Jonathan Hallstrom

I've been using Synapse on and off for a couple of years, but it's become increasingly flakey of late... It crashes over and over on launch then all of a sudden launches fine. Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening? (particularly odd that it sometimes launches OK)

Am also interested in any info on alternatives to Synapse. Can't get SimpleKinect to run, Apple bought PrimeSense and then promptly shut down Openni... dp.kinect is PC-only... It's hard to imagine that there's no longer any option for getting Kinect info into Max/Msp.

I've been using Synapse on and off for a couple of years, but it's become increasingly flakey of late... It crashes over and over on launch then all of a sudden launches fine.  Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening?  (particularly odd that it sometimes launches OK)
Am also interested in any info on alternatives to Synapse.  Can't get SimpleKinect to run, Apple bought PrimeSense and then promptly shut down Openni...  dp.kinect is PC-only... It's hard to imagine that there's no longer any option for getting Kinect info into Max/Msp.

with-openni-gone-is-there-anything-available-for-mackinect

I found the old OpenNI drivers on DiabloDale's website recently, including the Zigfu 'easy install' version of OpenNI.

Not what you want to hear but I got fed up with that flaky situation and for the projects that need it I switched to Win for good Kinect support. Given that all Macs / Hackintoshes now support Win that's not that much of an issue.

For solid Kinect support, I believe DTR has the better advice. Boot into Windows and run a solid supported stack for Kinect.

As disclaimer, I don't distribute NITE (provides skeleton tracking) or Zigfu (which includes an illegal copy of NITE). Neither is available on my website.

NITE is part of an earlier cross-platform Kinect solution which Apple bought and killed. It is illegal to host, distribute, or use NITE.

In my head, is doesn't make sense to use something that is both poor performing and illegal.

As disclaimer, I don't distribute NITE (provides skeleton tracking) or Zigfu (which includes an illegal copy of NITE). Neither is available on my website.
NITE is part of an earlier cross-platform Kinect solution which Apple bought and killed. It is illegal to host, distribute, or use NITE.
In my head, is doesn't make sense to use something that is both poor performing and illegal.


I can see your point, and please don't take offense, but there are those who teach at small schools who have neither the resources (technical and financial) to simply go out and buy and install Windows on multiple machines and purchase additional copies of Max for PC in order to make this work. I'm thinking more about my students, most of whom are Mac users. I guess I'm surprised that no one's hacked an alternative now that Openni is off the table, but then I don't claim to understand what there is, or isn't, in the way of alternatives to Openni to access kinect input for skeleton tracking ... It would help me to understand that.

Hope springs eternal... perhaps Apple intends to release some sort of Kinect interface in the way that they did when they bought Emagic so they could have Logic (which then immediately ceased to exist for the PC)

I can see your point, and please don't take offense, but there are those who teach at small schools who have neither the resources (technical and financial)  to simply go out and buy and install Windows on multiple machines and purchase additional copies of Max for PC in order to make this work.  I'm thinking more about my students, most of whom are Mac users.   I guess I'm surprised that no one's hacked an alternative now that Openni is off the table, but then I don't claim to understand what there is, or isn't, in the way of alternatives to Openni to access kinect input for skeleton tracking ... It would help me to understand that.

Hope springs eternal... perhaps Apple intends to release some sort of Kinect interface in the way that they did when they bought Emagic so they could have Logic (which then immediately ceased to exist for the PC)


How unfortunate. I ended up using openFrameworks on OSX for interfacing with Kinect. It's free and has a great community of developers/artists.

How unfortunate.  I ended up using openFrameworks on OSX for interfacing with Kinect.  It's free and has a great community of developers/artists.


There are some open-source hacks on the Internet for the Kinect and Mac. They don't do basic skeleton/joint tracking or anything advanced (face tracking, sound tracking, speech recognition, etc.). If you only want the raw rgb camera or raw depth camera, these hacks might work for you. Meeble mentions one of them.

It is unfortunate. Apple has a long tradition of being a closed ecosystem compared to the vast Windows (or the smaller yet open unix) ecosystem. One plays in the Apple sandbox and by their rules. Period. The desktop market voted against Apple consistently for 20+ years. Some might suggest that the proprietary version of unix in osx suddenly makes them open and friendly. It doesn't as demonstrated by their actions (not words) like killing openni/nite and making it illegal to use. This nature of Apple is a primary reason I recommend non-Apple solutions for everything.

I caution that the use of illegal software (like Zigfu) in an education environment exposes the school to litigation and demonstrates a poor example for students. I'll comment no further given the focus (technical rather than moral/legal) of this forum.

I've been hearing rumors surrounding Apple's approach on detecting/mapping the real world. I'm not aware of any hardware/software combo that is yet on the market from them.

Actually, Kinect (especially Kinect 2) is a product of Microsoft and Microsoft does not provide SDK (or drivers or any kind of support) for OS X.

There's the PCL (Point Cloud Library) project which has a module for skeleton tracking called People: 

When I tried to install and compile it 2 or 3 years ago it was in highly experimental stage and I didn't succeed on either OSX or Linux. I don't know what the current state is.

Website doesn't seem updated since 2014 so I wouldn't hold my breath.

There's the PCL (Point Cloud Library) project which has a module for skeleton tracking called People: http://www.pointclouds.org/
When I tried to install and compile it 2 or 3 years ago it was in highly experimental stage and I didn't succeed on either OSX or Linux. I don't know what the current state is.
Website doesn't seem updated since 2014 so I wouldn't hold my breath.


Well well... what s up with this? OpenNI resurrected? 

Well well... what s up with this? OpenNI resurrected? http://structure.io/openni
Not sure of the legality of this.


This (I mean http://structure.io/) is very interesting...


I want to be clear that I'm not advocating for doing anything illegal. I do however find it hard to imagine that it would be illegal for a Mac person to come up with a way to access the output of the Kinect. Stealing or hacking the hardware itself is one thing, but simply capturing output seems altogether different. All I was asking was whether anyone was doing it. My problem is that I'm a composer, not a software hacker. The same goes for my students. I'm also a diehard Mac user and since the Kinect interface isn't going to make or break my work would prefer a higher level Mac solution over trying to learn enough low-level programming to get an OSC-generating skeleton from Kinect.

Hopefully there will be a solution, either in the form of a legal hack for Kinect that doesn't require a degree in computer science to use, or a new more open-access hardware solution... perhaps the structure sensor (which may well involve openni-derived sensing software licensed from Apple) is an option. I'd be really grateful if anyone who discovers anything would resurrect this thread or contact me directly (jfhallst@colby.edu)

I want to be clear that I'm not advocating for doing anything illegal.  I do however find it hard to imagine that it would be illegal for a Mac person to come up with a way to access the output of the Kinect.   Stealing or hacking the hardware itself is one thing, but simply capturing output seems altogether different.   All I was asking was whether anyone was doing it.  My problem is that I'm a composer, not a software hacker.  The same goes for my students.  I'm also a diehard Mac user and since the Kinect interface isn't going to make or break my work would prefer a higher level Mac solution over trying to learn enough low-level programming to get an OSC-generating skeleton from Kinect.

Hopefully there will be a solution, either in the form of a legal hack for Kinect that doesn't require a degree in computer science to use, or a new more open-access hardware solution... perhaps the structure sensor (which may well involve openni-derived sensing software licensed from Apple) is an option.    I'd be really grateful if anyone who discovers anything would resurrect this thread or contact me directly (jfhallst@colby.edu)


Access to the Kinect device is one thing. Drivers have been hacked/reverse engineered long time ago, when there wasn't official PC support yet, only Xbox. This enables reading out the color and depth images.

Now skeleton tracking is on another level. That uses software algorithms running on the computer to analyze the image data and find humanoid shapes in it. This software is proprietary tech included in OpenNI and KinectSDK. It doesn't come embedded in the camera. That's why there are no alternatives for skeleton tracking without OpenNI or KinectSDK while there are for reading the depth map etc.

On a tangent:
Access to the Kinect device is one thing. Drivers have been hacked/reverse engineered long time ago, when there wasn't official PC support yet, only Xbox. This enables reading out the color and depth images.
Now skeleton tracking is on another level. That uses software algorithms running on the computer to analyze the image data and find humanoid shapes in it. This software is proprietary tech included in OpenNI and KinectSDK. It doesn't come embedded in the camera. That's why there are no alternatives for skeleton tracking without OpenNI or KinectSDK while there are for reading the depth map etc.


I followed the instructions described in the link below and now I can use the jit.openni.v0.88_MAC_OSX object in Max 7 under OS X 10.11.6

https://creativevreality.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/setting-up-the-kinect-on-osx-el-capitan/

I followed the instructions described in the link below and now I can use the jit.openni.v0.88_MAC_OSX object in Max 7 under OS X 10.11.6
https://creativevreality.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/setting-up-the-kinect-on-osx-el-capitan/


It's actually not "illegal" to download NITE from PrimeSense licensees that predate the Apple acquisition. Those agreements are still in force and legit Windows, Mac, and Linux versions are all still publicly available. The problem is just that if you tried to distribute your own new work using NITE, it would potentially be infringing--that uncertainty, combined with the end of maintenance on a closed-source project, has really killed the community.

However for now, NITE still runs fine on a current OS and Apple hasn't interfered with the distribution of all the great indie projects that predated the acquisition.

It's actually not "illegal" to download NITE from PrimeSense licensees that predate the Apple acquisition. Those agreements are still in force and legit Windows, Mac, and Linux versions are all still publicly available. The problem is just that if you tried to distribute your own new work using NITE, it would potentially be infringing--that uncertainty, combined with the end of maintenance on a closed-source project, has really killed the community. 

However for now, NITE still runs fine on a current OS and Apple hasn't interfered with the distribution of all the great indie projects that predated the acquisition.


with Openni gone is there anything available for Mac/Kinect?