Getting Started Help - PrimeSense Sensor vs. Kinect

[Justin]

I was interested in using OpenNI to develop an application for a
Masters design project at my current University. I am just getting
started and I've tried to read a lot but just wanted some tips from
you guys who have been using the technology for a bit. Is it better to
go ahead and buy the sensor from PrimeSense or should I buy the Kinect
sensor and download the drivers? From what I've read I've seen a lot
of people have had problems getting started with the Kinect. I'm
really short on time so I want to have as little initial headache as
possible. Just some things you should know, I am developing on a Mac
but I can use Linux or Windows in virtual machine.

[Charilaos (Harris) Papadopoulos]

Getting started with the Kinect is not hard at all. You just need to
search this discussion group for a couple of hours to get the right
combination of drivers and OpenNI/NITE distros ;).

I am in a roughly similar situation as you (PhD student). Took me
about 2 days to get from unboxing the kinect to generating point
clouds and begin messing with gesture/body tracking!

[Tom]

Not sure how the PrimeSense devices would compare in terms of price /
technology / ease-of-use, or how long they would take to ship, etc.
I'll be curious to see as the reports start coming in.

Kinect units are readily available, attractively priced, and more and
more people are able to shed light on how to get them running with the
OpenNI drivers. In my case, I only struggled with it for several
hours before I got everything working :-) (Avin, if you're listening,
I have some information that may help you improve your step-by-step
instructions ...).

On Jan 24, 9:43 am, "Charilaos (Harris) Papadopoulos"

[Justin]

Thanks for the replies guys. I talked to a Primesense guy on the phone
today and it didn't seem like I would be able to get the sensor
anytime soon as a student. I asked him about Kinect and he said
something about middleware not being compatible. Just to verify does
the NITE middleware work with the Kinect. Is the Kinect considered
OpenNI compliant? Would it be too hard to start on the Mac or should I
just use Windows?

[Tom]

OK, so there's a report about PrimeSense devices as competition for
Kinect: not very available ... yet.

Yes, speaking from personal experience, the NITE middleware does work
with the Kinect. The 4 key ingredients to be installed for this to be
so are: (1) OpenNI base platform, (2) NITE, (3) PrimeSense hardware
drivers, (4) kinect-specific hardware drivers.

Except maybe not (3). Read on.

I followed a tutorial by Vagnos Pterneas -
http://www.studentguru.gr/blogs/vangos/archive/2011/01/20/how-to-successfully-install-kinect-windows-openni-nite.aspx
- but I had some trouble getting to the joy. First, I couldn't use
the (binary) SensorKinect installer he linked to - died with an error
message about not being suitable for my (64-bit, Win7) system. I
eventually found an older installer that worked (and later realized
that there was a way I could have gotten on without the binary
installer).

So finally I got the Kinect motor and camera to be registered properly
as PrimeSense devices (and show up as such within Device Manager), and
it seemed I was able to run the sample OpenNI and NITE programs. But
now, even though the camera seemed to be functioning, for some reason
I only got a blank screen instead of an error message. Others have
reported the same thing.

The tutorial by Vagnos lists installation of the PrimeSense hardware
drivers as the last step, and indeed whatever I tried, I found that I
would seem to get closer to success if I installed that package.
However, it occurred to me that the SensorKinect drivers and the
PrimeSense hardware drivers were almost the same thing, so I tried
running the SensorKinect driver installation again, and suddenly
everything worked. So maybe, as things stand, some of us will only
get a working stup if we install the PrimeSense hardware drivers first
and then install the SensorKinect versions over the top of them?? Or
maybe one can just do the SensorKinect install as the last step?

[edmundronald]

Search my posts here for a precise Mac installation recipe.

At the moment what would be nice is if somebody made an install script
that would allow binary packages to be constructed where all libraries
etc link within the package. Because updating an install at the moment
and keeping existing code running will be hell, I feel.

Edmund

[Justin]

I have been able to get the sensor set up. I ended up doing it with
the bootcamp partition of my macbook. I'm trying to get started with
development though and have run into a problem. I have been following
the basic code that is given in the OpenNI documentation. The code is
as follows:

#include "XnCppWrapper.h";

void main()
{
XnStatus nRetVal = XN_STATUS_OK;

xn::Context context;

// Initialize context object
nRetVal = context.Init();

// TODO: check error code
// Create a DepthGenerator node
xn::DepthGenerator depth;
nRetVal = depth.Create(context);
// TODO: check error code
// Make it start generating data
nRetVal = context.StartGeneratingAll();
// TODO: check error code
// Main loop
bool bShouldRun = true;
while (bShouldRun)
{
// Wait for new data to be available
nRetVal = context.WaitOneUpdateAll(depth);
if (nRetVal != XN_STATUS_OK)
{
printf("Failed updating data: %s\n",
xnGetStatusString(nRetVal));
continue;
}
// Take current depth map
const XnDepthPixel* pDepthMap = depth.GetDepthMap();
// TODO: process depth map
}
// Clean-up
context.Shutdown();
}

I get the error message: Failed updating data: A timeout has occured
when waiting for new data!

Anybody have any insight on this error. I have gotten the samples
working.

On Jan 24, 10:39 pm, Tom <zeiler....@gmail.com> wrote:
> OK, so there's a report about PrimeSense devices as competition forKinect:  not very available  ... yet.

>
> Yes, speaking from personal experience, theNITEmiddleware does work

> with theKinect.  The 4 key ingredients to be installed for this to be

> so are: (1) OpenNI base platform, (2)NITE, (3) PrimeSense hardware

> drivers, (4)kinect-specific hardware drivers.

>
> Except maybe not (3).  Read on.
>

> I followed a tutorial by Vagnos Pterneas -http://www.studentguru.gr/blogs/vangos/archive/2011/01/20/how-to-succ...

> - but I had some trouble getting to the joy.  First, I couldn't use
> the (binary) SensorKinect installer he linked to - died with an error
> message about not being suitable for my (64-bit, Win7) system.  I
> eventually found an older installer that worked (and later realized
> that there was a way I could have gotten on without the binary
> installer).
>

> So finally I got theKinectmotor and camera to be registered properly

> as PrimeSense devices (and show up as such within Device Manager), and

> it seemed I was able to run the sample OpenNI andNITEprograms.  But

> now, even though the camera seemed to be functioning, for some reason
> I only got a blank screen instead of an error message.  Others have
> reported the same thing.
>
> The tutorial by Vagnos lists installation of the PrimeSense hardware
> drivers as the last step, and indeed whatever I tried, I found that I
> would seem to get closer to success if I installed that package.
> However,  it occurred to me that the SensorKinect drivers and the
> PrimeSense hardware drivers were almost the same thing, so I tried
> running the SensorKinect driver installation again, and suddenly
> everything worked.  So maybe, as things stand, some of us will only
> get a working stup if we install the PrimeSense hardware drivers first
> and then install the SensorKinect versions over the top of them??  Or
> maybe one can just do the SensorKinect install as the last step?
>
> On Jan 24, 1:49 pm, Justin <jblwilli...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Thanks for the replies guys. I talked to a Primesense guy on the phone
> > today and it didn't seem like I would be able to get the sensor

> > anytime soon as a student. I asked him aboutKinectand he said

> > something about middleware not being compatible. Just to verify does
> > theNITEmiddleware work with theKinect. Is theKinectconsidered
> > OpenNI compliant? Would it be too hard to start on the Mac or should I
> > just use Windows?
>
> > On Jan 24, 3:35 pm, Tom <zeiler....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > Not sure how the PrimeSense devices would compare in terms of price /
> > > technology / ease-of-use, or how long they would take to ship, etc.
> > > I'll be curious to see as the reports start coming in.
>

> > >Kinectunits are readily available, attractively priced, and more and

> > > more people are able to shed light on how to get them running with the
> > > OpenNI drivers.  In my case, I only struggled with it for several
> > > hours before I got everything working :-)  (Avin, if you're listening,
> > > I have some information that may help you improve your step-by-step
> > > instructions ...).
>
> > > On Jan 24, 9:43 am, "Charilaos (Harris) Papadopoulos"
>
> > > <shoda...@gmail.com> wrote:

> > > > Getting started with theKinectis not hard at all. You just need to

> > > > search this discussion group for a couple of hours to get the right

> > > > combination of drivers and OpenNI/NITEdistros ;).

>
> > > > I am in a roughly similar situation as you (PhD student). Took me

> > > > about 2 days to get from unboxing thekinectto generating point

> > > > clouds and begin messing with gesture/body tracking!
>
> > > > On Jan 24, 1:56 am, Justin <jblwilli...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > > I was interested in using OpenNI to develop an application for a
> > > > > Masters design project at my current University. I am just getting
> > > > > started and I've tried to read a lot but just wanted some tips from
> > > > > you guys who have been using the technology for a bit. Is it better to
> > > > > go ahead and buy the sensor from PrimeSense or should I buy theKinect
> > > > > sensor and download the drivers? From what I've read I've seen a lot

> > > > > of people have had problems getting started with theKinect. I'm