Kinect for background subtraction

eratatat

Hi there,

I am trying to understand what the best possible way is to use Kinect instead of a taking live feed in with green screen. I've looked into processing and quartz composer with syphon, but I'm new to this and can't seem to make it work.

Any advice?

Thanks

jhoepffner

Its possible to do it, via processing using the depth value.

I recommend to use the kinect V2, much more precise.

In processing, you make an image using the depth value, black for what is deeper than the body you track.

You obtain a white mage of the body that you can send via syphon and use as a mask in Isadora.

A good way to begin is here

http://shiffman.net/p5/kinect/

Jacques

eratatat

Hi Jacques,

thank you for the advice. I have found shiffman's tutorials, he also answered to a problem I had, I was using Kinect v.1, the 1473 model which is really unstable and I thought the device was faulty.

It seems like v2 is better for this job as you suggested.

I may be following up on this thread if I come up with problems as I haven't found any threads addressing this exactly.

Thanks,

Erato

DusX

If you are on windows (recommended for Kinect v2)
This Openframeworks addon is great, and the examples provide access to what you want.
https://github.com/elliotwoods/ofxKinectForWindows2

I am working on a tool based on this plugin as we speak.. I hope to release it soon (windows only)

jhoepffner

I am working on a little processing app who send by syphon the color image and the mask for the background. I will publish it soon, works on mac with V2

Armando

Jaques, by v2 you mean the Kinect one?

jhoepffner

Armando,

Yes the Kinect One is named V2 by the super-geeks…

Salute

eratatat

@jhoepffner , thanks for your post. It would be amazing if you could let us know when you're ready with the app.

eratatat

@Dusx, I'm working on a mac. Thanks anyway.

jhoepffner

Hello,

I can post the actual state of app.
Inside the .zip, you have the folder containing the processing project (too heavy to make an app…), you need:
– Processing 2 or 3

– last syphon library (Processing website)

– last OscP5 library (")

– last Open Kinect For Processing library (")

You need to install some libraries on your computer (see here http://shiffman.net/p5/kinect/)

There is also a Isadora patch, to receive depth image and RGB image, adjust the settings for depth and a scene with sample of alpha masking.

Quite rough but it works, for me on MacOs 10.10 with Isadora 2.5, Processing 3 and kinect V2 (kinect One with windows link). It can works with V1 if you modify some parameters.

Fell free to give me feedback.

jacques

6c309c-testkinectv2depthmask03.zip

eratatat

@jhoepffner thanks for sharing this,

it works! great work.

I am trying to see whether it's possible to work directly with the registered image, to avoid bringing out two separate syphon instances. I can send the image through, but can't seem to work on the threshold of the depth data. Also, on the registered image the depth pixels are slightly off and not sure how to fix it.

eratatat

@jhoepffner p.s. got the kinect V2 now.

eratatat

Or perhaps, use a blend more directly in processing, I've tried it but can't seem to make it work. Sorry, really new to processing, so haven't figured out the logic yet.

thanks!

DusX

If anyone would like to try/test this

https://github.com/rwebber/kinect2share

Please do and let me know how it goes.

Skulpture

Thanks Ryan. I am going to ask the dumb question here, but when I download something from github it comes a zip. When I unzip it its always just lots of files and code like documents. Am I doing something wrong; or should this be an application ".app" ?

DusX

The 'release' zip has the app 'exe'. This is windows only.

The izzy sample file is in the code files... I need to update that... i forgot to add it to the release.

Skulpture

Thats ok. Just wanted to check.

eratatat

Hi there,

do you know if there is an alternative for MAC to Daniel Shiffman's library in processing?

While testing the file [@jhoepffner](http://troikatronix.com/troikatronixforum/profile/jhoepffner) I got an error, processing cannot find the device (kinect v.2).

It seems like mac and kinect v.2 are not working well.

Any suggestions how to solve this?

Thanks

eratatat

Hi there,

do you know if there is an alternative for MAC to Daniel Shiffman's library in processing?

While testing the file [@jhoepffner](http://troikatronix.com/troikatronixforum/profile/jhoepffner) I got an error, processing cannot find the device (kinect v.2).

It seems like mac and kinect v.2 are not working well.

Any suggestions how to solve this?

Thanks

jhoepffner

Hello,

I you follow the procedure of libraries install (as described in Shiffman post, mainly freenect), it will work well.

some things to note

– you need a USB3 connection

– sometime you need to unplug/replug the kinect

– kinect V2 on mac gives you rawDeep info, color image, IR image but no skeleton infos.

I used it on a an installation one month ago, Processing to Isadora to Processing, no problem.

https://vimeo.com/194632092

I do not know of other working kinect Processing library on mac.

Millumin is able to have skeleton infos on mac but no way to output the info to Isadora…

Hope that helps