Azure Kinect DK

Ok, so you all probably already know that kinect is back…somehow.

After looking a bit at the specs i have to say that i’m a bit confused.
https://opdhsblobprod03.blob.core.windows.net/contents/503db294612a42b3b95420aaabac44cc/77342d6514e7dbbcf477614ed3a7acda?sv=2015-04-05&sr=b&sig=jBsvReTOmE7D%2Bnx8FswKWe6eaPB4XsqmCBwa58hno3o%3D&st=2019-02-26T05%3A32%3A59Z&se=2019-02-27T05%3A42%3A59Z&sp=r

Frame rate is still at 30 and the Depth range considerably went down to 5.45m
It would have been very welcomed to have at least 60fps even at lower resolution imho.
Actually if you compare it to Intel’s Realsense, that has a pretty noisy depth but a very nice range up to 10m, and way higher frame rates it seems to me that it won’t be so attractive for medium/big size interactive installations. Actually since it’s a variation of the sensor embeded in Hololens2 it seems well more suitable for proximity based Mixed media and augmented reality.

The embeded Gyroscope is a pretty nice thing that could be very usefull in mobile scenarios though.
Also these sync and auto-calibration features are sounding great. Thinking about one of the biggest cons of the kinect2 there that needed one computer per device, but I’m wondering if this will only work in standalone mode and connected to the cloud. To what I understand it seems that Microsoft is targetting businesses with ready made solutions along with that Azure service that I don’t know much about.

So, I’m wondering how versatile and easy it would be for us to get acces to these promised features.
Speaking about object recognition, 3D positional tracking, autocalibration of multiple devices, environnement mapping and mesurements, etc.

I guess that we still don’t know much about it but any thoughts on this would be interesting.

oh boy oh boy, can’t wait for the European availability

“From its name we were worried this product would require Microsoft’s Azure cloud service in some way and be crippled without it. Based on information released so far, it appears developers have access to all the same data streams as previous sensors. Azure tie-in takes the form of optional SDKs that make it easier to do things like upload data for processing in Azure cloud-based recognition services.”

Ok then, If this is true, I’m happy :)

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I can have the camera.
would anyone be interested in a partnership?

@Aurel do you mean you can preorder it or you can physically have the camera right now?

Just Pre-order…
I’m based in Brussels, friends will send it to us.
I think the vvvv community should pool the development for this camera and the Intels ones.
What do you think ?

continues here: https://github.com/vvvv/VL.Devices.AzureKinect
turned out the bodytracking is not yet available for .NET, for now this only contains rgb and depth…

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C++/CLI then ;)

if interested, please vote here: https://feedback.azure.com/forums/920053-azure-kinect-dk/suggestions/38661742-bodytracking-c-wrapper

Voted!

And just stumbled in the comments of the voting over this: https://github.com/dotMorten/Microsoft.Azure.Kinect.BodyTracking

“Planned to be released in the v 0.9.5 in December.” 🎉🎉🎉

any progress in this? i have a project coming up (deadline atumn this year) where i need skeleton tracking. question is if i should use kinect 2 or or kinect azure…

is there a difference in skeleton structure between kinect2 and azure?

bodytracking is shipping with the prerelease nuget: https://www.nuget.org/packages/VL.Devices.AzureKinect/0.1.7-alpha

the azure has a few more joints but performance-wise people don’t seem to be happy, see:

for skeleton tracking you have two more ready options:

then there is the realsense which also now comes with a skeleton tracking api that could be used. we haven’t looked into wrapping this yet but shouldn’t be too hard.

got my new “Azure Kinect DK” and tried Package “VL.Devices.AzureKinect.0.1.7-alpha”

First impression:
HelpPatches Device.AzureKinect “Track bodies” not working - IR-Sensor is not even starting
HelpPatches Device.AzureKinect “Use the Azure Kinect” - IMUData: OK, PointCloud: OK - DepthImage: strange but visible - ColorImage: OK BodyImage: not working
When I switch the DepthMode “WFOV_Unbinned” all Renderer stop working but start again when I go back to “NFOV_Unbinned” - WFOV_2x2Binned only PointCloud stop working

seems like there is a problem with the Node “BodyTracker” - it’s not red - both HelpPatches, which are not working include this Node

@elektromeier after oneHoure play - one really big difference between the Kinect2 and AzureKinect is the WideAngel WFOV - could be a thing for Installations

The .exe Tools from “Azure Kinect Body Tracking SDK” from MS are working fine. I have the feeling the depth is more detailed than with Kinect2 but first impression, but my Notebook here has much more work to do with AzureKinect than with Kinect2 - I can hear it.

Greets CeeYaa

Hi guys,
any chance to have an Azure Kinect in Italy shipped from Germany or UK? From US is very expensive.

Let me know. Thanks!

AzureKinect now comes in two prerelease nugets:

  • VL.Devices.AzureKinect
  • VL.Devices.AzureKinect.Body

where the latter references the first. so installing the second one also downs the first one. we went this way to mirror the original ms nugets, which are also separate. the body tracking is really not optimal atm but requires a ~200mb download, so we thought it makes sense to make it optional… it seems they have already planned an alternative tracking method though, so it will be good if you don’t need to download the large nuget if there is also an alternative. let’s see how they pack this…

@CeeYaa thanks for your report. those should now all be working. note though that WFOV_Unbinned only works when you set framerate to 15fps! this is a device limitation.

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sry one week delay and not everything works like it should

I like the idea to split the nugets for AzureKinect and AzureKinect.Body

but AzureKinect.Body still not working “HowTo_track_bodies” AzureKinect tries to start (IR starts and white light on) but switch off when patch is open, same on “HowTo_VizualizeBodyMasks”

Am I the only one? Everone can start it without problems? there are more than 20 downloads of the nuget!?

“AzureKinectViewer” is working without problems so is “AzureKinectBodyTrackingViewer” from Microsoft
I also deinstalled everything Microsoft stuff and nugets --> installed only nugets but nothing changed

VL.AzureKinect: little Problem: PointCloud looks strange when lower Decimation and also PointCloudCache isn’t forced by changing

I tried around but no big success - Kinect always tries to start but switch then off
like an old car

this is fixed now in latest nuget.

no clue yet regarding the other issues…

finally got around the problem for bodytracking not working on other PCs. @CeeYaa pls test again.
note that the demos may still start paused, but after F5 the tracking should work.

EDIT: before getting the latest nuget you’ll need to make sure to manually remove:

Microsoft.Azure.Kinect.BodyTracking

from your nugets:

AppData\Local\vvvv\gamma\nugets

Haha you just edit your post - I want to write the same - after clean install (remove all Azure Nugets) - it works fine
Everything works like expected - Help patches starting and do their job and very easy to patch to get some result - WFOV works - pointcloud looks now ok and is in realtime adjustable
For me seems like solved
THX

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