Using Xbox Kinect with lastest Kinect SDK

Question

I am wondering if anyone has had success with using an Xbox Kinect instead of Kinect for Windows with the most recent version of the Kinect SDK (i.e. not the beta). I installed the SDK, and Windows definitely recognizes the device - I can see the Kinect devices in the Device Manager and was able to use the audio array of the Kinect for speech recognition on the machine. My issue comes when attempting to develop against the SDK with the device.

The basic checks for the Kinect device in code are are not picking up the device. KinectSensor.KinectSensors.Count() returns 0 devices.

I feel like, since the drivers for the device are obviously working, something in the SDK must not like the Xbox version of the Kinect, but I'd love to know definitively since Microsoft just gives a vague answer about the Xbox Kinect "not being intended for use with the SDK" but some folks say it should work fine. So, anyone have the same problem or am I just missing something?

Answer 1

So, apparently the issue is that there is no support for the Xbox Kinect in virtual environment. I can't use it in my Parallels instance.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj663795.aspx

Answer 2

Using XBox 360 Kinect with Kinect for Windows SDK will be of some use.

I've developed with an xbox kinect using the sdk, but most of the powerful kinect functionality is limited to a windows kinect specifically.

Answer 3

As Lojko says using a Xbox 360 Kinect might work for some things but that is limited. I'd advice using a K4W since you'll need it anyway when deploying it.

You can read more information on Kinect for Xbox vs Kinect for Windows.