Appendix A. Where to Go from Here

Congratulations! We have already finished all six chapters of this book. We have learned how to install and configure the Kinect SDK, how to initialize it and obtain image-streaming data into OpenGL textures, how to get a player skeleton and use hand positions to emulate multitouch inputs and gestures, and how to design a comparatively complete Fruit Ninja game using these features. Now you can feel free to make use of the mighty Kinect and its APIs to develop your own applications.

But before that, in this last chapter we will provide some extra ideas about Kinect programming. First, we will have a quick look at two third-party SDKs that can replace the functionalities of the Microsoft Kinect SDK. For non-Windows developers, they are always preferred as alternative middleware. Then, we will introduce some open source and commercial software based on Kinect, and even some hardware solutions that can be considered for motion-sensing uses.