Low-cost, High-capability, Embedded Systems for Education and Research: A Toolbox for the Microsoft Kinect

Increasingly powerful, yet low-cost computing and sensing devices are now available for use in student designs and embedded mechatronic systems. The Microsoft Kinect, for example, though initially developed as a gaming device, provides rich sensing possibilities, with camera and depth images, again at remarkably low cost. However, the sophistication of such devices often requires a high degree of programming ability in order to exploit their evident capabilities. This paper describes progress on a National Science Foundation and MathWorks sponsored project aimed at making these devices more accessible to student users through the use of Automatic Code Generation techniques. Specifically, the paper describes a new toolbox that has been developed which allows students to perform their designs from within the Matlab / Simulink environment, and then to implement these designs directly on a hardware platform coupled to the Kinect system. Students develop their designs using interconnected Simulink blocks and subsystems, and the ‘build’ process automatically cross-compiles and downloads the model to the target for execution. External mode capability can be used to monitor the target hardware as it executes in real time, enabling the user to tune model parameters and log data while their application is running. An example showing how the Kinect can be integrated into a higher level system design is shown as an example.