Beginning Kinect Programming with the Microsoft Kinect SDK

Beginning Kinect Programming with the Microsoft Kinect SDK

Released February 2012
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781430241041

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Book description

Beginning Kinect Programming with the Microsoft Kinect SDK gets you up and running developing Kinect applications for your PC using Microsoft tools and the official SDK. You will have a working Kinect program by the end of the first chapter! The following chapters will open up the secrets of three-dimensional vision, skeleton tracking, audio through the Kinect, and more. Examples illustrate the concepts in the form of simple games that react to your body movements. The result is a fun read that helps you learn one of the hottest technologies out there today.

Beginning Kinect Programming with the Microsoft Kinect SDK also provides building blocks and ideas for mashing up the Kinect with other technologies to create art, interactive games, 3D models and enhanced office automation. You'll learn the fundamental code basic to almost all Kinect applications. You'll learn to integrate that code with other tools and manipulate data to create amazing Kinect applications. Beginning Kinect Programming with the Microsoft Kinect SDKis your gateway into the exciting world of three-dimensional, real-time computer interaction.

  • Helps you create a proper development environment for Kinect applications.

  • Covers the basics of three-dimensional vision, skeleton tracking, gesture recognition, and audio

  • Provides fun examples that keep you engaged and learning

What you'll learn

  • Create a proper development environment

  • Work with data streams from the Kinect sensor

  • Use skeleton-tracking for interactive applications

  • Build speech-aware applications

  • Develop simple, Kinect-based games for the PC

  • Learn the underlying math involved in three-dimensional programming

Who this book is for

Beginning Kinect Programming with the Microsoft Kinect SDK is for Microsoft developers who want to learn to program for the newest and coolest Microsoft input device. The book assumes familiarity, but not expertise, with WPF and C#. Developers will be able to use their current knowledge and experience with the Microsoft stack to build new types of applications that have never been possible before. Most of all, this book is for developers who want to go beyond simply creating data-entry applications and recapture the fun of creating software.

Table of contents

  1. Title
  2. Dedication
  3. Contents at a Glance
  4. Contents
  5. About the Authors
  6. About the Technical Reviewer
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Introduction
  9. CHAPTER 1: Getting Started
    1. The Kinect Creation Story
    2. The Kinect for Windows SDK
    3. Elements of a Kinect Visual Studio Project
    4. The Kinect SDK Sample Applications
    5. Summary
  10. CHAPTER 2: Application Fundamentals
    1. The Kinect Sensor
    2. The Color Image Stream
    3. Reflecting on the objects
    4. Data Retrieval: Events and Polling
    5. Summary
  11. CHAPTER 3: Depth Image Processing
    1. Seeing Through the Eyes of the Kinect
    2. Measuring Depth
    3. Enhanced Depth Images
    4. Simple Depth Image Processing
    5. Depth and Player Indexing
    6. Taking Measure
    7. Aligning Depth and Video Images
    8. Depth Near Mode
    9. Summary
  12. CHAPTER 4: Skeleton Tracking
    1. Seeking Skeletons
    2. The Skeleton Object Model
    3. Kinect the Dots
    4. Space and Transforms
    5. SkeletonViewer User Control
    6. Summary
  13. CHAPTER 5: Advanced Skeleton Tracking
    1. User Interaction
    2. Simon Says
    3. Depth-Based User Interaction
    4. Poses
    5. Simon Says Revisited
    6. Reflect and Refactor
    7. Summary
  14. CHAPTER 6: Gestures
    1. Defining a Gesture
    2. NUI
    3. Where Do Gestures Come From?
    4. Implementing Gestures
    5. Detecting Common Gestures
    6. The Future of Gestures
    7. Summary
  15. CHAPTER 7: Speech
    1. Microphone Array Basics
    2. Audio Capture
    3. Beam Tracking for a Directional Microphone
    4. Speech Recognition
    5. Summary
  16. CHAPTER 8: Beyond the Basics
    1. Image Manipulation Helper Methods
    2. Proximity Detection
    3. Identifying Faces
    4. Holograms
    5. Libraries to Keep an Eye On
    6. Summary
  17. APPENDIX: Kinect Math
    1. Unit of Measure
    2. Bit Manipulation
    3. Bit Fields
    4. Bitwise OR
    5. Bitwise AND
    6. Bitwise NOT (Complement)
    7. Bit Shifting
    8. Geometry and Trigonometry
  18. Index

Product information

  • Title: Beginning Kinect Programming with the Microsoft Kinect SDK
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: February 2012
  • Publisher(s): Apress
  • ISBN: 9781430241041