Question 1

Is this product compatible with MAC? Also does it really work for body measurements? Witch would be what I would use the product for.

Accepted Answer

The product itself is just a sensor, you would need to find the appropriate drivers yourself online. OpenNI provides drivers for Linux systems, I am not sure if they supply drivers for mac. If you are persistent and savvy enough though, it is absolutely possible. As far as taking body measurements, the sensor does not do anything else other than to provide you with a two-dimensional array of depth information and a standard RGB image. If you have computer vision and software development experience, you could use the data provide to extract the information you want, but this is not provided by the device itself. Although, you may be referring to the features supported by the Windows SDK, which may only be used in a Windows environment. I do not have much experience with that SDK, so I could tell you definitively whether you can or can not.

Source - I am graduate student in computer science and heavily involved in robotics research.

Question 2

Hello, My name is James Waldman and I am a student at Wausau West High School. We are currently working on creating a semi-autonomous snow removal device and I was wondering if the Xtion PRO could be used in an application such as ours. We would need it to sense a human or animal presence and then shut off the snow blower. Would this be able to perform that action? Thank You, James

Accepted Answer

Hello James, I am graduate student in computer science and involved heavily in robotics research. This device is not meant to be used outside. This class of sensor is called structured-light, which means it continuously projects a pattern of infrared light and calculates the shape of objects by measuring distortion in the pattern. Therefore, when used outside (or even near an open window), sunlight will drown out the infrared pattern and render the device unusable. You should look for a time-of-flight sensor, even explore the use of stereo cameras. Good luck!

Question 3

The advertising says USB 2.0 and USB 3.0, but I only see a USB 2.0 cable on it.  Is it a USB 3.0 device?  If  it doesn't transfer data at USB 3.0 speeds, it's noy USB 3.0 capable.

Accepted Answer

Although it says 2.0 and 3.0 but it appears to be USB 2.0 since it's not blue finished USB terminal. This camera doesn't show difference running on 2.0 and 3.0.

Question 4

can these devices be used with android devices? ie a tablet or a note 3

Accepted Answer

The one I bought only worked for a few days on a PC then soon quit working at all. The driver software for the PC is cumbersome and I have not found any software that would allow it to work with android. My students and I were never able to get it to scan for 3D printing. It was pretty much a bust all around.

Question 5

I need a tripod stand for the asus depth sensor can you recommend a suitable stand?

Accepted Answer

Unfortunately, the XTION PRO LIVE can not be mounted to a tripod out of the box...  but in the bottom of the plastic base is a hexagon shaped cutout.  I superglued a ¼"-20 hex nut into this cutout (seemed to fit perfectly as if it was meant for it.)  Now I can mount the the XTION PRO LIVE to any tripod with the standard ¼"-20 screw mount.

Question 6

Does anyoen know if this item has Mac compatibility?

Accepted Answer

Yes, I have been successful getting it to work on OSX as well.  I used Homebrew to install the OpenNI2 libraries, and pip to install the Python primesense bindings.  My workflow on Mac is basically identical to Linux.

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