Microsoft Kinect or ASUS Xtion?

Question

I plan to buy one of the two, Kinect or Xtion for my Roomba 560. The issue is that I am not able to decide; Kinect probably has a better compatibility with ROS while Xtion has better hardware. Any first hand experience/suggestion will be most welcome.

UPDATE 1
ASUS Xtion Pro Live works really nice with ROS Electric, but has issues with ROS Fuerte and ROS Groovy.

UPDATE 2
ASUS Xtion Pro Live is WOW !

image description http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/734918_10200235641267386_1800044161_n.jpg

UPDATE 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPhbyOlCq08

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Originally posted by Arkapravo on ROS Answers with karma: 1108 on 2012-02-05

Post score: 4

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Original comments

Comment by Adolfo Rodriguez T on 2013-02-23:
Concerning the question update, what specific issues have you encountered?, and more importantly, are they reported as issues?. We've had a good experience with an Xtion Pro Live and the latest drivers on Fuerte.

Comment by Arkapravo on 2013-02-24:
Adolfo Rodriguez T In Groovy, I was getting 'cannot set up USB' while Fuerte had issues with the Open Ni driver. ROS Electric was the easiest and as of now, we are working on Electric. May be 6 months later we may move to Fuerte or Groovy.

Comment by Arkapravo on 2013-02-26:
Adolfo Rodriguez T Can you tell me which packages and commands did you use for Fuerte ?

Comment by Adolfo Rodriguez T on 2013-02-27:
Latest binary packages (ie. libopenni 1.5.4.0, libopenni-sensor-primesense 5.1.0.41). Launch files from openni_launch package. Tested in Ubuntu 10.04 and 12.04, ros Fuerte.

Comment by Arkapravo on 2013-02-28:
Adolfo Rodriguez T Thanks !

Comment by bit-pirate on 2013-03-07:
I like update 2! :-D

Comment by Arkapravo on 2013-03-07:
@bit-pirate LOL !!! it is a work in progress ! ;-)

Comment by bit-pirate on 2013-03-10:
@Arkapravo I think your robot would look much cooler with a Kobuki base! ;-)

Comment by Arkapravo on 2013-03-11:
@bit-pirate LOL ! ....

Comment by Arkapravo on 2013-03-24:
@Adolfo Rodriguez T With ROS Fuerte I am getting these errors -- http://answers.ros.org/question/33622/openni_launch-not-working-in-fuerte-ubuntu-precise-1204/ -- so it seem that such has been reported and documented, probably cured in groovy.

Comment by Adolfo Rodriguez T on 2013-03-24:
@Arkapravo, the thread you reference was last updated in May 2012, which predates the openni 1.5.4.0 based drivers by about half a year. Please make sure your setup is correct, as it should work in Fuerte.

Answer 1

The Asus models have the distinct advantage that they're USB-only, smaller, and easier to mount than the Kinect. The disadvantage is that you need to pay attention to how you support it when mounting; the mounting tab on the Asus will break in high-stress or high-vibration environments if it isn't properly supported, but this is still easier than mounting a kinect.

Depth and RGB from both sensors work well with the OpenNI drivers in ROS Electric.

Note that the Asus Xtion Pro is depth-only, while the Asus Xtion Pro Live has both depth and RGB.

I believe the stereo microphones on the Asus Xtion Pro Live are supported with the OpenNI driver, but I don't think there's ROS support for them yet.

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Originally posted by ahendrix with karma: 47576 on 2012-02-05

This answer was ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 11

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Original comments

Comment by Arkapravo on 2012-02-07:
@ahendrix So ? which one should I go for ? LOL !

Comment by Arkapravo on 2012-03-28:
@ahendrix Hi again, I have purchased an Xtion Pro Live - where do I start ? AFAIK ROS doesn't have a Xtion package ! Any hints ? :-)

Comment by ahendrix on 2012-03-29:
The usual Kinect tutorials and drivers will work; use the openni_kinect package. This is because the Kinect and Asus sensors are both OpenNI devices; the Kinect was first, so most of the packages got named after it, but most things should work with both.

Comment by Arkapravo on 2012-03-30:
@ahendrix Cool !

Comment by Arkapravo on 2012-03-31:
@ahendrix Another tip needed, which OS are you using for the Xtion ? I am using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS - which has serious issues, further Xtion recommends Ubuntu 10.10.

Comment by ahendrix on 2012-04-01:
That should probably be a new question. I've been using an Xtion with ROS Electric on Ubuntu 10.04 without problems.

Comment by Arkapravo on 2012-04-01:
@ahendrix Thank you, I tried with a new question - but no luck ! :-( http://answers.ros.org/question/30700/open-ni-glibc_212-not-found

Answer 2

I did a bit of a comparison of the Xtion and Kinect. Data was collect with OpenNI's viewer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnQbu7GbO-w&context=C33cabf8ADOEgsToPDskIR4yyG03ot19leP3KHphSX

Before I got a hold of it I didn't realise the size difference was that significant!

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Originally posted by mewgen with karma: 21 on 2012-03-04

This answer was NOT ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 2

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Original comments

Comment by Cerin on 2013-02-03:
Horrible music.