This detailed, hands-on guide provides the technical and conceptual information you need to build cool applications with Microsoft’s Kinect, the amazing motion-sensing device that enables computers to see. Through half a dozen meaty projects, you’ll learn how to create gestural interfaces for software, use motion capture for easy 3D character animation, 3D scanning for custom fabrication, and many other applications.
Perfect for hobbyists, makers, artists, and gamers, Making Things See shows you how to build every project with inexpensive off-the-shelf components, including the open source Processing programming language and the Arduino microcontroller. You’ll learn basic skills that will enable you to pursue your own creative applications with Kinect.
Create Kinect applications on Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux
Track people with pose detection and skeletonization, and use blob tracking to detect objects
Analyze and manipulate point clouds
Make models for design and fabrication, using 3D scanning technology
Use MakerBot, RepRap, or Shapeways to print 3D objects
Delve into motion tracking for animation and games
Build a simple robot arm that can imitate your arm movements
Discover how skilled artists have used Kinect to build fascinating projects
Chapter 1 What Is the Kinect?
How Does It Work? Where Did It Come From?
Kinect Artists
Chapter 2 Working with the Depth Image
Images and Pixels
Project 1: Installing the SimpleOpenNI Processing Library
Project 2: Your First Kinect Program
Project 3: Looking at a Pixel
Converting to Real-World Distances
Project 4: A Wireless Tape Measure
Project 5: Tracking the Nearest Object
Projects
Project 6: Invisible Pencil
Project 7: Minority Report Photos
Exercises
Chapter 3 Working with Point Clouds
What You’ll Learn in This Chapter
Welcome to the Third Dimension
Drawing Our First Point Cloud
Making the Point Cloud Move
Viewing the Point Cloud in Color
Making the Point Cloud Interactive
Projects
Project 8: Air Drum Kit
Project 9: Virtual Kinect
Conclusion
Chapter 4 Working with the Skeleton Data
A Note About Calibration
Stages in the Calibration Process
User Detection
Accessing Joint Positions
Skeleton Anatomy Lesson
Measuring the Distance Between Two Joints
Transferring Orientation in 3D
Background Removal, User Pixels, and the Scene Map
Tracking Without Calibration: Hand Tracking and Center of Mass
After a decade as a musician, web programmer, and startup founder, Greg Borenstein recently moved to New York to become an artist and teacher. His work explores the use of special effects as an artistic medium. He is fascinated by how special effects techniques cross the boundary between images and the physical objects that make them: miniatures, motion capture, 3D animation, animatronics, and digital fabrication. He is currently a grad student at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
I found the book very well thought out. If you are looking for a good introduction into 3D image processing and have interest in interfacing with the Kinect hardware, this book is a definite must have for your collection.
Greg takes the time to explain not only to show examples that interact with the Kinect, but also the math and concepts behind the processing of the images. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the field of 3D vision and especially if you have a Kinect and want to interface with it and your computer.
4/22/2012
5.0
Great for beginners
By Cemre
from San Francisco CA
About Me Designer
Pros
Easy to understand
Helpful examples
Cons
Best Uses
Student
Comments about oreilly Making Things See:
I really appreciated how Greg took the time to explain things related to Processing or the use of 3D within processing. It makes the book much more accessible.
Also the book is $18 on Google play.
3/3/2012
(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)
5.0
Great introduction to Kinect
By Ivo Flipse
from Netherlands
About Me Developer, Maker
Pros
Accurate
Concise
Easy to understand
Helpful examples
Well-written
Cons
Best Uses
Novice
Student
Comments about oreilly Making Things See:
This book makes it very easy to experiment with Kinect, Processing is easy to set up, simple to write and allows for rapid iterations. Perfect even when you're not that into programming (yet).
The book has a very gradual increase in complexity, taking you from 2D, to 3D to changing the position of virtual camera and eventually scanning a 3D environment. The book starts to get really cool when you get to the Skeleton tracking part, which allows you to calculate the angles between limbs and use those to control the arm of an Arduino robot.
Another great thing about the examples is how they show you all the basic elements you need to built highly interactive programs, like a virtual drum kit, controlling a robot or 3D model.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interesting in experimenting with Kinect. I easily got through the book in 3 days and with the help of Greg's GitHub you should have no trouble getting the examples to work! A definite recommendation!
