Update #3: added ‘code camp’ video!

Channel 9′s Kinect developer event was indeed all about the Kinect SDK, it has just been released! Programming not your thing? Then checkout our Child of Eden review.

Let’s start with he most important stuff for developers out there:

  1. Kinect SDK Developer’s Quick starts [check these out first (video below)]

Kinect App Developer Introduction Video

  1. Kinect SDK: Download beta (non-commercial)
  2. Learn how to do the programming for the Kinect SDK: Documentation

This is a non-commercial SDK, but Microsoft is thinking about releasing a commercial version later on, but they are no announcing anything on that yet.

What will you be creating next? Share it with us, we’d be happy to share it with our visitors.

More info on the Kinect for Windows SDK beta below.

Kinect SDK Code Camp

What is the Kinect SDK?

The Kinect for Windows SDK beta is a programming toolkit for application developers. It enables the academic and enthusiast communities easy access to the capabilities offered by the Microsoft Kinect device connected to computers running the Windows 7 operating system.

The Kinect for Windows SDK beta includes drivers, rich APIs for raw sensor streams and human motion tracking, installation documents, and resource materials. It provides Kinect capabilities to developers who build applications with C++, C#, or Visual Basic by using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.

This SDK includes the following features:
  • Raw sensor streams

    Access to raw data streams from the depth sensor, color camera sensor, and four-element microphone array enables developers to build upon the low-level streams that are generated by the Kinect sensor.

  • Skeletal tracking

    The capability to track the skeleton image of one or two people moving within the Kinect field of view make it easy to create gesture-driven applications.

  • Advanced audio capabilities

    Audio processing capabilities include sophisticated acoustic noise suppression and echo cancellation, beam formation to identify the current sound source, and integration with the Windows speech recognition API.

  • Sample code and documentation

    The SDK includes more than 100 pages of technical documentation. In addition to built-in help files, the documentation includes detailed walkthroughs for most samples provided with the SDK.

  • Easy installation

    The SDK installs quickly, requires no complex configuration, and the complete installer size is less than 100 MB. Developers can get up and running in just a few minutes with a standard standalone Kinect sensor unit (widely available at retail outlets).

Kinect SDK Q&A

  • ‘SDK’ stands for Software Development Kit
  • You can code in C#, F# and VB.net but there is no Visual Studio 2010 project template for the Kinect SDK yet.
  • You can use the retail Kinect sensor anyone can pick up for $150
  • The Kinect for Windows SDK is still beta, this means Microsoft wants your feedback to improve the developer kit. It also means that the SDK may not be fully polished here and there, but as a developer you should already be aware of this.