If you’ve done some Arduino tinkering and wondered how you could incorporate the Kinect in your projects — or the other way around — this book is for you.
If you haven’t actually done any tinkering but you are looking for a good way to get started, this book might also be for you. Even though this is not intended as an introductory book, we have tried to assume as little knowledge from the reader as possible, starting from the installation of every tool you will be using and thoroughly explaining every new concept appearing in the book.
This is a practical book. As such, you are going to be driven through a series of projects evolving from simple to complex, learning all you need to know along the way. The book starts with three introductory chapters oriented to getting you acquainted with Arduino, Kinect, and Processing in the least amount of time possible so you can go straight into building cool projects. From Chapter 4, you will be led through a series of 10 fun projects increasing in complexity, starting with the Arduino and Kinect equivalent of "Hello World" and finishing with the construction and programming of a Kinect-driven delta robot.
Each chapter will lead you step-by-step through the construction of the physical project, the building of the necessary circuits, the programming of the Arduino board, and the implementation of the Processing programs that connect the Kinect data to your Arduino board. Most projects will involve the implementation of two separate programs, the Arduino program and the Processing program. Arduino code will be displayed in bold monospace typeface, like this:
digitalRead(AO); // This is Arduino Code
Processing programs will be written in normal monospace font style, like this:
fill(255,0,0); // This is Processing Code
In each chapter, you will be introduced to the specific concepts and techniques that you will need to build that particular project—and probably some of the following ones. If you are an experienced programmer, you might want to read this book non-sequentially, starting by the project that interests you the most. If you are a programming beginner, you will find it easier to start with the first project and build up your knowledge as you progress through the book.
This is a list of topics that will be introduced in each chapter, so if you are interested in a specific concept you can jump straight to the right project.
This book has been intentionally built upon multi-platform, open source initiatives. All the tools utilized in the book are free and available for Mac OSX, Windows, and Linux on commercial licenses.
Because of the three-dimensional nature of the data that you can acquire with the Kinect, some of the more advanced projects rely on the use of trigonometry and vector math. We have tried to cover the necessary principles and definitions, but if your mathematical skills are somewhat rusty, you might want to consider having a reference book at hand. John Vince’s Mathematics for Computer Graphics (Springer, 2006) is an amazing resource. Web sites like Wolfram Alpha (www.wolframalpha.com
) or mathWorld (http://mathworld.wolfram.com
) can be helpful as well.
Every chapter will include the necessary code to make the project work. You can copy this code from the book or you can download the necessary files from Apress (www.apress.com
) or the book’s web site (www.arduinoandkinectprojects.com
).
If you need to contact the authors, you can find us via the following addresses:
[email protected]
[email protected]
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