Accessing the Kinect Sensors

This will explore how to use the sensors on the kinect. You cannot use the IR and depth sensors at the same time but you can use the RGB camera with either sensor.

These three lines each will activate the IR, depth, and RGB sensors respectively. This is usually coded in the setup() method.

kinectObject.enableIR();
kinectObject.enableDepth();
kinectObject.enableRGB();

Each of these lines of code give back an integer that give the pixel length of each sensor. They are all by default 680×480.

kinectObject.depthWidth()
kinectObject.depthHeight()
kinectObject.iriWidth()
kinectObject.irHeight()
kinectObject.rgbWidth()
kinectObject.rgbHeight()

This setup uses the depth and RGB sensors and displays then side by side. It also displays a red dot at the closest object the kinect can see.

/*-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Created by: Leonardo Merza
Version: 1.0
 
This program will find the closest object and put a red dot in the
window at the coordinates of that object
-----------------------------------------------------------------------*/
 
/*-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Imports
-----------------------------------------------------------------------*/
import SimpleOpenNI.*;
 
/*-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Variables
-----------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// create a kinect variable
SimpleOpenNI kinectObject;
 
// closest XYZ coordinates
int closestX;
int closestY;
int closestZ;
 
// coordinate of current pixel in array
int pixelCoordinate;

// current depth value of current pixel
int currentPixelDepthValue;

// depth values from kinect of all pixels
// of XY plane in a linear array
int[] depthValues;
 
// size of dot
int dotSize = 10;

// color scheme of dot
int redColor = 255;
int greenColor = 0;
int blueColor = 0;
 
/*-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Setup Method. Starts a new kinect object and turns on the depth and
IR sensors. Draws a window the size of the kinect depth image
-----------------------------------------------------------------------*/
void setup()
{
  // start the new kinect object
  kinectObject = new SimpleOpenNI(this);

  // enable to depth sensor
  //kinectObject.enableDepth();

  // enable the IR viewing mode
  kinectObject.enableDepth();

  // enable the RGB sensor
  kinectObject.enableRGB();
 
  // mirror is by default enabled
  kinectObject.setMirror(true);
 
  // set the window size as the height/width
  // of the kinect depth sensor
  size(kinectObject.depthWidth()*2,kinectObject.depthHeight());
}

/*-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Draw method.  This method will update the kinect values and display a
red dot at the closest point from the kinect
-----------------------------------------------------------------------*/
void draw(){
  // set the Z variable to the furthest
  // the kinect can see (8000mm)
  closestZ = 8000;

  //update the kinect data
  kinectObject.update();
 
  findClosestObject();
 
  // draw the ir image on the screen
  // at coordinates (0,0)
  image(kinectObject.depthImage(),0,0);

  // draw the RGB image on the screen
  // at coordinates (kinectObject.depthWidth(),0)
  image(kinectObject.rgbImage(),kinectObject.depthWidth(),0);
 
  // turn the draw color red
  fill(redColor,greenColor,blueColor);

  // draw a red circle that is 10x10 over
  // XY coordinates of closest point
  ellipse(closestX,closestY,dotSize,dotSize);
}
 
/*-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 This method will find the closest depth value from the kinect
-----------------------------------------------------------------------*/
void findClosestObject() {
  // get the depth array from the kinect
  depthValues = kinectObject.depthMap();

  // for each row in the depth image
  for(int y=0;y 0 && currentPixelDepthValue < closestZ) {

        // save the value of the new closest
        closestZ = currentPixelDepthValue;

        // and save XY coordinates
        closestX = x;
        closestY = y;
      } 
    }
  } 
}