I recently had to bring up Kinect and PCL on Windows 8, and ran into a lot of little issues that are not well documented. The below steps will help to make installation and bring up easlier:
- If you’re using Kinect 360, you will need a special USB/power adapter.
- Now, if you’re using Windows 8, disable the signed driver enforcement
- Install Qt 4.8.0 from here: http://download.qt-project.org/archive/qt/4.8/
- Install CMake for Windows from here: http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html – Win32 version.
- Install PCL 1.6.0 All-In-One binary from here: http://pointclouds.org/downloads/windows.html.
- On Windows 8, change the PCL 1.6.0 installer’s OS compatibility to Windows 7, then run the installer.
- After PCL 1.6.0 installation, connect the Kinect to your PC using the special USB cable. You should see a blinking green light on the Kinect.
- Now try run the sample applications in OpenNI with Kinect. (note: I usually move the tutorial from the PCL 1.6.0 folder, which is under Program Files, to a different location that will allow write privileges.)
- Run cmake-gui.exe by selecting the directory containing CMakeList.txt for the specific example you are building. I usually try out the openni_range_image_visualization example first. Create a new build subdirectory within the example’s top-level directory. Click Configure and then Generate. Choose your tool chain architecture.
- Build the VS2010 solution generated by cmake-gui.exe. (Note: If you’re using VS2010 Express, it does not come with a 64-bit compiler, and you will have trouble building 64-bit version of PCL 1.6.0. To add 64-bit compiler to VS2010 Express, follow the instruction here.)
Happy Hacking!
(The above article is solely the expressed opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the position of his current and past employers)