Microsoft shares Kinect source code

Microsoft has shared the source code for some elements of the PC version of Kinect, its motion control hardware.

Until now, developer and hobbyist’s wanting to use Kinect had to work from an official software toolkit that covered the underlying code.

The software maker has posted 22 code samples used in Kinect for Windows to CodePlex.

The Kinect for Windows sample code is available in C#, C++ and Visual Basic. Some of elements it offers include colour basics, face tracking, depth of field, skeleton basics and audio capture.

Developers who wish to use the software will need to download Visual Studio, .NET and the Kinect for Windows SDK before getting started.

All the Kinect code samples are released under an Apache 2.0 licence and are free for users to take, reuse or remix.

Microsoft spokesman Ben Lower said on Microsoft’s developer blog that said that it wanted to help developers use Kinect for their own ends and improve the control software. He added that new samples could be posted to CodePlex as Kinect’s core code is updated and changed.