Kinect

There are several software interfaces to 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. The OpenNI/NiTE combination is endorsed by the ROS community and is the most popular
3. Kinect for Windows SDK

Here is an explanation of the first two: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6086981/what-is-the-difference-between-openni-and-openkinect

OpenKinect/libfreenect

See http://openkinect.org/

YARP wrapper

See $YARP_ROOT/src/modules/kinect/freenect/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 or higher (officially you need 10.10+, but 10.04 works too). For OpenNI version 2, see [1]. For OpenNI version 1, read below.

YARP wrapper

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

ROS wrapper

1. Install ROS - http://www.ros.org/wiki/ROS/Installation
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
 sudo adduser $USER video

Optional:

 sudo apt-get install doxygen graphviz

OpenNI

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

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 SensorKinect repository: supports Kinect

 cd ~/kinect
 git clone https://github.com/avin2/SensorKinect
 cd SensorKinect
 # check the README file in there. You will have to do something along these lines:
 cd Platform/Linux/CreateRedist/ 
 sudo ./RedistMaker 
 cd ../Redist 
 cd Sensor-Bin-Linux-x64-v5.1.2.1 # or similar
 sudo ./install.sh 

• 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 "PrimeSense NiTE Unstable Build for Ubuntu" (also known as "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

• (obsolete) 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/Bin/x64-Release (or OpenNI/Platform/Linux-x86/Bin/Release)

Conflict with gspca_kinect kernel module

In early 2012, a new Linux kernel module called gspca_kinect was introduced: it allows the Kinect to be used as a standard camera, but it conflicts with OpenNI when trying to access the device. SensorKinect automatically blacklists this module, but in case it doesn't work, here is the manual procedure:

• in the current session, rmmod this module (in Ubuntu: sudo modprobe -r gspca_kinect)
• to make the change permanent, blacklist it (sudo sh -c 'echo "blacklist gspca_kinect" > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-kinect.conf')

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
• Microsoft Kinect SDK vs PrimeSense OpenNI