FAQ – Misc
- I want to write my own software to connect to the skeleton stream from Brekel Kinect, where can I find details about the network protocol used?
Just send me a mail and I’ll hook you up with all the details you need.
- Why can’t I load a .bin file in package x?
The .bin file is a custom file format meant to be used with the accompanying Offline Scan Processor package.
It was designed to save to disk as quickly as possible so the recording speed can be as high as possible on decent hardware.
Bin stands for binary, lots of other packages use this extension as well but more often than not these aren’t compatible or interchangeable since it is usually based on some sort of straight memory dump.
You may want to check out the .obj format as this is widely supported, especially the quads version of it.
- How is this different from a professional (optical) motion capture setup?
Where to begin…
A professional mocap studio will be able to off you much much cleaner data, completely pre-processed usually.
The capture volume would be a whole lot bigger, allowing multiple people and props.
There usually are no (or very little) restrictions on the motions you can do. (try to crouch down with the Kinect)
And you can potentially capture fingers, facial performances, or anything else you can stick markers on.
The Kinect has the advantage of purchase price, the comfort of your (living) room, easy of use, portability and hardly any calibration besides the user poses.
Check Motek for all your pro Motion Capture needs:
http://www.motekentertainment.com
- How is this different from iPi Soft?
Regarding skeletons, Brekel Kinect focusses on running in realtime, including streaming into MotionBuilder for live performances.
iPi Soft’s solution records to disk and after some offline processing outputs a file, the tracking quality of the motion of iPi Soft is much higher.
Furthermore Brekel Kinect has some features to export the 3D pointclouds in various formats, as textures, 3D objects or particles for use in other 3D packages.
- How is your implementation from the OpenNI NITE skeleton tracker?
It isn’t very different as Brekel Kinect uses the OpenNI NITE skeleton tracker as it’s basis.
Internally I use the positions from NITE but recalculate all the rotations to be more stable, furthermore there are some extensions to make the skeleton more compatible with 3D packages that read BVH files.
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