Using XBox 360 Kinect with Kinect for Windows SDK

Question

I'm working on a class project which is using a Kinect. According to the [Microsoft Kinect for Windows Information Page][1]:

If you’re receiving either of these error messages, you’re probably using a Kinect for Xbox 360 and not the new Kinect for Windows. Make sure that your Kinect sensor is the Kinect for Windows sensor. (It’s easy: Just make sure it says doesn’t say "Xbox 360" on the front.)

If you’re a software developer, you can use the Kinect for Xbox 360 together with your computer to test the software you’re working on. However, to get the full Kinect for Windows experience, we recommend you download the Kinect for Windows SDK and use it with the Kinect for Windows.

Note Make sure that your Kinect sensor is the Kinect for Windows sensor. If it says "Xbox 360" on the front, it’s the Kinect for Xbox 360, not the Kinect for Windows.

Despite the ambiguity of this message, it seems like I should be able to use an XBox 360 Kinect for development. The SDK only limits deployment, which is perfectly fine for my project.

However, when I run the following code:

Console.WriteLine("Sensor count: " + KinectSensor.KinectSensors.Count);
Console.WriteLine("Sensor status: " + KinectSensor.KinectSensors[0].Status);

I get the output:

Sensor count: 1
Sensor status: NotReady

What gives? My Kinect is connected to my computer. The green light on the front is blinking. Any help here would be appreciated.

Meaganmeager

Answer 1

You can use the Kinect SDK that was designed to work with the Kinect for XBox: the Kinect SDK Beta 2. Download it for free from microsoft.com.

From the download link:

The Kinect for Windows SDK beta provides hobbyists and researchers with the tools to develop non-commercial applications that run on the Kinect for Xbox 360.

(emphasis mine)

Lota

It worked fine with the Beta SDK. It's unfortunate that I can't use the newer APIs though. Thanks for the help. – Meaganmeager

Kinect SDK v1.0 and v1.5 works perfectly with the Kinect for Xbox. Just you can not work with the near mode. And the kinect runtime redistributable does not work with the xbox kinect. – Insolence

The kinect for xbox 360 is working fine with us, on the sdk 1.8. You will just miss the near mode, and a lot of cool stuff that kinect for windows has. It's shaky, too. But it works like a charm. – Ascham

Can kinect sdk 2 be used with xbox 360 kinect. Can the sensors be accessed by this sdk. – Wineglass

no, I don't think the v2 SDK works with xbox 360 Kinect, but you can still use the 1.8. Hope they merge in the future, have suggested they use a capabilities-based API to cover other similar devices maybe too – Naker

Answer 2

Kinect sensor needs high power supply and normal USB port doesn't provide sufficient power. Make sure that along with USB plugged in, Kinect sensor's power adapter is plugged in too.

Aplacental

Answer 3

I'd suggest using the Kinect Explorer demo app supplied with the latest version of SDK first.

This will confirm whether it's just something to do with your particular solution or the interface to the Kinect in general.

You also might want to try iterating through the KinectSensor.KinectSensors collection to see whether it gives a different result to the Count property.

Bryon