About Azure Kinect DK

Azure Kinect DK is a developer kit with advanced AI sensors that provide sophisticated computer vision and speech models. Kinect contains a depth sensor, spatial microphone array with a video camera, and orientation sensor as an all in-one small device with multiple modes, options, and software development kits (SDKs). It is available for purchase in Microsoft online store.

The Azure Kinect DK development environment consists of the following multiple SDKs:

• Sensor SDK for low-level sensor and device access.
• Body Tracking SDK for tracking bodies in 3D.
• Azure AI Speech SDK for enabling microphone access and Azure cloud-based speech services.

In addition, Cognitive Vision services can be used with the device RGB camera.

Azure Kinect Sensor SDK

The Azure Kinect Sensor SDK provides low-level sensor access for Azure Kinect DK hardware sensors and device configuration.

To learn more about Azure Kinect Sensor SDK, see Using Sensor SDK.

Azure Kinect Sensor SDK features

The Sensor SDK has the following features that work once installed and run on the Azure Kinect DK:

• Depth camera access and mode control (a passive IR mode, plus wide and narrow field-of-view depth modes)
• RGB camera access and control (for example, exposure and white balance)
• Motion sensor (gyroscope and accelerometer) access
• Synchronized Depth-RGB camera streaming with configurable delay between cameras
• External device synchronization control with configurable delay offset between devices
• Camera frame meta-data access for image resolution, timestamp, etc.
• Device calibration data access

Azure Kinect Sensor SDK tools

The following tools are available in the Sensor SDK:

• A viewer tool to monitor device data streams and configure different modes.
• A sensor recording tool and playback reader API that uses the Matroska container format.
• An Azure Kinect DK firmware update tool.

Azure Kinect Body Tracking SDK

The Body Tracking SDK includes a Windows library and runtime to track bodies in 3D when used with the Azure Kinect DK hardware.

Azure Kinect Body Tracking features

The following body-tracking features are available on the accompanying SDK:

• Provides body segmentation.
• Contains an anatomically correct skeleton for each partial or full body in FOV.
• Offers a unique identity for each body.
• Can track bodies over time.

Azure Kinect Body Tracking tools

• Body Tracker has a viewer tool to track bodies in 3D.

Azure AI Speech SDK

The Speech SDK enables Azure-connected speech services.

Speech services

• Speech-to-text
• Speech translation
• Text-to-Speech

For additional details and information, visit Speech Service documentation.

Vision services

The following Azure Cognitive Vision Services provide Azure services that can identify and analyze content within images and videos.

• Computer vision
• Face
• Video indexer
• Content moderator
• Custom vision

Services evolve and improve constantly, so remember to check regularly for new or additional Azure AI services to improve your application. For an early look on emerging new services, check out the Azure AI services labs.

Azure Kinect hardware requirements

The Azure Kinect DK integrates Microsoft's latest sensor technology into single USB connected accessory. For more information, see Azure Kinect DK Hardware Specification.

Next steps

You now have an overview of Azure Kinect DK. The next step is to dive in and set it up!