Kinect for Xbox ONE - Hardware Requirements

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Xcessity
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Kinect for Xbox ONE - Hardware Requirements

Post by Xcessity »

Hi,

here is a little information about the hardware requirements of the Kinect.

What exactly do I need to buy?
Microsoft did a horrible job on naming their products. The Kinect you currently need to for using the KinesicMouse is called "Kinect for Xbox ONE". Additionally you need an adapter so that you can connect the Kinect to a PC. This adapter is essentially a power supply and an adapter for a USB 3.0 port. This adapter is called "Kinect Adapter for Windows".

So you need to purchase 2 items (links for amazon.com):
  1. Kinect for Xbox ONE
  2. Kinect Adapter for Windows

Hardware Requirements
The official hardware requirements are (source):
  1. 64-bit (x64) processor
  2. Physical dual-core 3.1 GHz (2 logical cores per physical) or faster processor
  3. USB 3.0 controller dedicated to the Kinect Adapter for Windows for use with the Kinect for Xbox One sensor
  4. 4 GB of RAM
  5. Graphics card that supports DirectX 11
  6. Windows 8 or 8.1, Windows Embedded 8, or Windows 10
Add 3.: The Kinect is very picky about the USB controller. Read this post about some confirmed USB controller hardware devices. My personal recommendation is to just give it a try.
From my experience the Kinect will work with an 80% chance on your setup if you have a USB 3.0 port. These ports are either colored in blue or labeled with "SS".
If you want to be on the safe side you can additionally get an USB 3.0 PCI extension card. This card must be installed inside the PC and needs a power connection from the power supply. If you don't know what any of that means I recommend to ask someone for help with the installation. It is a really straight forward process that is usually completed within 10 minutes. Such a PCI card is very cheap. I recommend the Transcend USB 3.0 Adapter PCIE for Desktop PC (TS-PDU3).


How can I verify my setup?
There is a tool from Microsoft that actually checks your hardware for the Kinect requirements. See the screenshot below. Here is the link to download the Kinect Configuration Verifier tool. Once you installed it, you will find it in your Windows start menu called "Kinect Configuration verifier".

Note: the entry "USB Controller" seems to be always marked with an exclamation mark although the Kinect works perfectly fine with this setup. The tool is not really able to tell if the USB controller is compatible or not. So do not worry about this warning.

Note 2: the entry "Verify Kinect Depth and Color Stream" will only be green if you have a Kinect attached and correctly working.
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