The Kinect is a combined camera and infrared depth sensor mounted on a motorized pivot and was originally developed for the Microsoft XBox 360.
The Kinect is a combined camera and infrared depth sensor mounted on a motorized pivot and was originally developed for the Microsoft XBox 360. Because of its comparatively low cost (vs a laser range finder) and high accuracy (vs sonar or infrared sensors), it was quickly hacked and garnered widespread adaptation in the robotics community, which prompted Microsoft to release drivers and libraries for the Kinect from its Windows 7 platform onwards. Unofficial open-source libraries and drivers are also available for Linux-based operating systems, with Ubuntu 12.04 supporting the Kinect out-of-the-box.
