An Introduction to the Kinect Sensor

Summary

This chapter gave you a look inside the Kinect sensor so you could see (without having to take your own Kinect apart) how complex it is. You saw that the Kinect contains two cameras (one infrared camera and one video camera) and a special infrared transmitter that produces a grid of dots that measure the distance of objects from the Kinect and to compose a “depth map” of the image. You also learned that the Kinect sensor contains four microphones that can be used to remove background noise from an audio signal and to listen to sound from particular parts of a room.

You also saw that the Kinect sensor sends this data to a host device (Xbox or computer), which then processes the data in various ways, including recognizing the position, movement, and even the identity of people in front of the Kinect.

You also found out that two Kinect sensor bars are available, both of which can be used with the Kinect for Windows Software Development Kit (SDK). The Kinect for Xbox device has a good long-range performance for tracking game players, and the Kinect for Windows device has been optimized for shorter-range tracking so that a single computer user can use it to interact with a system that is nearby.