How to detect gestures in OpenKinect (with python wrappers)

Question

I've started looking into OpenKinect development, and to start, I'm trying to figure out how to look for certain gestures done by the person.

Are there any tutorials out there on how to do this? Or what would be a good place to start?

I'm just trying to do things like know when a person turns their hand in one direction or the other, for example. Although, I'd certainly appreciate any sort of help at all!

UPDATE: From what I can tell, I'm going to be using the OpenNI/NITE frameworks most likely, in addition with the ONIPY Python wrappers. So unless there's a better framework, I just need to figure out how to make my own gestures now.

Salimeter

trying to implement gmail motion ? check an implementation :p – Decorator

Haha not quite, I want simple things like turning a hand forward or backward. I'm not looking for full body gestures (at least not at the moment), although I'd appreciate any help for any sort of gesture! Plus, those guys didn't provide any source, so while it's fun to watch, it doesn't help me figure anything out – Salimeter

There is an older library, I had seem demoed live back in 2008 called EHCI - it could work for hand or face tracking in Python with a simple webcan (no need for kinetic) – Gurley

Thanks jsbueno! Unfortunately, later on down the road, I'll need the ability to read depth, so while the normal webcam will work for now, eventually I'll need the Kinect :/. I'll definitely give it a look though – Salimeter

I made a more complete fork of ONIPY called PyOpenNI. Among other things, it supports callbacks and gestures. We're still adding more features to it. See an gesture-detecting example. – Hibben

Answer 1

I'm not sure that it will be exactly what you want, but my brother has used the OpenNI/NITE library to recognize some gestures on the Kinect using Ruby. I saw a demo that my brother did where the computer recognized him giving the computer a wave.

There are Python bindings for that library with the onipy project, but I haven't personally used it. I suspect that it still may need some work, but I would certainly look into it. You'll probably want to read some documentation on the OpenNI website too.

Gottwald

Thanks Justin! I've played with the OpenNI stuff, and I know one of the NITE programs included tracks hands and waving and stuff. I'm trying to get gestures like do I twist my hand one way, or the other? (Think of how you'd screw off a bottle cap, I want to know which way the hand turns). I'll definitely check out the documentation though. – Salimeter

See my comment at the question. – Hibben

That Openni hyperlink redirects to Apple. – Oarsman