Kinect for Windows Hardware
Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community. I understand your concern and frustration you have been through. I will be glad to assist you. I would like to inform you that Kinect SDK v1.8 is not compatible with Windows 10. However you can run the program in compatible mode and check. Refer the link below. Kinect for Windows SDK v1.8. Azure Kinect DK doesn’t have onboard compute. Pair it with your choice of PC, from screenless to desktop workstation. The system requirements are Windows® 10 PC or Ubuntu 18.04 LTS with 7th Generation Intel® Core™ i3 Processor (Dual Core 2.4 GHz with HD620 GPU or faster), USB 3.0 port, and 4 GB RAM. It’s not available on Windows 10 in S.
The Kinect® adaptor is supported on 64-bit Windows®.
Microsoft Kinect Sdk
Device Discovery
If you are having trouble using the Image Acquisition Toolbox™ software with a supported Kinect for Windows sensor, try the following:
Install the Image Acquisition Toolbox Support Package for Kinect for Windows Sensor.
Starting with version R2014a, each adaptor is available separately through MATLAB® Add-Ons. See Image Acquisition Support Packages for Hardware Adaptors for information about installing the adaptors.
If you have problems installing the Kinect support package, see the section below, “Troubleshooting the Support Package Installation.”
Verify that you are using one of the supported Kinect hardware models. See Microsoft Kinect for Windows Support from Image Acquisition Toolbox for a list of supported hardware. The Kinect for Xbox 360 is not supported.
Verify that you have the supported Kinect driver version. You must have version 1.6 to use V1 devices, and version 2.0 for Kinect V2 and Xbox One devices.
Verify that your image acquisition hardware is functioning properly.
For Kinect for Windows devices, you can run the Kinect Explorer application for Kinect V1 devices, and verify that you can receive live video. You can run Kinect Evolution for Kinect V2 or Xbox One and adapter.
For Kinect V1, make sure no other application is accessing the Kinect v1.
For Kinect V2, make sure it is plugged into a USB 3.0 port, and you are using an OS that is Windows 8 or later.
System Requirements for the Kinect V2 Sensor
The Kinect V2 sensor requires the following:
64-bit (x64) processor
Physical dual-core 3.1 GHz (2 logical cores per physical system) or faster processor
USB 3.0 controller dedicated to the Kinect for Windows v2 sensor or the Kinect Adapter for Windows for use with the Kinect for Xbox One sensor
4 GB of RAM
Graphics card that supports DirectX 11
Windows 8 or 8.1, Windows Embedded 8, or Windows 10
Troubleshooting the Support Package Installation
If the setup fails, it could be caused by an internet security setting. If you get an error message such as “KINECT Setup Failed – An error occurred while installing,” try the following, and then run the installer again.
In Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options.
In Internet Options, select the Advanced tab.
Under the Security subsection, uncheck Check for publisher’s certificate revocation to temporarily disable it, and click .
Run the installer again.
After you have installed the support package, re-enable the security option in Internet Explorer.
Yesterday we of Immotionar have announced the support of Kinect v1 for our full-body virtual reality system. To implement it, I had to work with this sensor, after more than 2 years of work with only the v2 version. A curious fact is that i had never worked with Kinect v1 before, I started directly with the v2… so I made the path in the reverse way of all other people. But… how are this sensors different?
Well, first of all if you look at them, Kinect v2 seems a more refined version of Kinect v1, but its defect is that it is bigger and has lots of annoying cables and power converters, while Kinect v1 is surely more lightweight and easy to carry and to install.
About technical specifications, this chart found on the great blog Zugara is a good resumée:
As you can see from the chart, Kinect v2 performs awesomely better than its little brother: increase in resolution has been impressive, with the v2 reaching the full-HD res. Even the field of view has been greately increased: the Kinect v2 is awesome on how big is its FOV: if you move in front of it, it always catches you, while Kinect v1 loses you if you move too much on a side.
Both of devices completely work on Windows 10 and they can also work together connected at the same PC. I thought that leaving both on would have caused some kind of interferences, but I noticed almost no issues on using multiple Kinects v2 with a Kinect v1 together. Of course there are more problems if you use multiple Kinect v1, since they interfere a lot with each other. Kinects v1 interfere because they calculate depth using a IR light pattern projection, while Kinects v2 do not because they use another way to compute depth: time-of-flight. This means that Kinect v2 computes the depth of objects it has in front of it throwing some infrared light rays and looking how much time these rays need to bounce on surfaces and come back. This method is more stable, precise and less prone to interferences.
So, you can use more Kinect v2 together, but you can’t connect them to the same PC. Since the depth sensor streams data like crazy to your PC, there’s a problem with USB 3 controller bandwith and you’re forced to have maximum one Kinect v2 connected to a PC. With Kinect v1 you can connect up to 4 to the same PC.
We use a lot the skeletal tracker and this is another point where Kinect v2 truly outperforms its previous version. It tracks more people, with more joints, faster and with greater precision. Kinect v2 tracking has been trained with a shitload of people and its results are pretty amazing indeed. Its precision is really impressive. While switching to v1 from v2 I’ve seen a lot more errors in pose detection and an overall slower response-time of the system: the detection is surely less smooth.
I’ve tried to put a v1 and a v2 side-by-side and to compare the skeletons. As you can see, the detected skeleton is almost the same, but v1 version appears more raw and with non-natural shape of shoulders and basin.
One thing that is truly missing in v1 skeleton is hands thumbs tracking: this means that you have no way to detect how the user hand is rotated and this is a serious issue if you want to control an avatar with this device (and that made me spend some time with math calculations while making the porting of our system…).
Kinect v2 for Windows (Xbox one version + adapter) costs 250$; Kinect v1 is not produced anymore, but you can buy a refurbished version (Xbox 360 version + adapter) for $70 on Amazon.
What these sensors seem to share is a common destiny: Microsoft has discontinued the Kinect project, abandoning it to follow its new cool project: HoloLens glasses. This is so sad, because these have been sensors with which a lot of research and cool projects have been made.
Even in virtual reality it can be very useful, since it is used by us, but can also be used as a positional tracker for VRidge or as an avatar control system for AltspaceVR.
Long life to Kinects, they’re really awesome devices.
UPDATE: as Dyll has pointed out on Twitter, in Windows 10 Kinect v2 has also an additional feature: it can be used with Windows Hello, so you can login into Windows just showing your face in front of your Kinect sensor! Cool, isn’t it?
UPDATE: if you missed the latest news, Microsoft has abandoned the Kinect project, stopping manufacturing the devices. That’s so sad.
Microsoft Kinect V2 System Requirements
UPDATE: Microsoft may have resumed the Kinect project with a new form factor, more dedicated to IoT, called Kinect for Azure
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