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According to a Sept. 17 blog posting by Stathis Papaefstathiou, General Manager of Microsoft Robotics, newly released Robotics Developer Studio 4 (RDS4) software now not only supports the Kinect but also adds new enhancements. For example, users will be able to use RDS4's CCR (concurrency and coordination runtime) and DSS (decentralized software services) programming modules to access all of the Kinect for Windows SDK functionality, he writes.
Papaefstathiou adds:
"This unlocks a whole new world around Human Robot Interaction (HRI) with the use of skeleton tracking and speech. But we are also making available the raw sensor stream for your use in building additional capabilities such as navigation algorithms. As a matter of fact, we are shipping an obstacle avoidance service that fuses the Kinect input with the other proximity sensors to demonstrate how the sensor array can be used to intelligently perform directional based navigation."
RDS 4 also makes the CCR programming model available to programmers working in Silverlight. "Although this might seem esoteric, Papaefstathiou writes, "it is manifesting a baby step towards engaging a broader community of developers who might not have previously been involved with robotic scenarios."
Ready for Eddie
According to Microsoft, RDS4 also includes a simulation of -- and full support for -- an "affordable and capable" hardware reference platform known as Eddie (Expandable Development Disks for Innovation and Experimentation). Created by Parallax Inc., this device is a robot that can roam autonomously, see in 3D using the Kinect, and be driven remotely using a wireless controller.
Parallax says Eddie -- sold unassembled for $999 and assembled for $1199 -- doesn't include the pictured laptop and Kinect controller. But it does feature an 18-inch base with zero-turn radius, six-inch tires, wheel encoders with 0.5-inch resolution, powerful 12VDC motors "with plenty of torque," plus three infrared and two ultrasonic distance sensors.
Included electronics, meanwhile, are said to consist of:
Background
Microsoft originally designed the Kinect controller as a way to play Xbox 360 games via gesture and spoken words, targeting the casual gamers who had made the Nintendo Wii such an enormous success. Launched last November, the device (shown below with the Xbox) features an RGB camera, a multi-array microphone, and an infrared depth sensor.
In February, Microsoft noted that "Kinect for Xbox 360 and the potential seen within its core technology have captured the imaginations of the academic research and enthusiast communities." The company announced that it would release a non-commercial Kinect for Windows software development kit (SDK) in the spring, with a commercial version scheduled for "a later date."
The SDK, which actually became downloadable on Jun 16, includes application programming interfaces (APIs), device interfaces, source code samples, and documentation, according to Microsoft. It allows the Kinect to be used with a computer running Windows 7, for which programmers can code via C++, C#, or Visual Basic, the company adds.
Separately, Microsoft's Robotics Group had been evaluating the Kinect for its potential to act as the eyes and ears of robots based on the company's Windows-based Robotics Developer Studio platform.
"Obviously, we have to wait until the public release of the Kinect SDK before we can release anything because we have a dependency on the driver," Robotics Group Program Manager Trevor Taylor said in a March 13 forum posting. After the SDK was released June 16, he added, "There are people working on it right now, including me. Hang in there, not long to go."
The resulting Kinect Services for Robotics Developer Studio software is freely downloadable, Microsoft's Papaefstathiou noted in July. In a July 13 entry on the Microsoft Robotics Blog, he stated:
"Kinect Services for RDS is built on top of the Kinect for Windows SDK. We have wrapped in the core Kinect SDK capabilities so you can use them with the CCR/DSS programming model. However, this is only the beginning. Keep your eyes peeled for updates in the fall. We know that there are many practical issues for applying the Kinect technologies to robotics capabilities that we will be addressing in upcoming RDS releases."
According to a July 13 EETimes story by R. Colin Johnson, the enhancements will include new routines to directly support autonomous navigation tasks. Developers will also have access to the routines controlling the four-microphone array in the Kinect, including its sophisticated noise cancellation and beam steering operations, Papaefstathiou was quoted as adding.
In late 2010, Microsoft acquired Canesta, a maker of 3D-image sensor chips and camera modules. The company plans to replace the PrimeSensor chip (licensed from PrimeSense Ltd. of Israel) currently used in the Kinect with a Canesta-derived component, allowing the foot-long Kinect to be downsized to as little as a square centimeter, the EE Times story added.
Further information
Microsoft's Robotics Developer Studio 4 beta is now downloadable via the Microsoft Research website. More information about Eddie can be found on the Parallax website
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Jonathan Angel can be reached at jonathan.angel@ziffdavisenterprise.com and followed at www.twitter.com/gadgetsense.
