If you’re reading this, then there’s a good chance you’re pretty creative, and are interested in experimenting with the Microsoft Xbox Kinect on Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion). Well luckily you’re in the right place.
Though Kinect is currently designed for Xbox 360, Microsoft has plan to link Kinect for use on next version of Windows operating system, rumored to be Windows 8, but hackers who can’t wait have managed to hack the Kinect and developed open source device driver with SDK or API for Kinect.
I’ve done all the hard trial and error legwork, and will hopefully be able to provide you with a simple rundown of how to get the Kinect up and running on your mac. I’ll follow this post up with a ‘part two’ where we jump into some experiments and test out some of the device’s capabilities. If you have any questions, feel free to pop them in the comments section and I’ll do my best to research an answer.
Please Note: When you begin to install OpenNI (the primary Kinect framework), you will notice that there is a version 2 currently available. Unfortunately this version relies on the native Microsoft Kinect SDK, which is incompatible with the Mac.
I’ll post another tutorial down the line to get this new version working with Parallels (Windows virtualisation) Preface So before we get going, it’s worth explaining exactly what the Kinect is and does. According to the good chaps at, the Microsoft Kinect “is a motion-sensing input device that is able to track the movements of objects and people in three dimensions”. Interestingly it’s also listed as the fastest selling consumer electronic device “after selling a total of 8 million units in its first 60 days.” Step 1: Install Xcode So if you plan to be a developer on the mac, you can be damned sure that you’ll need to use Xcode at one point or another. Start by from the Mac App Store. Once installed, open Xcode, and from the menubar, navigate to: Xcode / Open Developer Tool / More Developer Tools. Keep your components up to date via the preferences panel. And that my friends is step one complete!
Step 2: Install Additions Xcode is just the beginning. To make your life a little easier, it’s going to be a great idea to install the following:.: An open source version of the for Mac.: A cross-platform build automation system. (click the Mountain Lion text link): An easy way to compile, install and upgrade software via the command line (Terminal app).
Once you’re done installing these three apps, you can move on to the next step. Step 3: Install Dependencies Okay, so you’ve installed all the major applications, now we move onto the libraries that will help your Kinect interface with Mac OS X. Libtool: A generic library support tool. To install Libtool, firstly open Terminal on your mac: Applications / Utilities / Terminal. Libusb @1.0.90+universal (active) Step 4: Install OpenNI SDK (v1.5.7.10) Like I stated earlier, you probably don’t yet want to install version two of this software as it will have compatibility issues with your Mac (I learnt this the hard way). OpenNI is the primary framework that will let you interface with your Kinect. It’s made by the guys who originally developed the Microsoft Kinect, and has a bunch of cool middleware libraries and applications to play around with.
Create a new folder on your mac called ‘Kinect’. This will help keep things organised. Move the file you just downloaded to your Kinect folder and double click to uncompress and reveal the SDK folder. At this point, you’re now ready to install the SDK. Open Terminal on your mac: Applications / Utilities / Terminal. Next we need to navigate to the SDK folder using the command line in Terminal. Start by typing in cd, and then drag your SDK folder from the Finder onto the Terminal window.
This will automatically enter the path for you, and look similar to this. DONE. Step 5: Install SensorKinect This is a module that helps the Kinect specifically interact with the OpenNI framework. You’ll need it for your Kinect to work on your Mac. Visit the on GitHub. Click the ‘Zip’ button to download the latest version of the software.
Move your newly downloaded file to your Kinect folder, and uncompress to reveal the module folder. Open the folder, and navigate to the MacOSX.tar.bz2 file inside the Bin folder. Double click to decompress this folder. Once again, you’re now ready to install. Open Terminal on your mac: Applications / Utilities / Terminal. Navigating this one is a little different.
Once again, type in cd, and drag the last folder you decompressed to the Terminal window to fill in the filepath. Below is an example (note the Bin folder). DONE.
And again, you’re done! Give yourself a pat on the back and move on to the next step. Step 6: Install NiTE Okay, time to take a breather. You’re almost there now. The next thing you’ll be installing is ultra awesome NiTE middleware, which is also produced by the same guys behind OpenNI. NiTE uses depth, colour, infrared and audio to track your body or hand and use it as an input device along with a lot of other cool stuff. Once more, move the newly downloaded file to your Kinect folder and double click to uncompress and reveal the NiTE folder.
And guess what it’s time for now! Installation time.
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Open Terminal on your mac: Applications / Utilities / Terminal. Now navigate to the NiTE folder using the command line in Terminal. Start by typing in cd, and then drag your NiTE folder from the Finder onto the Terminal window. This will automatically enter the path for you, and look something like this. So I figured out that the new OpenNI (ver2) was what was stalling my installation.
After following this, I finally got to get the sample scripts run. But it crashes after few seconds. The common error not seems to be incorrect checksum for freed object. The Kinect Sensor’s green light is still blinking and glview tells me now Kinect device is connected.
I’m very new to this, any help? The installing of libtool didn’t happen as in your example. I already had it installed following other tutorials previously and installed the newest one on their website. I feel like I’m not making much sense, but any lead or help would be appreciated!
Can’t do anything if the camera keeps crashing.: (. Firstly thanks for being the first commenter, on my first post, on my first blog!
So it seems you have a number of issues, and unfortunately the crashing isn’t something I’ve been able to replicate. However, from a purely pragmatic standpoint, it might be a good idea to uninstall everything, and start over fresh.
This would include applications you have tried to install from other tutorials. You can do this via the Terminal on mac. What you’ll want to do is navigate to the application folder you wish to uninstall (type cd, then drag the folder into terminal), and then type in. Hi Tim, Thanks for reading, and going through the tutorial.
Sorry you’re having issues, I definitely know how frustrating it can be! I’ve spent some time investigating, but unfortunately the news isn’t great. The model #1517 seems to be the “Kinect for Windows” version, rather than the #1414 or #1473 models which are sold as “Kinect for Xbox”. After reading a bunch of in GitHub, it would appear that this device is not quite compatible with (and you’re not alone). I also have doubts that #1517 is compatible with OpenNI v1 after.
For your own sanity, I would suggest buying or renting a model #1414 (preowned they should be $40) and testing it before going any further. If it works, then at least we can be 100% sure the device is to blame. Numerous posts by admins on other sites have suggested using a virtual machine (like Parallels + Windows) to make the #1517 work on the Mac, but of course this isn’t the nicest solution. Please let me know how you go! When I install HomeBrew last night. Then it said I must uninstall MacPorts. Then I following the steps.
It’s Work!!!! But just around 20seconds And show the error message. ———————————————— SimpleOpenNI Version 0.27 java(230,0x11ffec000) malloc:. error for object 0x7f: incorrect checksum for freed object – object was probably modified after being freed.
set a breakpoint in mallocerrorbreak to debug Could not run the sketch (Target VM failed to initialize). For more information, read revisions.txt and Help? I am encountering issues with Kinect model 1473. I am running Processing 2.0.3 on OSX 10.8.2. I have read a number of fora (below) and am aware that the issue may be with the model 1473. I need to work with that model and am hoping to get some help here.
Amongst many sites I have read, your instruction seems most comprehensible for anyone new to this. I am sort of jumping in the middle of a project and I am not sure what has been done. It’s possible that I need to verify if any of the steps you have shown. For instance, how do you check if OpenNI (ver2) were installed and how do you uninstall it so that the ver. 1 can be installed. It seems wise that I restart the steps. So the first thing to do is to undo(verify and possible uninstall).
When I run RGBDepthTest by Daniel Shiffman, I get NullPointerException error at kinect.enableDepth(depth). The console read, No Kinect devices found. With this TSPS (Toolkit for Sensing People in Spaces), I can at least see that Kinect is connected. I would very much appreciate any assistance. Hello, again. I followed your step and was able to get a live feed out of Kinect 1473, using Sample-PointViewer.
But it is not tracking. When I tried to run a sketch in Processing from Dan Shiffman’s example, I still get the NullPointerException error. When I run DepthInFrared example from simple-openni , I get the following error: SimpleOpenNI Version 1.96 sendcmd: Data buffer is 322 bytes long, but got 334 bytes After initialization: freenectfetchzeroplaneinfo: sendcmd read 334 bytes (expected 322) freenectcamerainit: Failed to fetch zero plane info for device libcabi.dylib: terminate called throwing an exception Could not run the sketch (Target VM failed to initialize). For more information, read revisions.txt and Help?
Thank you very much for teaching us to install the kinect on mac, but I have a big problem. Everything installed fine and I work the kinect, but I work for a short time, while using kinect with processing, with the terminal or with quartz composer suddenly stops working and shows me several problems have not been solved, I think this is the most important “InitFromXml failed: USB device not found” you know how to fix it, or I have to do? Thank you very much for the help, and for the opportunity it gives us to be more creative. Can someone help please. I Cant install openNI, this is the error “No such file or directory” Kinect is plugged in an on, all the previous steps completed. Running osx 10.8.4 Stus-MacBook-Pro:OpenNI-Bin-Dev-MacOSX-v1.5.4.0 stushapiro$ sudo./install.sh ls: /Users/stushapiro/Downloads/KINECT: No such file or directory ls: INSTALL/OpenNI-Bin-Dev-MacOSX-v1.5.4.0/./Lib/.: No such file or directory ls: OSX: No such file or directory its crazy that this is the process for kinect install.
Its soooo hectic. Thanks for the tut, hope someone can help me. But It is possible to make sounds with Quartz Composer? My MAc will recognize always the kinect? Because when I do all the steps you write, I get it, it works, but now, I can´t do again. Mi first purpose to install kinect was to install GESTRUMENT, a free app to play music with the kinect.
When I finished your installation I try to start Gestrument but it says: “no kinect connected” or something like that what can I do? Quartz Composer will help me for that? Must I uninstall your sister and start with another drivers? I did all your steps thinking at the end the mac book will recognize the kinect like when you install the drivers of that. I am teacher of music and I want my children enjoy the kinect with sound.
Ok figured out that error.the samples xml files were moved instead of copied so I copied them back to the original file but now I have a new error trying to get PointViewer to work. 548 INFO New log started on 2013-11-09 12:48:09 571 INFO OpenNI version is 1.5.7 (Build 8)-MacOSX (Oct 22 2013 15:19:27) 575 INFO — Filter Info — Minimum Severity: UNKNOWN One or more of the following nodes could not be enumerated: Device: PrimeSense/SensorKinect/5.1.2.1: The device is not connected! The device is connected and I see a blinking green light.
Did I miss a install? Hi Brian, Yes, the blinking green light will generally occur when the Kinect is connected to the Mac via USB (even when you’re not using it). When the Kinect is active (communicating with the Mac on purpose), you should be able to see a on the left-most sensor. I noticed you mentioned you’re using Mac OS X Mavericks, and some newer versions of the software listed here. I’m yet to upgrade (just finishing a large project at work first), but when I do (soon), I’ll revise and repost this entire tutorial specifically for Mac OS X Mavericks 10.9. For now, just to double check everything. Try disconnecting the Kinect, restarting your computer, reconnecting the Kinect and then following the tutorial once more.
If it’s still not working, we may be looking at a Mavericks issue. I’ll try to replicate when I upgrade, and solve it in the next tutorial if necessary.
Let me know how you go! Hey Glen, Very awesome of you to support this cool technologykudos!!! I used this all a year ago (Model 1414) on another Mac machine and it worked great for me but got a newer 2013 MacPro machine OSX 10.8.5 and am having some issues. I did the install as suggested above and got Synapse running but can’t get the skeleton to bind.
I was able to bind the skelton in terminal with the demo “PointViewer” as described perfectly Any thoughts were I might be screwing up and why I can’t get a bind in Synapse? Thanks for the comment Tim, and hope I can help you out. Sometimes I find this can happen if your legs aren’t visible in the Kinect’s field of vision. It might be good to try standing a little further back from the Kinect to get as much of your body visible as possible. Also, the Kinect seems to work better in a room that is well lit. If that still doesn’t help, it might be worth running over all the steps once more to make sure everything is open and working.
Let me know how you go, and if that advice helps at all! Hi Francesco, Firstly thanks for the compliment! Glad to know you’re enjoying the site. Totally agree with you on the Kinect 2.0 thing.
Unfortunately Microsoft haven’t been as hacker friendly with this version. First thing you’ll notice is that the Kinect 2 no longer uses a USB cable – so you can’t plug it into your computer to even get started. Secondly, Microsoft are planning to release a consumer version of Kinect 2, but it’ll be called “Kinect for Windows” which doesn’t sound very positive for the Mac community, but you never know ? You could have ordered a developer edition prior to release (for $399 US), but unfortunately registrations are now closed. If you’re looking to get started with Kinect, then I’d definitely advise you to start with the old Kinect 1. There’s plenty of great software out there to get you going, it’s incredibly cheap to get up and running, and you’ll learn so much as you go.
Then when the day comes that Kinect 2 is released and supported, you’ll have a great foundation on which to upgrade from! As soon as developments in Kinect 2 support for PC/Mac are made, I’ll be detailing them on this blog. It might be worth dropping your email in the subscribe form (in the sidebar), or so you know when that happens! Hi Glen, many many many thanks for your blog. I think i solved the problem with the model 1473. First of all, i’ve done everything you said but when i tried the sample it worked only for a few seconds.
![Sims Sims](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125421657/160768494.jpg)
I also tried to connect it with Processing and didn’t worked having many issues. After a research i found this: and this: I did what they say AFTER using your instructions. Now, the samples work fine and my kinect works with Processing. I’ve tried all the samples of library SimpleOpenNI too.
No crashes!!!!! I’m writing everything i used (without having an idea for some of them) in order to help all the others who know more, to understand what is exactly the problem with model 1473. I’m grateful to you, Eleftheria OSX 10.8.5 Kinect 1473 Processing 2.1.1 – library SimpleOpenNI OpenNI-Bin-Dev-MacOSX-v1.5.7.10 NITE-Bin-Dev-MacOSX-v1.5.2.21 SensorKinect-unstable libfreenect-master libusb-1.0.9.
Thanks for your help and writing it down so clear. I have successfully been able to run Sample-PointViewer with a Kinect model 1517 (Kinect For Windows) on OSX Mavericks. I have been programming Kinect applications for Processing using the Simple OpenNi library. I was expecting Processing to work with this Kinect camera after following your installation guide. Unfortunately this is not the case, even though I receive an image with the Sample-PointViewer example. Have you got any clue on how to make this Kinect 1517 running with Simple OpenNi on Mac OSX? I´m embarrassing!
But I have some problems since step 3! When I put the command in terminal “sudo port install libtool”, I don´t received the same line that you say! I received: — Cleaning libtool — Scanning binaries for linking errors: 100.0% — No broken files found I already have installed all components and apps you said previously, but I don´t know why I have this problem! Or is there no problem with that and can I continue with the next steps? I hope you can help me with this question!
And by the way! Even I haven´t finished to configure all the steps, but it´s a excellent tutorial! Hi, thanks for this tutorial it’s been a lot of help.
However, I am stuck right at the end and no idea why it won’t work. I’ve followed all of the steps exactly (twice after uninstalling everything). I have a Kinect 1414, when i run the command to test it just shows a black screen with text saying to make a wave or click motion in purple. I then tried the next one and it didn’t work at all, tried the point viewer again and it now doesn’t work either. Hi Glen, I’ve got this problem: Installing OpenNI. copying shared librariesOK copying executablesOK copying include filesOK creating database directoryOK registering module ‘libnimMockNodes.dylib’./install.sh: line 113: /usr/bin/niReg: Operation not permitted UserName:OpenNI-Bin-Dev-MacOSX-v1.5.7.10 UserName$ sudo./install.sh Every step before it, it is supposed to be done in a right way. Do you have ever heart about this problem?
Thank you very much. (I’m working with a Maverick Macbook Pro). This looks helpful but I just purchased an Apple Mac Pro with Snow Leopard OS installed on it through eBay. I intend to use it primarily to run the Windscape virtual window software in conjunction with a Kinect model 1414, also from eBay, and a flat screen or two – whichever the ATI video card can support.
I have A+ certification but it is very out of date and out of practise. I’ve never dealt with a Mac before.
How well do these instructions apply to the Snow Leopard OS? With so many specific instructions I’m pretty sure something is going to be missing or not appicable on the different OS. Can you please give me any leads? I’ve put a big chunk of my income so far into this for the sake of my roommate who longs for a view in her office area which is in my basement. Its is a small but nice basement but without windows.
I decided not to pay the extra $50 for a download (Titanfall) and Kinect and a year of Xbox Live Gold and bought a PS4 (MS was holding their ground with Kinect being an integral part of the next gen at the time). Was on sale only for a short time. Plus, the only game I'm interested in, Titanfall, REQUIRES Xbox Live Gold (not just an internet connection). Plus, at the time, a Gold account was required for Netflix, Hulu, etc.
(but has since changed). The $399 core unit still has no games I want yet. PS4 I can play FREE games without a PSN Plus subscription (I've got a few already) plus I got Knack and Killzone for $35 on sale at the time (now you can get them for $30).
I also got Skylanders Swapforce on sale for $33. PS4 is a better value. I want to get a system when Halo 5 is out on special - maybe a special version of the console? Hopefully, Halo 5 will not require a Gold account as well. If only the two consoles were comparable technically I'd have a much harder choice.
You can call me whatever you want but I refuse to buy a PS4 game unless it's 1080p resolution (barring some exceptions like indie games), I mean this is already the second HD generation and still we're not getting even our TVs worth of pixels. I have played countless games on PS3/360 and especially FPS games suffer from low, sometimes even sub-720p resolution. Enemies that are too far become un-targetable mush unless you have a scope. Fighting games and such where the character models are close enough play fine. I can forgive the Wii U of course.
I had a PS4 since launch. It was great, but there was a problem. While I'm not a hardcore gamer, I do like to play with my friends. I literally know one person who has a PS4, and everyone else has an Xbox One. I sold my PS4 and got and got a couple Xbox One's (was an easy sell considering Fry's was taking I think 25% off for about a week).
My conclusion? The Xbox One is a far more well rounded gaming machine. The graphic fidelity isn't as high though. But matchmaking, and the games and party system are just superior. The Kinect is basically worthless. Literally useless. I have one in my home office, and one in my living room and both basically require you to say commands several times.
The TV interface is janky to say the least. The Kinect adds virtually no value at all, and at $100 more then the PS4 before the uncoupling was announced, and without retail stores trying to just get rid of the Kinect-bundles I wouldn't have done what I did. The Kinect-less Xbox One bundle is a superior gaming platform then the PS4. Yes the PS4 is more powerful. But at least in my experience you'll be playing mostly alone.
Xbox Live is an excellent platform for gaming. PSN is very good, and has a lot of incentives through free games, but it really isn't much better then old school PC multiplayer gaming. Click to expand. My network is actually fine. The party system is more difficult to hop through. For example, if I want to leave a party, I have to go to the PS4 dashboard, go to the party app make the change then quickly get back into the game. The differences are small, and hard to tangibly define, other then it seems like many things take more steps to complete.
The actual performance of each thing is find. It just seems more loosely integrated. Hopefully it didn't come off as a dig on Sony.
I was sad that at least in my circle of friends I didn't have anyone to really play with. When I hear people make the argument of Xbox Live is better than PSN, all I do is scratch my head.its basically the same. I've never had a problem with XBL or PSN to conclude that one has a superior online multiplayer. I often don't experience lag on both platforms and when I link up with my friends its basically the same on both consoles.
The one thing(s) I absolutely hate about the Xbox One is the Metro style OS and the controller bumpers are mushy. I honestly wish I waited to buy the XBO because I don't really turn the thing on anymore(just like my 360) hopefully sunset overdrive will be great.hopefully.