What is Azure Kinect DK?
Azure Kinect DK is a developer kit combining a depth camera, spatial microphones, and AI capabilities for building computer vision and spatial computing applications. It captures 3D depth data, tracks body movements, and integrates with Azure Cognitive Services for advanced AI scenarios.
Note: Microsoft has discontinued Azure Kinect DK hardware sales. The SDKs and Azure services remain available for existing devices, but new projects should consider alternative hardware options.
Core Features
- Depth camera: 1-megapixel time-of-flight sensor for precise depth mapping
- RGB camera: 12-megapixel camera with hardware sync to depth data
- Body tracking SDK: Skeleton tracking for multiple people simultaneously
- Microphone array: 7-microphone circular array for spatial audio
- IMU: Accelerometer and gyroscope for motion sensing
Typical Use Cases
Kinect DK is used in healthcare for physical therapy tracking, in manufacturing for worker safety monitoring, in retail for customer analytics, and in research for 3D scanning and gesture recognition. The combination of depth sensing and body tracking enables applications that understand physical space and human movement.
Benefits
- Centimeter-accurate depth measurement
- Real-time body tracking without external markers
- Integration with Azure Cognitive Services
- Cross-platform SDKs for Windows and Linux
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Azure Kinect DK still available?
Microsoft has discontinued manufacturing of Azure Kinect DK. Existing devices continue to work with current SDKs, but new purchases are no longer possible from Microsoft.
What are alternatives for new projects?
For body tracking, Intel RealSense and Orbbec cameras offer similar depth sensing. For specific use cases, consider Azure Percept (industrial edge AI) or HoloLens 2 (mixed reality with spatial understanding).
Does body tracking require cloud connectivity?
No. The Body Tracking SDK runs locally on the device using the GPU. Azure connectivity is optional and only needed for cloud-based AI services like speech recognition or custom vision models.
What programming languages are supported?
The Azure Kinect SDK supports C, C++, and C#. Community bindings exist for Python and other languages. Body tracking requires an NVIDIA GPU for real-time performance.
Integration with innFactory
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, innFactory helps you build solutions with Azure Kinect DK: application development, Azure Cognitive Services integration, and migration planning for discontinued hardware.
