Candescent NUI - Birthday

Exactly one year ago I've uploaded the first version of Candescent NUI to CodePlex!

Here are some statistics
53'700 page views on this blog
54'400 page views on candescentnui.codeplex.com
10'200 downloads from CodePlex (200 / week)

I've started to look into creating mobile apps. So maybe there'll be posts about Windows Phone development in the future, too.

Candescent NUI 14079

The new version can be downloaded here: [binary] or [source]

I've also changed the status from Alpha to Beta. On April 18th it will be one year since I've uploaded Candescent NUI to Codeplex! :-)

Filtering (some) false positives
The FingerPoint object now has a FrameCount property that tells you how many frames the finger is visible (this is used to filter some false postives and prevent fingers from disappearing in a frame)

New settings for the hand data source
int FramesForNewFingerPoint  (default 3)
int FramesForDiscontinuedFingerPoint (default 2)
These define how many frames a finger must be visible to be reported through the interface. This introduces a bit of lag (66ms) but prevents some false positives. Can be set to 0 to turn off.
 
Thread for Kinect SDK
Hand detection is now done in a separate thread for Kinect SDK (depth frames are put in a queue and then processed)

WPF samples for Kinect SDK
Enabled WPF samples for Kinect SDK. There are some performance issues though, and the interface is shifted in the pin code interface

Other
Fixed cluster layer in WPF samples

Problem with Kinect SDK and WPF dispatcher

I'm trying to get to run the WPF samples for Candescent NUI with the Kinect SDK. I'm experiencing a strange problem. When processing a depth frame (in the event DepthFrameReady) I experience performance issues and sometimes even a stack overflow exception.

Here's a stacktrace. You'll notice that after calling the WPF dispatcher the DepthFrameReady event is called again, and again ... resulting in a stack overflow exception

My guess is that while I'm processing a depth frame a new frame becomes available. When I give control to the dispatcher it somehow processes the message queue and first continues with the new depth frame instead of the code I pass.

So I see two solutions
1. Make my code faster so it's done when the new frame gets ready. But I can't guarantee this.
2. Create a queue for the depth frames and process them in a separate thread. Maybe dropping some frames when my code is too slow.

Is there information available on how this should be handeled? Might have to ask in the forum...

Candescent NUI for Kinect For Windows (13564)

I've finally got hold of a Kinect For Windows device today. I've updated Candescent NUI to use the near mode. It should now perform for both OpenNI and Kinect SDK (excluding the Kinect for XBOX devices, because of the missing near mode).

You can download the [source] or [binary]

The CCT.NUI.Samples project works for both OpenNI and Kinect For Windows. I still have to enable the WPF samples for Kinect SDK; that'll probably happen next weekend.

I also definitely want to start playing with the audio features!

Candescent NUI 13501

After a pause I've continued to work on Candescent NUI. I've simplified the contour tracing algorithm. The contour scanning step isn't necessary anymore. This speeds up hand detection by 20-30%.

Other changes:
- Fixed the Test Data Collector
- Sped up finding the center of palm a bit
- Added the video manipulation sample code (won't win any clean code award)
- Changed some parameters and values

To enable video manipulation you'll have to replace these values in wpfsamples.exe.config with paths to videos on your system (WPF has to be able to play them):
<value>c:\tmp\1.avi;c:\tmp\3.AVI;c:\tmp\4.avi</value>

Microsofts Finger Tracking

I've only found this today, it's online since three months already. It's a slideshow and audio recording about Microsofts (actually it says "Good Science Studios") progress on finger tracking.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27977

They're providing quite some details on how they are doing it.

New Website

I'm reworking my website candescent.ch. I've published a first version; it needs more content and maybe some more interactivity. I'll also have to start playing with JavaScript.

Any recommendations for a good HTML 5 book?