Kinect Services for RDS 2008 R3

Now with the release of Kinect SDK for Windows, Microsoft is putting a lot of bang on the next generation human computer interaction technology to the mainstream PC. This time it’s none other than the Kinect Services for Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio - a Windows-based environment for hobbyist, academic and commercial developers to create robotics applications for a variety of hardware platforms.
Similar to Kinect SDK for Windows 7 Kinect Services for RDS 2008 R3 is available at Microsoft Research site for free download. According to the site, “Kinect Services for RDS provides sample services that use the Kinect for Windows SDK to allow access to the Depth and RGB data from a Kinect sensor. In addition to a service for a real Kinect, there is also a service for a simulated Kinect that works with the RDS simulator.”
Kinect Services for RDS 2008 R3 is vailable for download at:
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/f8cda115-e9ec-44d1-abcd-3dfdd09d2e77/
There’s already a tutorial of powering the Kinect using iRobot’s internal battery is available at http://www.ros.org/wiki/kinect/Tutorials/Adding%20a%20Kinect%20to%20an%20iRobot%20Create

Now that’s one more reason to buy a Kinect Sensor.
Reference & Image Courtesy:
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4217801/Robots-get-Kinect-s--eyes-and-ears-
[Posted using Windows Live Writer 2011 on Windows 7 64bit]

Kinect for Windows SDK beta Released

As it was earlier announced Microsoft Research had released the Kinect for Windows SDK last week. According to the Microsoft Research, “The Kinect for Windows SDK beta is a programming toolkit for application developers. It enables the academic and enthusiast communities easy access to the capabilities offered by the Microsoft Kinect device connected to computers running the Windows 7 operating system.”

“The Kinect for Windows SDK beta includes drivers, rich APIs for raw sensor streams and human motion tracking, installation documents, and resource materials. It provides Kinect capabilities to developers who build applications with C++, C#, or Visual Basic by using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.”

The most interesting thing is the skeletal tracking API. The demonstrated Shape Game using this API is pretty awesome. Now I just need to get hold of a Kinect sensor.

Shape Game Demo

If you have a Kinect sensor you can download the SDK from http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/kinectsdk/download.aspx

More information is available at http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/kinectsdk/

[Posted using Windows Live Writer 2011 on Windows 7 64bit]

Academics, Enthusiasts to Get Kinect SDK

Ever since the Kinect for Xbox 360 was announced I wanted it to have support for PC. But unfortunately at that time Microsoft did not thought in the same line as we computer enthusiasts.

However it was fortunate that community was really keen to get the Kinect to work with PC one way or other . And numerous hacking attempts began to surface. http://www.pcworld.com/article/210494/kinect_hacked_to_work_on_pcs.html

And finally it seems Microsoft has listened to the community and decided to  release community release of SDK of Kinect for PC.

And it’s interesting to learn that the mastermind behind AdaFruit Industries' Kinect hacking contest was former core member Johnny Lee from the Kinect team.

"Back in the late Summer of 2010, trying to argue for the most basic level of PC support for Kinect from within Microsoft, to my immense disappointment, turned out to be really grinding against the corporate grain at the time (for many reasons I won't enumerate here)," Johnny Lee had said. "When my frustration peaked, I decided to approach AdaFruit to put on the Open Kinect contest. For obvious reasons, I couldn't run the contest myself. Besides, Phil and Limor did a phenomenal job, much better than I could have done. Without a doubt, the contest had a significant impact in raising awareness about the potential for the Kinect outside of Xbox gaming both inside and outside the company."

References:

http://procrastineering.blogspot.com/2011/02/windows-drivers-for-kinect.html

[Posted with Windows Live Writer™ 2011 on Windows 7 64bit]

Windows Live™ Writer 2011

I had been using the Windows Live™ Writer for blogging ever since it was introduced. Since it did not had emoticon support out of the box in first versions I had been using a 3rd party plugin for the requirement. (Can’t remember which I did used but think it was Insert MSN, Yahoo and Custom Smileys)

But during last months I happened to find that it had broken the compatibility with Live Writer™. Just today I realized why Microsoft had released new versions of Windows Live Writer™ 2011 which of course has the emoticon support out of the box. (It even has the ability to auto format emoticon phrases to relevant emoticon automatically)

Among other features are ability to insert Bing Map locations, Post tags and more Windows 7 like user interface layout.

Only problem I found to be is no longer I can change the size of the emoticons which I can accept for the time being.

[Posted with Windows Live Writer™ 2011 on Windows 7 64bit]

Microsoft KINECT

:-)

While there is lot of research going on to the way we react with the computers we see very little getting their way into the consumer market.

When it comes to the Kinect for Xbox 360 it is more than a simple gimmick. With this device all the commands carried out by gestures and your whole body can be used for the game.

This is a really good feature and sometimes very intuitive way to play specially considering games like athletic sports. You have to really run and jump! (More fun way to burn few kg of body weight rather than a boring run on a treadmill) All in all you really have to play!

It’s sad that it seems only be for the Xbox and not for the PCs.

More details:http://www.xbox.com/en-US/kinect

[Posted using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7]

Microsoft Announces Windows Embedded Compact 7 and Windows Embedded Handheld 7.

:-)

Microsoft has announced the Windows Embedded Compact 7 next generation of Windows Embedded CE platform, the Microsoft developed operating system for embedded systems. The new version is expected to add rich User experience functionalities, Connected experience, Dual Core CPU supports as well as many other facilities. A CTP is already available to download from Microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/products/windowsce/compact7.mspx

Windows Embedded Handheld, a new software platform specially catered for ruggedized enterprise handheld devices. According to the roadmap published by Microsoft during the 2010 Q2, Windows Embedded Handheld will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5. It is expected to release the next generation, Windows Embedded Handheld 7 which will be based on Windows Embedded Compact 7 to be release during 2011 Q2.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/products/handheld/future-version.mspx

[Published using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7]