggested Study Plan

• First set up the software environment, install openni
• Then go through sample code coming together with the openni library
• And our target is to receive both the rgb and depth images from the device in c++ and python
• I guess this can be finished in roughly one day once we get hands on the device