[ros-users] Confirmation on primesense

[Peter Soetens]

On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 8:41 PM, Nicolas Burrus <neslist at free.fr> wrote:
> Nicolas Burrus from Occipital here (we make Structure Sensor:
> http://structure.io).  Structure Sensor is indeed currently based
> around a few PrimeSense-designed components, but it is a new
> electrical design with many new features, and we manage the
> manufacturing ourselves.  Of course, PrimeSense components won’t be
> available to us forever, but we have worked with PrimeSense to make
> sure we have everything needed to keep shipping Structure Sensors and
> meet current and future orders.  It is crucial to our own success that
> we keep innovating and making sure Structure Sensors are available for
> a long time. Components may change, but the mission is the same.
>
> Even though a lot of our work goes into providing iOS compatibility,
> we did a lot in the electrical design to make it work great on other
> platforms (We even made a special USB cable for other platforms since
> Apple uses Lightning).  We also made it robot-friendly by putting 4
> screw holes on the bottom of the sensor, and providing CAD to help
> people make attachments.  We also plan to release a PCL grabber for
> Structure Sensor, and to have open source drivers (not OpenNI) for
> Linux, Android, Windows, and OS X. If anyone wants to help out with
> those open source efforts, let me know!
>
> We will also make a fork of OpenNI2 and already have basic OpenNI2
> support for the sensor when used with the USB cable.  (So, you can
> already use Structure Sensor with existing apps using OpenNI2,
> including ROS. However, we didn’t test on Linux yet, but it should
> work.)  Long term, if OpenNI development remains active, we will keep
> Structure working with OpenNI.  If not, then we will focus our efforts
> more on Structure Sensor open source drivers instead.

Until you guys get bought as well... or Apple changes their mind
patent- or component-wise.
This move of Apple has cast a great uncertainty on any Primesense
derived technology or company.

Nevertheless, I'm ordering one or two sensors. Primesense had the best
technology for that price...

Peter

>
> On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 7:52 PM, Arkapravo Bhaumik
> <arkapravobhaumik at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Thanks ! but this entire episode leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Subduing a
>> glorious technology in order to fill their coffers.
>> ᐧ
>>
>>
>> On 27 February 2014 22:44, Piyush <piyushk at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Xtions don't work with libfreenect (directly) or its ROS wrapper
>>> freenect_camera. However, I believe openni_camera should continue to work
>>> for the next 1-2 years, as long as the license for openni's existing
>>> open-source code does not get changed.
>>>
>>> Piyush
>>
>>
>> --
>> Arkapravo Bhaumik
>>
>>
>> http://mobotica.blogspot.in/p/head.html
>>
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