Kinect

As of June 2011, there are two software possibilities to use the Microsoft Kinect:

1. OpenKinect/libfreenect: fully open source, still lacking some functionality
2. OpenNI framework + Prime Sensor drivers + NITE motion tracking middleware binaries (skeleton tracking, gesture recognition etc.). The last component is closed source, while the first two ones are open source. This second option is endorsed by the ROS community and is the most popular

OpenKinect/libfreenect

See http://openkinect.org/

YARP wrapper

See $YARP_ROOT/src/modules/kinect/README.txt for installation instructions.

OpenNI + Prime Sensor + NITE

Installing binary files, if you prefer this possibility, is straightforward.

Below we explain how to manually install Kinect programs on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (officially you need 10.10 or higher, but 10.04 works too).

ROS wrapper

1. Install ROS - http://www.ros.org/wiki/diamondback/Installation/Ubuntu
2. Install ROS OpenNI - http://www.ros.org/wiki/openni_kinect

Ubuntu manual installation

The following instructions refer to the Unstable branch.

Prerequisites

Mandatory:

 sudo apt-get install g++ python git-core libusb-1.0-0-dev freeglut3-dev
 audo adduser YOURNAME video

Optional:

 sudo apt-get install doxygen graphviz

OpenNI

 mkdir ~/kinect && cd ~/kinect
 git clone https://github.com/OpenNI/OpenNI.git
 cd OpenNI

Now follow instructions on https://github.com/OpenNI/OpenNI/tree/unstable

Sensor

There are a number of different versions for this driver:

• official PrimeSense Sensor Module for OpenNI (http://www.openni.org/downloadfiles/openni-compliant-hardware-binaries/31-latest-unstable); it supports cameras such as PrimeSense SDK and Asus Xtion PRO but not Kinect

• avin2 repository: supports Kinect

 cd ~/kinect
 git clone https://github.com/avin2/SensorKinect
 cd SensorKinect

• Boilerbots repository: supports Kinect

 cd ~/kinect
 git clone https://github.com/boilerbots/Sensor.git
 cd Sensor
 git checkout kinect

• Point Cloud Library (PCL) version, supporting Kinect and with custom debayering algorithms: http://pointclouds.org/downloads/

Installation instructions may vary, but keep an eye on https://github.com/PrimeSense/Sensor/tree/unstable

NITE

• http://www.openni.org/downloadfiles "OpenNI Compliant Middleware Binaries"
• Latest Unstable
• download, for example, PrimeSense NITE Unstable Build for for Ubuntu 10.10 x64 (64-bit) v1.3.0.18 to ~/kinect
• extract this archive:

 tar -jxvf NITE-Bin-Linux64-v1.3.0.18.tar.bz2

• edit your Nite-VERSION/Data/Sample-*.xml files by filling in PrimeSense license and preferred resolution as reported by several guides online such as http://www.keyboardmods.com/2010/12/howto-kinect-openninite-skeleton.html

Demos

Demos are located in

• Nite-VERSION/Samples/Bin
• OpenNI/Platform/Linux-x86/Bin/Release

See also

• http://groups.google.com/group/openni-dev mailing list
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect#Software
• Kinect - OpenCV Wiki
• Kinect and MRPT | The Mobile Robot Programming Toolkit
• Getting Started with PC Kinect
• Xbox Kinect: How the movement tracking works | T3 Magazine Online