User`s guide

12 Using the Kinect for Windows Adaptor
12-2
Important Information About the Kinect Adaptor
The Kinect Adaptor lets you acquire images using a Kinect
®
for Windows device. Kinects
are often used in automotive IVS, robotics, human-computer interaction (HCI), security
systems, entertainment systems, game design, and civil engineering. They can be used
for analyzing skeletons, 3D mapping, gesture recognition, human travel patterns, sports
and games, etc.
The Kinect adaptor is supported on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.
Doing image acquisition with a Kinect for Windows camera is similar to using other
cameras and adaptors, but with several key differences:
• The Kinect for Windows device has two separate physical sensors, and each one uses
a different DeviceID in the videoinput object. The Kinect color sensor returns color
image data. The Kinect depth sensor returns depth and skeletal data. For information
about Kinect device discovery and the use of two device IDs, see “Detecting the Kinect
Devices” on page 12-7.
• The Kinect for Windows device returns four data streams. The image stream is
returned by the color sensor and contains color data in various color formats. The
depth stream is returned by the depth sensor and returns depth information in pixels.
The skeletal stream is returned by the depth sensor and returns metadata about the
skeletons. There is also an audio stream, but this is unused by Image Acquisition
Toolbox. For details on the streams, see “Data Streams Returned by the Kinect” on
page 12-4.
• The Kinect for Windows can track up to six people. It can provide full tracking on two
people, and position tracking on up to four more.
• In Image Acquisition Toolbox, skeletal metadata is accessed through the depth sensor
object. For an example showing how to access the skeletal metadata, see “Acquiring
Image and Skeletal Data Using Kinect” on page 12-9.
Note: The Kinect adaptor is intended for use only with the Kinect for Windows sensor.
Note: With previous versions of the Image Acquisition Toolbox, the files for all of the
adaptors were included in your installation. Starting with version R2014a, each adaptor
is available separately through the Support Package Installer. In order to use the Image
Acquisition Toolbox, you must install the adaptor that your camera uses, in this case, the