Log -- CSC400-Kinect F2011

Main Page | Meeting/Assignment Page

Log Page

• Record your progress here

09/25/11: Installing Microsoft SDK on Windows 7

I used this tutorial from i-programmer to install Visual Studio Express and the SDK. Then you need to install speech-recognition as described in the SDK readme file.

-kris 19:30, 2 October 2011 (EDT)

09/27/11: Setup backup on Windows 7 Shuttle

--Thiebaut 12:32, 27 September 2011 (EDT)

• Added drive F: to computer, name: data, capacity 500GB
• Setup backup system to backup to F: every day at 5:00 a.m.
• F: should be used for backups only for now.
• Use C: for storing all your files/programs/documents
• Setup McAfee antivirus

09/27/11: Setup backup on MacPro (w/ Kinect)

--Thiebaut 16:43, 27 September 2011 (EDT)

• Started TimeMachine and pointed it to Macintosh HD 2 (1TB free)
• Installed Boot Camp
• Installed Windows 7 Home Edition
• Setup new users on Windows for everybody involved
• Machine now boots to Windows by default

10/02/11: Notes on Languages

From Official Documentation:

  "To take advantage of the experimental capabilities and features in this beta SDK, developers should be familiar 
  with the following: [...] Visual Studio 2010 [..] C# or C++ languages ."

From i-programmer:

  "The Microsoft SDK does bring some new facilities to the table but it isn't open source. However, neither is the equivalent body
  tracking software from PrimeSense, only the drivers are. One significant difference is that it only runs under Windows 7 and it 
  uses .NET. This is fine if you are a .NET programmer but not if you want to use Java, JavaScript or some other language. You can 
  use it with un-managed C++, however."

-kris 20:14, 2 October 2011 (EDT)

10/02/11: Kinect SDK on MacPro

• installed SDK on MacPro running Windows (with the Speech Recognition Tool) - on IS400 account
• installed both Visual Studio C++ and C# on MacPro - on IS400 account
• tried two sample programs - Cursor Control and Paint from here - but they came as exe files and I wasn't able to figure out how to view the source code in Visual Studio (didn't find .sln file)

NOTE: tracking seems to work much better on MacPro (because of the setup - more space?)

-kris 22:59, 2 October 2011 (EDT)

10/08/11: kinectTCP: Kinect SDK in any programming language (?)

Something to explore : kinectTCP

"KinectTCP is a TCP/IP server that offers all video, depth and skeleton services of Microsoft’s Win7 Kinect SDK, independent from specific programming languages. kinectTCP allows programmers, who do not want to deal with windows specifics of libraries and languages, to utilize the Kinect using their language of choice, e.g. JAVA, BASIC, MATLAB, PYTHON, FLASH, C#,... kinectTCP runs under Win 7, but it frees the programmer from the necessity of using a .net environment."

-kris 14:03, 8 October 2011 (EDT)

10/09/11

• tried the backup on the PC - seems like the backup drive is disconnected.

• downloaded and successfully ran in Visual Studio source code for Kinect Earth Move (it is in kinect samples folder on my desktop and should be accessible to all other users...)
• had an interesting accident of my hoodie on a chair being mistaken for a second skeleton by Kinect :)

-kris 16:33, 9 October 2011 (EDT)

10/10/11: Hardware Assignment

This seems like a good fit: http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=5D0CD085A5CA7304

-kris 14:49, 10 October 2011 (EDT)

10/13/11: Hardware update

Yes indeed! The link to Crucial above was a good one. We have new Crucial memory in the Shuttle: 4GB from crucial, plus the original 1GB

We also have a new processor: Athlon, X2 (2 core)

And the backup hard disk was dead. I've put a new one in.

Thiebaut 14:05, 13 October 2011 (EDT)

10/17/11: Playing with Kinect TCP example Java program

• Need to open kinectTCP executable and press 'Start Kinect' before running the example program
• lags a little bit even on minimal settings
• Figuring out the way the example program works.. Added circles to mark joints and indices of joints onto the skeleton frame (see the screenshot)

-kris 17:05, 17 October 2011 (EDT)

Comment

• Do not hesitate to move to the Mac if the Shuttle is too slow. The Mac has a good processor in its belly! :-) --Thiebaut 10:13, 19 October 2011 (EDT)

11/06/11: Static gestures with kinect TCP

• added the following gestures: handsApart, handsForward, handsTogether, handsUp, handsCrossed, rightHandUp, leftHandUp

• failed to boot MacPro to Mac mode to install Processing+Kinect

-kris 16:51, 6 November 2011 (EST)

11/09/11: continue to work on WOD demo

-kris 01:28, 10 November 2011 (EST)

11/11/11: Apple App for kinect?

Apparently only allows to view a 3d point cloud.. article on downloadsquad Apple store link

-kris 01:20, 12 November 2011 (EST)

11/21/11: Contemplating if detecting "waving gesture" using events makes sense...

• General info
• Events and Listeners
• Create new event types
• Example of creating custom event

seems like events are mostly for GUI components...

-kris 01:24, 21 November 2011 (EST)

12/1/11

• working on hand-waving
• KinectTCP.exe started crashing (seems like it crashes if you try to start it while having Google Chrome open (?))

-kris

11/14/12

• connected the computer up after the break
• everything seems to work as I left it
• but kind of slow/glitch-y and can use some more work

-kris

Resources

• Tutorials:
  • Official Documentation and code samples with 'walkthroughs'
  • Quickstarts videos
  • A few getting started tips (the busy developers guide to the kinect sdk beta)
  • Another video tutorial with history and features overview (TechEd Session)
  • C# Programming wikibook

• Open Source Programs:
  • Kinect Earth Move
  • Ripples
  • (might find some good ones here)