Microsoft this week opened key pieces of the source code running in Kinect for Windows, its motion-detection hardware for computers launched last year. The move provides 22 portions of Kinect code for performing a variety of functions, including face tracking, audio capture, slideshow gestures and green-screen effects.
Posted on its codeplex developer website, the code is a mixture of C#, C++ and Visual Basic and is released under the Apache 2.0 open source license. The release was made public in a blog post Wednesday by Microsoft's Kinect for Windows Developer Community Manager developer Ben Lower, who also announced that the new Kinect for Windows Developer blog "will focus on going behind the scenes with the K4W [Kinect for Windows] engineering team and will go deeper on the technology and APIs, share tips and tricks, and provide other tidbits of information relevant to those building K4W applications."
Before you start getting all teary-eyed, you should know that Microsoft has more than altruism in mind. According to Lower, Microsoft also hopes that by releasing the code, members of the open source community will provide feedback and useful suggestions for improvement. "We want to hear from you to understand what we can do better with the samples," Lower wrote in his post. Feedback is invited in the form of a post in the K4W Discussion Forum or as entries in the K4W Issue Tracker. Requirements to use the code include Visual Studio 2010 or 2012, .NET 4.0 or 4.5, the Kinect for Windows SDK and Kinect for Windows Toolkit. Some of the samples require other tools, all of which are indicated on the code samples chart.
PUBLISHED MARCH 8, 2013
This story was updated on Monday, March 11, at 2:13 p.m. PST, to make clear that the sample codes Microsoft made public were for Kinect for Windows and to clarify Ben Lower's company title.
