Kinect Motion Sensor
Microsoft Xbox Kinect motion sensor changed the method of game playing and brings more interaction with the game. You can clearly see the success of this new technology as it set a new Guinness world record for selling more than 10 million kinect sensors. This controller free gaming system is liked by many pro gamers and in near future you can see most of the games adapting motion capture technology for more interactive gaming.
Kinect Hacks
But besides all that motion sports and gaming what got my attention is the kinect hacks. Ever since the launch of Microsoft xbox kinect motion sensor, it is hacked to use with various other PC applications. There are many cool kinect hacks out there in various fields like gaming, robotics and computer graphics. But considering the nature of the device it can be a great use in the field of motion capture technology.
Kinect Motion Capture
Many motion capture applications keeps coming for kinect. Kinect motion capture system cab used by 3d applications for capturing motions for 3d animation softwares like motionbuilder, 3ds max, maya, poser, blender etc., And there are two successful motion capture applications using kinect motion sensor which enables animators to setup their own motion capture studio.
IPiSoft Kinect Motion Capture Application
Ipisoft comes with a first commercial kinect motion capture software. ipisoft released its desktop motion capture software a year ago. It uses markerless motion capture technology. You just need to record a video using webcam or their suggested sony play station eye for better results. Then their software process the video and converts it to motion capture files. Output supports various mocap formats- Biovision .BVH format including 3DS MAX .BVH,MotionBuilder .BVH,Endorphin .BVH,iClone .BVH,Blender .BVH, FBX,COLLADA (.dae),Valve Software’s Source Engine animation .SMD
Ipisoft’s desktop motion capture software now supports using microsoft kinect sensor and thus making motion capturing process more easier. Now it supports using only one kinect at a time and may be in future multi kinect support will be added. Apart from the costly motion capture systems used for commercial purpose, ipisoft software is the only one affordable by freelance animators. Their express edition costs $395 and its affordable for small motion capture studios. But before buying you can get a free trial for 30 days.
Download iPi Desktop Motion Capture Free Trial
Brekel Kinect MotionBuilder Application
Jasper Brekelmans,a senior mocap & character TD and custom tool/pipeline developer for Motek comes with a useful application called brekel kinect using Microsoft Kinect sensor, and PrimeSense’s OpenNI and NITE.It allows you to capture 3D objects and export them. It also does skeleton tracking which can be streamed into MotionBuilder in real time or can be exported as BVH files.
Download Brekel Kinect Motion Capture Software
Microsoft Kinect SDK , API & Drivers Official Download
Microsoft officially released its kinect sdk for windows 7 including kinect drivers, API and sample codes. soon we can see lot more useful applications with kinect.
Download Microsoft Kinect SDK beta & Kinect Drivers, API
Hoping to see more useful 3d mocap applications using kinect motion capture sensor.
5 comments
steve says:
June 28, 2011 at 1:49 pm (UTC 0)
Why don’t you make it for linux as well? would be nice
Brian Field says:
September 13, 2011 at 3:55 pm (UTC 0)
the kinect sensor has a different usb to my computer so how do I connect it
John says:
April 4, 2012 at 1:21 am (UTC 0)
I think you can buy a converter from mirosoft to connect the kinect slim custom usb to a pc – I bought the seperate kinect unit to fit my arcade consol and it is standard usb.
hope thats of some help.
Anthony says:
April 16, 2012 at 4:11 am (UTC 0)
Hi Brian,
You basically require a special power adapter. it basically splits the kinect adapter, to a standard usb adapter. Because however a standard usb port is unable to provide sufficient power, the other end plugs into a standard wall power socket.
If you go into a games specialist outlet, basically just ask for an adapter to use kinect on the old xbox 360 fat console, which is what it is commonly used for.
here is an example:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Power-Supply-Cable-Cord-USB-AC-Adapter-Xbox-360-Kinect-Sensor-9FT-US-Plug-/270873824624?pt=AU_Video_Game_Accessories&hash=item3f11568d70
Hope this helps, good luck!
Ummm... says:
April 19, 2012 at 5:15 am (UTC 0)
Umm…why is Brekel said to be free when it requires OpenNI and PrimesenseNITE which require Visual Studio? Brekel itself is free, but it won’t run without the two programs that are also free, but will not run without another program that is far from it. I’m not getting Visual Studio when I am only going to use it to run Brekel.