PrimeSense seeks to democratise motion sensor development
Kinect sensor tech firm PrimeSense has released open-source drivers for the peripheral, and established an NI devices, applications and middleware organisation.
The open-source OpenNI Framework supplies an API for writing NI apps while also providing middleware that grants access to RGB-D sensors like Kinect and PrimeSense’s development kit PSDK 5.0.
PrimeSense has said that it planned on releasing the drivers at a later date, but brought that plan forward in light of the successes of Kinect ‘hacking’ community OpenKinect, which aims to make use of the sensor in as many different ways as possible.
Windows and Linux binaries for the NITE skeleton tracking library have also been released by OpenNI, with the intention of allowing for improved gesture applications creation.
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I would be absolutely amazed if Microsoft didn't wholly own the rights to the Kinect device as a single unit.
If that is the case it is wholly irrelevant whether other people have managed to get anywhere with open source drivers, a commercial entity offering, even for free, full drivers for the Kinect product is not even close to legal.
It'll be interesting to see what Microsoft have to say about this.
