http://reconstructme.net/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DHK6BLBJHU0


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The technology behind the links looks very interesting.
As I do not own a Kinect I have no way to test it, but the way all these developments are going,
maybe I will really have to go out and buy one soon...

Another Kinect-related software that I found yesterday on the CGTalk is faceshift,
which promises "realtime markerless [facial] motion capture at every desk".

very interested in this. as they say, they're working on adding texture support and GUI at the moment.

I've used ReconstructMe (FREE) and it's quite amazing! It was fairly slow on my netbook (dual core amd, 4gb, 1 ghz, ram I think) but it did run in regular mode. I think it crashed with High Quality mode. It runs flawless and much faster on my i7 laptop beast. It captures a 1m cube space. I think just straight exporting will save either a .ply file or .stl (I forget). One great thing I discovered is you can add .obj to your filename and then it automatically converts to .obj! Fantastic! There are 2 drawbacks I found with ReconstructMe: It is licensed for noncommercial use and it can't capture color.

Another FREE program that I found more useful is BrekelKinect (http://brekel.com/). This program can also 'scan' an object and export an .obj, complete with full color and uvs and can be used for commercial purposes. But it only takes snapshots; doesn't fill in areas as you move the kinect around like ReconstructMe. So to circumvent that, I took multiple snapshots and aligned them in Softimage.

Here's a really lowres retopo of my friend:


If you are interested in purchasing a Kinect, I think I would recommend the original xbox360 one rather than Kinect for Windows. Kinect for Windows includes a zoom feature which might be benefitial for working at a desk, but there are many more programs out there that utilize the opensource kinect drivers. I read that Kinect for Windows cannot use the opensource drivers.

Excited to tryout FaceShift. I'll report back later with my findings.

Here's a ReconstructMe scan of one of my coworker's cool statues at his desk:



Another thing I forgot to add about BrekelKinect. It can do motioncapture! I got it working and it export .bvh file but it was real crazy with the feet and didn't work that great. I then tried to demonstrate it at work with a larger open area, and then couldn't get it to work.. Been busy with other stuff and haven't had a chance to try it out more... Supposedly it has a plugin for MotionBuilder where you could do live mocap on a character! Unfortunately we don't use MotionBuilder so I can't try that out.

With FaceShift streaming into Maya, doesn't that sIBL plugin (newest version) do something similar in Softimage? So shouldn't that streaming be possible for Softimage?

Haven't tried it yet, but http://www.123dapp.com/catch is free I think and can create colour maps. Looks decent res too.

I know, I know, its autodesk....

and 'cloud only'.....

what are they thinking??

So this basically means, that there's software compatible with the open source XBox drivers and software with the Kinect for Windows drivers and owning one of the two might leave you stranded when it comes to certain software?
Format wars, anyone?
Hard to decide what to buy then, as one would somehow expect future development to be more Kinect for Windows minded. Or is that a strange assumption?

The Microsoft kinect sdk is still beta and currently noncommercial use, AFAIK.

You can install either driver with x360 kinect. I saw ipisoft transitions to ms sdk- contradictory to above?

Ms sdk also supports audio (Really good!!) And has support for FOUR kinects!