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Kinect for Windows Architecture

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Kinect for Windows 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8

The SDK provides a sophisticated software library and tools to help developers use the rich form of Kinect-based natural input, which senses and reacts to real-world events. The Kinect and the software library interact with your application, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.  Hardware and Software Interaction with an Application

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The components of the SDK include:

Figure 2.  SDK Architecture

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These components include the following:

  1. Kinect hardware - The hardware components, including the Kinect sensor and the USB hub through which the Kinect sensor is connected to the computer.
  2. Kinect drivers - The Windows drivers for the Kinect, which are installed as part of the SDK setup process as described in this document. The Kinect drivers support:
    • The Kinect microphone array as a kernel-mode audio device that you can access through the standard audio APIs in Windows.
    • Audio and video streaming controls for streaming audio and video (color, depth, and skeleton).
    • Device enumeration functions that enable an application to use more than one Kinect.
  3. Audio and Video Components
    • Kinect natural user interface for skeleton tracking, audio, and color and depth imaging
  4. DirectX Media Object (DMO) for microphone array beamforming and audio source localization.
  5. Windows 7 standard APIs - The audio, speech, and media APIs in Windows 7, as described in the Windows 7 SDK and the Microsoft Speech SDK. These APIs are also available to desktop applications in Windows 8.