Getting Started with Kinect?

[cjackson]

So our team just acquired a Kinect. The only problem is we don't really know where to start. Any tips or guides or anything?

Thanks,
Cory

[James Rutheford]

Are you wanting to do video chats with it or is it for entertainment purposes? Youtube always has many How to's and X-box has it's own walk through for the Kinect. (suggestion, if you want to use the built in mic on the Kinect, check that it does not echo. There has been issues with Kinects picking up anything and everything that is in the room with the Kinect)

[cjackson]

Well, we'd like to start programming it and use it to drive our robot.

[FrankJ]

Go to the forum on usfirst. They have a section on the beta stuff. You will need the Microsoft SDK for the Kinect, which I expect you can find on Microsoft's website. The Beta tester cannot give you any the First provide drivers & software, but they can point you along.

[James Rutheford]

One of the teams you could try to contact about that would be 341. They have a robot that seemed to work well with a connect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OFzdeCfbp4

[James Rutheford]

Well team 341 might be helpful since they seem to have a working system with the Kinect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OFzdeCfbp4

[skimoose]

Read the FIRST open forum on this year's beta testing. There is a section on the Kinect including software requirements (http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=18073).

The Kinect for Windows SDK version beta 1.0 can be found here (http://kinectforwindows.org/).

The rest will come from FIRST at Kickoff.