I have finally got myself an Xbox Kinect and suddenly the
world is not so dull and my project is looking all the more probable.
To get the Xbox Kinect working on a Windows computer you
will need to download and install either the SimpleOpenNI or the Windows SDK drivers.
Daniel Shiffman who works very closely with processing and has developed
OpenKinect, however it only runs on Mac. http://www.shiffman.net/p5/kinect/
He recommends SimpleOpenNI for windows users so this is the
library(s) I downloaded. It is a straight forward process: you go to the web
site http://code.google.com/p/simple-openni/
, download a bundle of drivers. and install each one IN THE ORDER SPECIFIED.
The 32 bit version works very smoothly whilst the 64 bit version was a pain and
discarded. Once installed I plugged in the Kinect and started playing with the
examples - much fun. SimpleOpenNI can track a skeleton, which requires a
calibration pose whilst tracking movement is done automatically. With depth and
scene detection the initial background can be mapped (white is close black is
far away) or it can be left black. In each case when something moves in the
scene it is coloured and tracked.
The processing sketch created to test for movement was based
of the Scene example found in the simpleNi library. It colours the initial
scene black and then when something moves it is coloured. This is useful as I can
test to see how much of the sketch window is not black and use that to effect
the output sound of the sketch (minim audioplayer) http://code.compartmental.net/tools/minim/
. At the moment I am using a bandpassfilter, which hollows out the track and
pulls the pitch up, as people move into the scene it thickens the sound out. The
high pass and the low pass seem to cut out allot of the songs frequency and I
do not think it is as effective as the bandpass.
Lastly I've been using a program called Reaper http://www.reaper.fm/ , an Iphone app by
Native Instruments http://www.native-instruments.com/
called Imaschine and a bass guitar to create the drum/treble/bass tracks for
the project. The native instruments Imaschine has an amazing library of drum
and synth sounds which automatically loop. This is the greatest audio sketch
pad for under $10 and has been a pleasure to use during this project. Reaper is
the simplest recording software I've ever used, I am still evaluating it at the
moment however for a recreational licence its around $60 - AWESOME. Reaper allows
me to record 30 second sketches and copy them out into 10minute loops and then
"render" or export each individual track to mp3 which is perfect for
importing into and working with the minim library.
From here on in I am focusing on getting the sounds out that
I want and getting them all in to the sketch. I will lastly work on a
visualisation to go with the audio sketch, probably a beat detection which
augments with the Xbox Kinect data. This is mainly to let the users of the
space know that the sound is connected to the exhibition and that they can
interact with it.
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