Headtracking with Kinect SDK? [closed]

Question

Is is possible to detect if I turn or tilt my head with Kinect.
Preferably with the Kinect SDK. I know that Forza 4 will have some headtracking, but can it be done with the SDK?

Answer 1

Check out Channel 9s tutorials on this kind of subject. You would go to the Skeletal Fundamentals Video. But here's some code if you want to save the time.
XAML

<Window x:Class="SkeletalTracking.MainWindow"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    Title="MainWindow" Height="600" Width="800" Loaded="Window_Loaded" 
    xmlns:my="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Samples.Kinect.WpfViewers;assembly=Microsoft.Samples.Kinect.WpfViewers" 
    Closing="Window_Closing" WindowState="Maximized">       
<Canvas Name="MainCanvas">
    <my:KinectColorViewer Canvas.Left="0" Canvas.Top="0" Width="640" Height="480" Name="kinectColorViewer1" 
                          Kinect="{Binding ElementName=kinectSensorChooser1, Path=Kinect}" />
    <Ellipse Canvas.Left="0" Canvas.Top="0" Height="50" Name="leftEllipse"  Width="50" Fill="#FF4D298D" Opacity="1" Stroke="White" />
    <Ellipse Canvas.Left="100" Canvas.Top="0" Fill="#FF2CACE3" Height="50" Name="rightEllipse" Width="50" Opacity="1" Stroke="White" />
    <my:KinectSensorChooser Canvas.Left="250" Canvas.Top="380" Name="kinectSensorChooser1" Width="328" />
    <Image Canvas.Left="66" Canvas.Top="90" Height="87" Name="headImage" Stretch="Fill" Width="84" Source="/SkeletalTracking;component/c4f-color.png" />
</Canvas>

Internal Code

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Documents;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
using System.Windows.Navigation;
using System.Windows.Shapes;
using Microsoft.Kinect;
using Coding4Fun.Kinect.Wpf; 

namespace SkeletalTracking
{
/// <summary>
/// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
/// </summary>
public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
    public MainWindow()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    bool closing = false;
    const int skeletonCount = 6; 
    Skeleton[] allSkeletons = new Skeleton[skeletonCount];

    private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        kinectSensorChooser1.KinectSensorChanged += new DependencyPropertyChangedEventHandler(kinectSensorChooser1_KinectSensorChanged);

    }

    void kinectSensorChooser1_KinectSensorChanged(object sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        KinectSensor old = (KinectSensor)e.OldValue;

        StopKinect(old);

        KinectSensor sensor = (KinectSensor)e.NewValue;

        if (sensor == null)
        {
            return;
        }




        var parameters = new TransformSmoothParameters
        {
            Smoothing = 0.3f,
            Correction = 0.0f,
            Prediction = 0.0f,
            JitterRadius = 1.0f,
            MaxDeviationRadius = 0.5f
        };
        //sensor.SkeletonStream.Enable(parameters);

        sensor.SkeletonStream.Enable();

        sensor.AllFramesReady += new EventHandler<AllFramesReadyEventArgs>(sensor_AllFramesReady);
        sensor.DepthStream.Enable(DepthImageFormat.Resolution640x480Fps30); 
        sensor.ColorStream.Enable(ColorImageFormat.RgbResolution640x480Fps30);

        try
        {
            sensor.Start();
        }
        catch (System.IO.IOException)
        {
            kinectSensorChooser1.AppConflictOccurred();
        }
    }

    void sensor_AllFramesReady(object sender, AllFramesReadyEventArgs e)
    {
        if (closing)
        {
            return;
        }

        //Get a skeleton
        Skeleton first =  GetFirstSkeleton(e);

        if (first == null)
        {
            return; 
        }



        //set scaled position
        //ScalePosition(headImage, first.Joints[JointType.Head]);
        ScalePosition(leftEllipse, first.Joints[JointType.HandLeft]);
        ScalePosition(rightEllipse, first.Joints[JointType.HandRight]);

        GetCameraPoint(first, e); 

    }

    void GetCameraPoint(Skeleton first, AllFramesReadyEventArgs e)
    {

        using (DepthImageFrame depth = e.OpenDepthImageFrame())
        {
            if (depth == null ||
                kinectSensorChooser1.Kinect == null)
            {
                return;
            }


            //Map a joint location to a point on the depth map
            //head
            DepthImagePoint headDepthPoint =
                depth.MapFromSkeletonPoint(first.Joints[JointType.Head].Position);
            //left hand
            DepthImagePoint leftDepthPoint =
                depth.MapFromSkeletonPoint(first.Joints[JointType.HandLeft].Position);
            //right hand
            DepthImagePoint rightDepthPoint =
                depth.MapFromSkeletonPoint(first.Joints[JointType.HandRight].Position);


            //Map a depth point to a point on the color image
            //head
            ColorImagePoint headColorPoint =
                depth.MapToColorImagePoint(headDepthPoint.X, headDepthPoint.Y,
                ColorImageFormat.RgbResolution640x480Fps30);
            //left hand
            ColorImagePoint leftColorPoint =
                depth.MapToColorImagePoint(leftDepthPoint.X, leftDepthPoint.Y,
                ColorImageFormat.RgbResolution640x480Fps30);
            //right hand
            ColorImagePoint rightColorPoint =
                depth.MapToColorImagePoint(rightDepthPoint.X, rightDepthPoint.Y,
                ColorImageFormat.RgbResolution640x480Fps30);


            //Set location
            CameraPosition(headImage, headColorPoint);
            CameraPosition(leftEllipse, leftColorPoint);
            CameraPosition(rightEllipse, rightColorPoint);
        }        
    }


    Skeleton GetFirstSkeleton(AllFramesReadyEventArgs e)
    {
        using (SkeletonFrame skeletonFrameData = e.OpenSkeletonFrame())
        {
            if (skeletonFrameData == null)
            {
                return null; 
            }


            skeletonFrameData.CopySkeletonDataTo(allSkeletons);

            //get the first tracked skeleton
            Skeleton first = (from s in allSkeletons
                                     where s.TrackingState == SkeletonTrackingState.Tracked
                                     select s).FirstOrDefault();

            return first;

        }
    }

    private void StopKinect(KinectSensor sensor)
    {
        if (sensor != null)
        {
            if (sensor.IsRunning)
            {
                //stop sensor 
                sensor.Stop();

                //stop audio if not null
                if (sensor.AudioSource != null)
                {
                    sensor.AudioSource.Stop();
                }


            }
        }
    }

    private void CameraPosition(FrameworkElement element, ColorImagePoint point)
    {
        //Divide by 2 for width and height so point is right in the middle 
        // instead of in top/left corner
        Canvas.SetLeft(element, point.X - element.Width / 2);
        Canvas.SetTop(element, point.Y - element.Height / 2);

    }

    private void ScalePosition(FrameworkElement element, Joint joint)
    {
        //convert the value to X/Y
        //Joint scaledJoint = joint.ScaleTo(1280, 720); 

        //convert & scale (.3 = means 1/3 of joint distance)
        //Joint scaledJoint = joint.ScaleTo(1280, 720, .3f, .3f);

        Canvas.SetLeft(element, scaledJoint.Position.X);
        Canvas.SetTop(element, scaledJoint.Position.Y); 

    }


    private void Window_Closing(object sender, System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs e)
    {
        closing = true; 
        StopKinect(kinectSensorChooser1.Kinect); 
    }



   }
}

Now obviously you case you wouldn't want the hand tracking in your case, but I decided to add it in there anyway. I personally would recommend watching the videos because they explain everything. Good luck on your project!

Answer 2

Microsoft recently released a Face Tracking API as part of their latest SDK and additional toolkit. Download both of the files linked here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/develop/developer-downloads.aspx

There are samples included, although I found them a little hard to follow for integrating into my own code. I found this article to be much more useful for understanding how to use the Face Tracking API:

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/394975/How-To-Use-Kinect-Face-Tracking-SDK

For my use case, the MS Face Tracking does not work as well as I need it to. Don't get me wrong, it is excellent face tracking, including facial expressions and such, but it needs the person to be closer to the camera than we would like, and it is dependent on lighting conditions, which in our case the lighting is poor, so the tracking is littered with small jumps and errors. I also found this method:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AJHYxdTj3iQ&feature=related

While there is no in-depth description of how to do this method, they do give a nice high-level overview of how to do it. It does not track facial expressions... only the head orientation. So it is not as full-featured as the MS Face Tracking, but it appears to do head orientation tracking quite well, and is simpler to implement than most head pose estimation techniques out there.