libfreenect

libfreenect is a userspace driver for the Microsoft Kinect. It runs on Linux, OSX, and Windows and supports

• RGB and Depth Images
• Motors
• Accelerometer
• LED
• Audio

Notice: If you have the newer Kinect v2 (XBox One), use OpenKinect/libfreenect2 instead.

Build Instructions

To build libfreenect, you’ll need

• libusb >= 1.0.18 (Windows needs >= 1.0.22)
• CMake >= 3.12.4
• python >= 2.7 or >= 3.3 (only if BUILD_PYTHON=ON or BUILD_PYTHON2=ON or BUILD_PYTHON3=ON or BUILD_REDIST_PACKAGE=OFF)

For the examples, you’ll need

• OpenGL (included with OSX)
• glut (included with OSX)
• pthreads-win32 (Windows)

Fetch & Build

git clone https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect
cd libfreenect
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -L .. # -L lists all the project options
make

# if you don't have `make` or don't want color output
# cmake --build .

Use CMake options to control what gets built. For example, to build the Python wrapper (defaults to system Python):

cmake .. -DBUILD_PYTHON=ON
make

Or the Python 3 wrapper:

cmake .. -DBUILD_PYTHON3=ON
make

You can specify a build with debug symbols:

cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=debug
# or with optimizations
# cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo

You can build .deb, .rpm, and/or .tgz packages with cpack:

cmake .. -DBUILD_CPACK_DEB=ON -DBUILD_CPACK_RPM=ON -DBUILD_CPACK_TGZ=ON
cpack

For audio support, you must upload firmware to the device. Newer Kinect models may require audio firmware for motor and LED support. The best method is to insert firmware at runtime just after calling freenect_init().

Alternately, firmware for Kinect model 1414 can be downloaded automatically by specifying:

cmake .. -DBUILD_REDIST_PACKAGE=OFF

Note that firmware may not be legal to redistribute in your jurisdiction!

OSX

If you don’t have a package manager, install Homebrew. For a manual build, see the wiki.

Homebrew

brew install libfreenect
# or get the very latest:
# brew install --HEAD libfreenect

MacPorts

sudo port install git-core cmake libusb libtool

Continue with Fetch & Build.

Linux

Remember to install the udev rules. For a manual build, see the wiki.

Ubuntu/Debian/Mint

The version packaged in Ubuntu may be very old.

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