Meet the Kinect introduces the exciting world of volumetric computing using the Microsoft Kinect. You'll learn to write scripts and software enabling the use of the Kinect as an input device. Interact directly with your computer through physical motion. The Kinect will read and track body movements, and is the bridge between the physical reality in which you exist and the virtual world created by your software. Microsoft’s Kinect was released in fall 2010 to become the fastest-selling electronic device ever. For the first time, we have an inexpensive, three-dimensional sensor enabling direct interaction between human and computer, between the physical world and the virtual. The Kinect has been enthusiastically adopted by a growing culture of enthusiasts, who put it to work in creating technology-based art projects, three-dimensional scanners, adaptive devices for sight-impaired individuals, new ways of interacting with PCs, and even profitable business opportunities. Meet the Kinect is the resource to get you started in mastering the Kinect and the exciting possibilities it brings. You’ll learn about the Kinect hardware and what it can do. You’ll install drivers and learn to download and run the growing amount of Kinect software freely available on the Internet. From there, you’ll move into writing code using some of the more popular frameworks and APIs, including the official Microsoft API and the language known as Processing that is popular in the art and creative world. Along the way, you’ll learn principles and terminology. Volumetric computing didn’t begin with the Kinect. The field is decades old—if you’ve ever had an MRI, for example, you have benefitted from volumetric computing technology. Meet the Kinect goes beyond just the one device to impart the principles and terminology underlying the exciting field of volumetric computing that is now wide-open and accessible to the average person.

Meet the Kinect introduces the exciting world of volumetric computing using the Microsoft Kinect. You'll learn to write scripts and software enabling the use of the Kinect as an input device. Interact directly with your computer through physical motion. The Kinect will read and track body movements, and is the bridge between the physical reality in which you exist and the virtual world created by your software. Microsoft’s Kinect was released in fall 2010 to become the fastest-selling electronic device ever. For the first time, we have an inexpensive, three-dimensional sensor enabling direct interaction between human and computer, between the physical world and the virtual. The Kinect has been enthusiastically adopted by a growing culture of enthusiasts, who put it to work in creating technology-based art projects, three-dimensional scanners, adaptive devices for sight-impaired individuals, new ways of interacting with PCs, and even profitable business opportunities. Meet the Kinect is the resource to get you started in mastering the Kinect and the exciting possibilities it brings. You’ll learn about the Kinect hardware and what it can do. You’ll install drivers and learn to download and run the growing amount of Kinect software freely available on the Internet. From there, you’ll move into writing code using some of the more popular frameworks and APIs, including the official Microsoft API and the language known as Processing that is popular in the art and creative world. Along the way, you’ll learn principles and terminology. Volumetric computing didn’t begin with the Kinect. The field is decades old—if you’ve ever had an MRI, for example, you have benefitted from volumetric computing technology. Meet the Kinect goes beyond just the one device to impart the principles and terminology underlying the exciting field of volumetric computing that is now wide-open and accessible to the average person.

Create rich experiences for users of Windows 7 and Windows 8 Developer Preview with this pragmatic guide to the Kinect for Windows Software Development Kit (SDK). The author, a developer evangelist for Microsoft, walks you through Kinect sensor technology and the SDK—providing hands-on insights for how to add gesture and posture recognition to your apps. If you’re skilled in C# and Windows Presentation Foundation, you’ll learn how to integrate Kinect in your applications and begin writing Uis and controls that can handle Kinect interaction. This book introduces the Kinect for Windows Software Development Kit to developers looking to enrich applications they build for Windows 7 and later with human motion tracking Teaches developers with core C# and WPF skills how to program gesture and posture recognition in Kinect Describes how to integrate 3D representation on top of a real scene Provides expert insights and code samples to get you up and running

Program Kinect to do awesome things using a unique selection of open source software! The Kinect motion-sensing device for the Xbox 360 and Windows became the world's fastest-selling consumer electronics device when it was released (8 million sold in its first 60 days) and won prestigious awards, such as "Gaming Gadget of the Year." Now Kinect Open Source Programming Secrets lets YOU harness the Kinect's powerful sensing capabilities for gaming, science, multimedia projects, and a mind-boggling array of other applications on platforms running Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Dr. Andrew Davison, a user interface programming expert, delivers exclusive coverage of how to program the Kinect sensor with the Java wrappers for OpenNI and NITE, which are APIs created by PrimeSense, the primary developers of the Kinect's technology. Beginning with the basics--depth imaging, 3D point clouds, skeletal tracking, and hand gestures--the book examines many other topics, including Kinect gaming, FAAST-style gestures that aren't part of standard NITE, motion detection using OpenCV, how to create gesture-driven GUIs, accessing the Kinect's motor and accelerometer, and other tips and techniques. Inside: Free open source APIs to let you develop amazing Kinect hacks for commercial or private use Full coverage of depth detection, camera, and infrared imaging point clouds; Kinect gaming; 3D programming; gesture-based GUIs, and more Online access to detailed code examples on the author's web site, plus bonus chapters on speech recognition, beamforming, and other exotica

This book gathers all the content from the GPU Pro series (Vols 1-7; 2010-2016) into a convenient single source anthology covering mobile GPUs and the architecture of tile-based GPUs. It covers ready-to-use ideas and procedures that can help solve many computer graphics programming challenges. The articles by leading programmerscontained in this volume focus on newand interesting ways to solve existing rendering problems.

GPU Pro4: Advanced Rendering Techniques presents ready-to-use ideas and procedures that can help solve many of your day-to-day graphics programming challenges. Focusing on interactive media and games, the book covers up-to-date methods for producing real-time graphics. Section editors Wolfgang Engel, Christopher Oat, Carsten Dachsbacher, Michal Valient, Wessam Bahnassi, and Sebastien St-Laurent have once again assembled a high-quality collection of cutting-edge techniques for advanced graphics processing unit (GPU) programming. Divided into six sections, the book begins with discussions on the ability of GPUs to process and generate geometry in exciting ways. It next introduces new shading and global illumination techniques for the latest real-time rendering engines and explains how image space algorithms are becoming a key way to achieve a more realistic and higher quality final image. Moving on to the difficult task of rendering shadows, the book describes the state of the art in real-time shadow maps. It then covers game engine design, including quality, optimization, and high-level architecture. The final section explores approaches that go beyond the normal pixel and triangle scope of GPUs as well as techniques that take advantage of the parallelism of modern graphic processors in a variety of applications. Useful to beginners and seasoned game and graphics programmers alike, this color book offers practical tips and techniques for creating real-time graphics. Example programs and source code are available for download on the book’s CRC Press web page. The directory structure of the online material closely follows the book structure by using the chapter numbers as the name of the subdirectory.

Beginning Kinect Programming with the Microsoft Kinect SDK gets you up and running developing Kinect applications for your PC using Microsoft tools and the official SDK. You will have a working Kinect program by the end of the first chapter! The following chapters will open up the secrets of three-dimensional vision, skeleton tracking, audio through the Kinect, and more. Examples illustrate the concepts in the form of simple games that react to your body movements. The result is a fun read that helps you learn one of the hottest technologies out there today. Beginning Kinect Programming with the Microsoft Kinect SDK also provides building blocks and ideas for mashing up the Kinect with other technologies to create art, interactive games, 3D models and enhanced office automation. You'll learn the fundamental code basic to almost all Kinect applications. You'll learn to integrate that code with other tools and manipulate data to create amazing Kinect applications. Beginning Kinect Programming with the Microsoft Kinect SDK is your gateway into the exciting world of three-dimensional, real-time computer interaction. Helps you create a proper development environment for Kinect applications. Covers the basics of three-dimensional vision, skeleton tracking, gesture recognition, and audio Provides fun examples that keep you engaged and learning