Kinect development. What about hardware to use?

Question

I want to develop a Kinect app. My question is: Do I need some special hardware or can I use my own XBox and Kinect. In other words, will I use my Kinect to test and use my app after finished?

Answer 1

All of these answers are correct, but don't exactly fit what your question is.

With an Xbox 360 and an Xbox branded Kinect can you develop Kinect games?

The answer is no, unless you develop Xbox 360 games for a living.

Microsoft has the Xbox Indie Games (webset @ App Hub) on the Xbox 360 marketplace, but games on that service currently do not support the Xbox (or Windows) Kinect sensors (except for the microphone). There is currently no information on if or when this will happen.

The official Microsoft Kinect SDK strongly urges the use of the Windows version of the Kinect which retails for about USD $250. It also only works in Windows, so you will not be able to develop Xbox 360 games. The official Kinect for Windows SDK Beta 2 allowed for the Xbox sensor, but support will be/has been dropped for that beta version. There are also unofficial drivers that you can download.

Update: According to the Kinect Developer FAQ, Xbox for Kinect is technically supported but not recommended.

I currently develop on Kinect for Xbox 360. How will this be supported moving forward? Although you will technically be able to download the V1 Kinect for Windows SDK and use it with an existing Kinect for Xbox 360 for your own, personal development purposes, we recommend using a Kinect for Windows sensor in your Kinect for Windows application development, as it is the only sensor optimized for this use. You are licensed to use the Kinect for Windows sensor with Kinect for Windows applications. We do not recommend using a Kinect for Xbox 360 to assist in the development of Kinect for Windows applications; developers should plan to transition to Kinect for Windows hardware for development purposes, and should expect that your customers will be using Kinect for Windows hardware as well.

This still does not change the answer that you can not develop for your Xbox with Kinect though. It's a Windows only development thing.

Answer 2

You can use the Xbox Kinect to develop and test all your applications, the noticeable change on the hardware is the new "near mode", which allows you to track pixels closer to the sensor/camera:

Near mode = 40cm up to 3 meters. Default mode = 80cm up to 4 meters.

The other changes are basically on the SDK (like JointID are now called JointType), new methods and objects with easier and improved controls, and all of them work with the Xbox Kinect.

But keep in mind that if you want to sell your app or something like that, you'll need to use the Kinect for Windows hardware, as the license for the Xbox Kinect only allows it to be sold with an Xbox.

Answer 3

You may also consider that you may need a usb adapter for your kinect if you own a early version of the kinect. These Kinects that came as Bundle with the XBox do not have a regular USB connector. You need an adapter for this if you want to use it with a PC.

Answer 4

You can use your Kinect sensor on quite a few platforms:

1. You can use windows and the official Kinect for windows SDK. The SDK has a c++ API as well as a .NET API.

2. You can use windows/mac with the Zigfu dev bundle. This will let you use the OpenNI interface to communicate with the Kinect. OpenNI also has c/c++, and .NET API as well as Unity3d bindings.

If you want to develop for the XBox you'll need an Xbox development kit.

Answer 5

You don't need anything else, I made a game for kinect only with Kinect

The game I made was for PC actually, so I didn't even had Xbox, you have drivers and everything you need in Microsoft Kinect SDK, even some examples

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/develop/