Basic Theory and Specifications
A Kinect can be used to measure the position of moving objects in 3D space. An IR source lights the room with a pre-set dot pattern. With a 1.3 Mpixel IR camera, this pattern is analyzed using pattern recognition. Triangulation between sender, receiver and object is used to measure distance. Framerate is 60 Hz, and spacial resolution is 1 cm. The skeleton of 4 persons can be detected simultaneously. Even individual fingers can be tracked, if distance is short. A motor is implemented to tilt the Kinect, and the position of the device is measured using an accelerometer.
Speech can be processed using recognition software. 2 microphone arrays are present in the Kinect. A normal camera is integrated as well.
Connections
1 x USB 2.0
Software
For Windows, a software development kit (SDK) is available, as well as an Adafruit walkthrough: .
Variations
Variations on motion sensing input devices are available for PlayStation and Wii. Oblong and LEAPmotion belong to the same family of controllers.