Depth frames are not playing nicely

Question

Hi everyone,

We have a project the uses the Kinect NUI API (SDK v1) in C#.

When initializing the sensor, we always enable the color and skeleton streams (sensor.ColorStream.Enable(ColorImageFormat.RgbResolution640x480Fps30); and sensor.SkeletonStream.Enable(), respectively). In this case, our "SkeletonFrameReady" event handler works consistently and well (through many tests). If we do a "ColorFrameReady" event handler, it works every time as well. However, if we also enable the depth stream (sensor.DepthStream.Enable(DepthImageFormat.Resolution640x480Fps30);) then in our tests, our event handlers only get called on 60-70% of our tests. In other words, when we enable depthstream, for some reason SkeletonFrameReady or AllFramesReady event handlers do not get called. However this does not happen every time. We will run our program maybe 3 times and it will work completely fine, but then the 4th time, the event handlers simply do not get called. To clarify, we still can see the color stream every time - and in fact ColorFramesReady does get called every time (if we make an associated event handler) but Skeleton or Depth FramesReady do not on some runs. With thorough testing, we have not been able to understand why the sensor works properly some times and not others. However, we do know through our testing that if we do not enable the depth stream, we never hit this issue of the event handler (SkeletonFrameReady) not getting called.

We saw a post that said something about low frame rates being an issue, but the system that we are running the application on more than exceeds the minimum requirements.

If any more information is required please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

can you share the machine info? Cores, RAM, USB host controller, etc.

Answer 2

Hi Todd,

Here are the specs:

• Intel Core i7-2720QM 2.20 GHz
• 8GB RAM
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• According to Device Manager:
• Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 1C26
• Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 1C2D
• Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller
• Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Root Hub

It's an HP Pavilion dv6.

Thanks!

Answer 3

When you expand your host controllers and see what is connected are you sharing any of the usb ports with other devices. What else is running on the laptop when you are doing your test? Anything that can take processing away from the Kinect application can cause enough delay with the event system or even the garbage collections of .Net.

Does this reproduce with the sample applications as well?

Answer 4

Our application is concurrently making use of an iRobot Roomba and a Pololu Micro Maestro servo controller, both have their own USB connection. 

The strange part is that all these USB devices seem work well with our application when just the SkeletonStream and ColorStream are enabled.

Thanks again, (sorry for the late reply)

We have not seen the problem in the sample application.. but then again our USB devices will not be running. We can try to simulate the situation on those and let you know how that works out.