OpenKinect status update - 11/16/2010

[Joshua Blake]

Here is a status update:

 

* If you are getting too much email from the list, try subscribing to the openkinect-announce list instead: http://groups.google.com/group/openkinect-announce Only status updates like this one are posted to that list.

 

Development

 

* We've had several developers working on various portions of the code. Thanks to the contributors so far, and special thanks to qDot for integrating several different forks and branches together.

* The cross-platform proof-of-concept code for RGB and depth data has been integrated here: https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect/tree/win32-merge (Make sure you use the win32-merge branch.) This works on Windows, Linux, and OS X, although it is a little more difficult than we'd like to get all the dependencies and build it.

* The win32-merge branch of code was always meant to be experimental to figure out and confirm that we can target all three platforms. We are working on a new branch called new-api that has a clean API with a maintainable codebase. The first iteration of that should be ready in few days, and then we can start building some other libraries and applications against it.

 

Contributing

 

* We have worked out the license model (dual license -- users can choose Apache 2.0 or GPL v2) as well as a contribution procedure that will protect contributors and the project and ensure that we are able to distribute your contributions.

* To summarize, before code can be accepted into an official repository, it must have the standard code header and every accepted Git commit must include the Signed-off-by line in the commit message.

* Contribution policies are now being enforced, please read this for details: https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect/wiki/Contributing-code

* We realize many of you are getting started with open source and with using Git for source control. The easiest way to get help is to ask someone on the IRC channel (#OpenKinect on freenode.net.) There are experts there at various times of the day that can help you.

 

Web

 

* We're in the process of setting up a website for the project at www.openkinect.org. There's nothing there yet but soon will be.

* There is a lot of information on the wiki right now. https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect/wiki 

* When the website is ready we will move the wiki content to openkinect.org. Feel free to continue using the existing wiki until then.

Miscellaneous

* There are several people actively researching skeleton tracking, pose estimation, and other techniques to extract information from the raw data.

* The main mailing list now has 605 members

* An amazing number of people are building demos with the existing and older hacky code. Check out some of them here https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect/wiki/Gallery (And if you see one, add it!)

 

Thanks,

Josh
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Joshua Blake

Microsoft Surface MVP

(cell) 703-946-7176 

Twitter: http://twitter.com/joshblake
Blog: http://nui.joshland.org
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