MIT Kinect Demos

This page describes how to set up your system to run the kinect demos found in the mit-ros-pkg repository

Kinect demos that you might want to check out include:

General Installation

All of the MIT kinect demo software shares a base installation procedure. To run one of these demos, please follow these General Installation instructions, and then follow the directions specific to the demo you wish to run.

Software Setup

These instructions assume you are running Ubuntu, preferably 10.04. If you are brave, and want to use this on another operating system, instructions will be pointed to after you select a distribution:

The Kinect demos can be installed with the following versions of ROS:

click on a turtle to see the appropriate install instructions.

Hardware Setup

You will need a kinect for these demos. If you are using OpenNI_Kinect, then just connect Kinect to your computer.

Specific Installation and Execution

If you followed the optional 'install all demos' in the distribution-specific instructions, you are done with the installation. Otherwise, or to learn how to run the demos, click on one of the demo images above.

• If you want to run these demos on Ubuntu 11.10 and Electric, or the instructions here just don't work for you, click on one of the demo images above and follow the specific instructions for each demo. I've got 3 demos running perfectly, including Hand Detection, Finger Detection, and Minority Report Interface.The Piano demo will work, but not very stable as in the video. Robot Follower will work, OWH have did some fix and tested it. I can get Impromptu Buttons running, but not fully tested yet.

• Remember: you need to get Hand Detection demo running first, then move on to others.

Follow these instructions after you have completed the General Installation instructions, above.

Hand Detection

Installation

•  rosmake hand_interaction

Execution

• roslaunch hand_interaction hand_detector.launch

To view with rviz, use the configuration:

• `rospack find hand_interaction`/config/handdetection.vcg

• Note: it is possible to run this demo without the skeleton tracking. In this mode, the hand detector simply finds the two closest blobs.

• To use this, simply use detecthands instead of detectskelhands

Finger Detection

Installation

•  rosmake hand_interaction

Execution

• roslaunch hand_interaction finger_detector.launch

To view with rviz, use the configuration:

• `rospack find hand_interaction`/config/fingerdetection.vcg

Piano Playing

Installation

•  rosmake piano

Execution

• roslaunch piano pianist.launch

*For tips on how to play, see Piano Playing

Impromptu Buttons

Installation

•  rosmake impromptu_button

Execution

This demo uses the openni kinect driver. To launch it run:

roslaunch openni_camera openni_kinect.launch

The one step you will have to do manually is provide a static transform from /world to /openni_camera which will make the normal of the drawing surface point in the positive z direction. In the video above, I ran the following:

rosrun tf static_transform_publisher 0 0 1.2 0 .33 0 /world /openni_camera 10

Finally, to launch this demo, run:

rosrun impromptu_buttons buttons

*For tips on how to make this demo work, see Impromptu Buttons

Robot Follower

Installation

•  rosmake skeletal_tracker

Execution

With the bilibot/ create-kinect-laptop combo fully plugged in:

• roslaunch skeletal_tracker follower.launch

*For tips on how to use this demo effectively, see Robot Follower

Minority Report Interface

Installation

•  rosmake skeletal_tracker hand_interaction kgui

Execution

This demo uses the finger detector. To launch it run:

roslaunch hand_interaction detectfingers.launch

The launch the gui:

rosrun kgui calgui

Now check the boxes 'online mode' and 'hand in'

*For tips on how to use this interface, see Minority Report Demo

*/