Kinect Plug-in Features

[bernieb]

Hey Spud,

If I am not mistaken, the Kinect can detect if it's a child present vs and adult correct? If so, do you think that there would be a way to integrate this with your XBMC plugin to chage the ratings of the movie allowed to be played? So if only a small person in the room don't allow movies above PG, if an adult is in the room, remove all restrictions on movie rating. Just a thought

One more thing, you said that this will run only on Windows 7 and above. What if my HS server runs XP, but my XBMC server runs WIn7 and I want the Kinect on my WIn7 machine, would that work and would it talk to my XP box?

[spud]

Hey Spud,
If I am not mistaken, the Kinect can detect if it's a child present vs and adult correct? If so, do you think that there would be a way to integrate this with your XBMC plugin to chage the ratings of the movie allowed to be played? So if only a small person in the room don't allow movies above PG, if an adult is in the room, remove all restrictions on movie rating. Just a thought

Kinect can detect skeletons which are defined as a collection of joints coordinates. From these data, we could compute a distance between some specific joints (head and foot for example) and deduct from that if it is a child or adult.
So it is possible theoretically, but needs some work.
Also, in XBMC, I'm not sure how you can allow some movies based on ratings, but I guess that's possible.

One more thing, you said that this will run only on Windows 7 and above. What if my HS server runs XP, but my XBMC server runs WIn7 and I want the Kinect on my WIn7 machine, would that work and would it talk to my XP box?

Yes it would work.

[S-F]

Can it only detect people if they are in motion?

[bernieb]

Also, in XBMC, I'm not sure how you can allow some movies based on ratings, but I guess that's possible.

I am not sure if it's in the API but if I recall correctly, there is a feature in XBMC that will lock access to movies above a certain rating. A 4 digit passcode is required to access movies rated higher. So I was assuming just a lock and unlock command. If there is such a call in the API, maybe I can just schedule a lock / unlock based on time of day. That would work as well.

[AshaiRey]

So if only a small person in the room don't allow movies above PG, if an adult is in the room, remove all restrictions on movie rating. Just a thought

Not a good idea.
This will exclude dwarfs from seeing anything others then the little mermaid (the disney movie)

Or what about this scenario.
The Dutch tends to be very tall people. (I am Dutch and over 2 meters tall but still sometimes i have to look upwards to the face of the younger generation). If they are married to an asian person (1m5 - 1m6 on average) what does that mean then for the rating?
Or this one, i have a nephew who is 15 but he is already 15 centimeters taller then his parents...

[bernieb]

AshaiRey,
I'm taking your post "tongue and cheek" humor ... I am sure that you are aware that this would only be a option that you could select or not.

But now that I think about it a little bit more, I think that I like the lock/unlock on a time basis better and it can be overwritten by a certain gesture from the kinect.

[NeverDie]

I would like to hear what would be the most desired features for such a kinect plugin?

I hope this isn't too prosaic, but it sounds like it would be helpful in our kitchen:

1. We have a Blum Servo-Drive (http://www.blum.com/us/en/01/60/20/) that opens the drawer that holds our kitchen trash can. It requires us to bump the drawer in order to signal the servo-drive to push the drawer out. This may sound like it would be easy, but after awhile it gets to be a PITA to open the drawer this way, and so for reasons of expediency we tend to leave the trash drawer open more than we would really like to. That, in turn, undermines our minimalist asthetic, where everything is supposed to be put neatly away and out of sight nearly all the time. Therefore, it would be preferable (and faster) to have a simple gesture trigger the drawer to open. If it could be triggered to open from a distance, then we could have the drawer open up for us while we're moving toward it and before we even get there. That would speed things up quite a bit and would engender extremely high WAF.

2. Likewise, we have one of those Delta TouchH20 faucets. We've grown to leave the faucet valve open all the time now and use the touch feature to turn the faucet on or off. It's nice, but our TouchH20 is somewhat fickle as to how you touch it as to whether it will consent to turn on or off. A bit too frequently it does neither. That can cause lower WAF. A gesture that works reliably would be a nice alternative.

Speaking of which, just how quick and reliable are you finding Kinect gesture recognition? How far away can the camera be put? Must the camera be squarely facing you front-on, or can it read you from behind or from other viewing angles?

[surovich]

OMG! Ive been looking at some add ons using a Kinect as well - If you need any testers let me know, I have Kinects and multiple small computers to run my system.

Adding any form of VR in that room to forward to the speaker would be awesome - yes, you could use HS VR - but so far, on Win 8 and Kinects Arrays sensors, I haven't had a ton of luck - too many false positives.

As a side note to some people - you can remotely use a Kinect with a beaglebone then use a USB Sharing program on your main HS machine.

[AshaiRey]

AshaiRey,
I'm taking your post "tongue and cheek" humor ...

Yes it was. I thought that the examples where funny enough to mention.

But back to the kinect. I know that people make strange moves all the time and that could easily lead to firing a trigger that the person wasn't intented to do. A simple Llights On isn't to bad if that's happens but turning the alarm off unintentionaly is not a good idea. My suggestion would be including some form of confirmation that you can put on at some commands. This way you can get feedback that you are about to do something important you may not want to do

And i would like to see multi language VR.
I am using HS2 (no plans to go to HS3 yet) and i had to write my own multi-language VR system just because there isn't a version that does Dutch

[NeverDie]

I hope this isn't too prosaic, but it sounds like it would be helpful in our kitchen:

1. We have a Blum Servo-Drive (http://www.blum.com/us/en/01/60/20/) that opens the drawer that holds our kitchen trash can. It requires us to bump the drawer in order to signal the servo-drive to push the drawer out. This may sound like it would be easy, but after awhile it gets to be a PITA to open the drawer this way, and so for reasons of expediency we tend to leave the trash drawer open more than we would really like to. That, in turn, undermines our minimalist asthetic, where everything is supposed to be put neatly away and out of sight nearly all the time. Therefore, it would be preferable (and faster) to have a simple gesture trigger the drawer to open. If it could be triggered to open from a distance, then we could have the drawer open up for us while we're moving toward it and before we even get there. That would speed things up quite a bit and would engender extremely high WAF.

2. Likewise, we have one of those Delta TouchH20 faucets. We've grown to leave the faucet valve open all the time now and use the touch feature to turn the faucet on or off. It's nice, but our TouchH20 is somewhat fickle as to how you touch it as to whether it will consent to turn on or off. A bit too frequently it does neither. That can cause lower WAF. A gesture that works reliably would be a nice alternative.

Speaking of which, just how quick and reliable are you finding Kinect gesture recognition? How far away can the camera be put? Must the camera be squarely facing you front-on, or can it read you from behind or from other viewing angles?

Any feedback on this?

[spud]

gesture recognition is quick, but the Kinect needs to be able to see at least your head and your upper body.

Here is the horizontal field of view:


and more detailed info here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh973074.aspx

[nikku]

Another vote for VR!
I also wrote a VR system that utilizes the kinect (a very simplistic, but functional one). I'd love to see a more polished VR System that uses the Kinect, as with the current setup I have there are zero false positives, and recognition is very accurate. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this as well!

[nikku]

OMG! Ive been looking at some add ons using a Kinect as well - If you need any testers let me know, I have Kinects and multiple small computers to run my system.

Adding any form of VR in that room to forward to the speaker would be awesome - yes, you could use HS VR - but so far, on Win 8 and Kinects Arrays sensors, I haven't had a ton of luck - too many false positives.

As a side note to some people - you can remotely use a Kinect with a beaglebone then use a USB Sharing program on your main HS machine.

If you don't mind my asking, what programs are you using to accomplish the USB sharing between the HS box and the BeagleBone? This sounds like something I'd be interested in setting up.

[surovich]

If you don't mind my asking, what programs are you using to accomplish the USB sharing between the HS box and the BeagleBone? This sounds like something I'd be interested in setting up.

I originally tried with a Raspberri Pi and the USB and VirtualHere - Issue is that Wheezy doesn't support some of webcam stuff that Kinect does, so I had issues. I worked with the dev and he mentioned the Beagle as a great alternative or he mentioned using : http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_20...=G135341370451

I haven't tried video over these yet, but Audio did work on the Beagle - But the VR throws so many false positives that I pulled it unill I can get something else going.

Once this Plugin goes Beta, Ill go back to the Beagle and the VirtualHere and let people know Since that board is $45, its a great idea ... The second one is only $85, so still not a bad option. Id love to get my three Kinects up ... Ill be first in line to buy this plug in...

[spud]

First Beta version of the Kinect plugin is available here.
And a short User Guide: here