Supposedly quick and easy install guide to 3D scanning with Kinect and Reconstructme

Library is hosting interesting workshops of 3D scanning, 3D printing and also ebook making next week. So I thought of bringing my sixpence 3D scanning kit that uses an ardunino turntable, an android phone for image acquisition, and 123D catch to generate a 3D model, and also a "known" 3D scanning solution that is made up of M$ Kinect, and ReconstructMe to the maker space event. Back in London, I have used/tested/setup a rig for 3D scanning using the latter on my own laptop (dell XPS) . Installation (ReconstructMe console v0.6.0-405 + OpenNI + PrimeSense) was a breeze. So I assume I would only take 1 hour or so to setup, but in reality............

Installation supposed to be a breeze (as per the setup in London). Somehow, fate took the other turn and I have spent my weekends hiding in my office battling compatibility between kinect drivers<--->Graphic Card drivers <->OpenNI drivers<-->ReconstructMe versions.

The lastest version of ReconstructMeQT suppose to work out of the box in 2 steps. First, install the kinect drivers on windows, lastly install ReconstructMeQT. Because my installation does not work out of the box, therefore I have an adventure over the weekends to find the possible solution.

Now, before you attempt to install ReconstructMe, please do this 

step0

1. Check out the compatibility matrix for the graphic card supported.

2. Install the latest version of the NVidia graphic card driver (v3XX.YY) or ATi Radeon

3. If you have not install any Kinect drivers on windows, GOOD! Otherwise, uninstall the device and delete the drivers. Device Manager-> Right click on the  Kinect devices that is installed under as XBOX kinect or kinect for windows or NUI kinect or Libfree kinect->uninstall (and check on the box that says delete the driver file)

The very general steps after step0 are

1. Install Kinect Drivers 

2. Insall OpenNI drivers 

3. Install ReconstructMe 

Step1: Install drivers for kinect on windows (32bit or 64bit)

Kinect drivers come in a few flavours. Choose either one of the flavours to work with ReconstructMe. The two major camps are PrimeSense (SensorKinect093-Bin-Win64-v5.1.2.1 or SensorKinect-unstable or Sensor-Win32-5.1.6.6-Redist) and M$ (KinectSDK-v1.8-Setup or KinectRunTime v1.7). I have tried all of the variety on 3 laptops, yielding different results with ReconstructMe.

Step2: Install OpenNI (OpenNI-Windows-x86-2.2.0.33 or OpenNI-Windows-x64-2.1.0 or OpenNI-Win32-1.5.7.10-Dev or OpenNI-Win64-1.5.7.10-Dev)

Note: Step2 not required if using ReconstructMeQT

Step3: Install ReconstructMeQT (ReconstructMe Setup-1.2.95). The supposed Finishing Step.

Somehow, in laptopA the GUI hangs at initialization, laptopB, the GUI crashes.

Step3.1: Install ReconstructMe Console (ReconstructMe_Installer_NonCommercial_405)

Somehow, in laptopA the command window hangs at initialization; laptopB, the graphic card chosen by the ReconstructMe is Intel HD4000 instead of GT630M, and crashes after capturing

Sadly, nothing work on my work laptopA. Then I took another laptopB to test, and then another laptopC. 

The laptops are defined as:

laptopA: intel i7, 8GB ram, windows7 32bit (Yes, I know this is dumb, due to some ****. please spare me the embarrassment), and NVS3100M. 

laptopB: intel i5, 8GB ram, windows7 64bit, GT630M (with intel HD4000). 

laptopC: intel C2D, 4GB ram, windows7 32bit, ATi Radeon HD3400 (not in compatibility matrix).  

Unsatisfied with the outcomes, I have brute-force possible combination (with some smart guessing on the combination of course) of drivers (very tedious, I am really tired from the mundane installing and uninstalling regime) to get 3D scanning to work on my 3 laptops.

my winning recipe works on LaptopB by

1. Install KinectSDK-v1.8-Setup

2. Install OpenNI-Win32-1.5.7.10-Dev [yes, a 32bit OpenNI driver on a 64bit windows 7. Weird, but it works. Installing 64bit OpenNI drivers game me load of problems such as OpenNI drivers not found]

3. Install ReconstructMe_Installer_NonCommercial_405 (v0.6.0-405)

4. Modify scanner parameter with "ReconstructMe.exe --device 1 --scan --sensor mskinect,0 --config cfg/volume_1m_highres.txt" without the quotes 

phewwwww.... now, lets do some 3D scanning!!!!!

demo at the SP library. picture courtesy of kylie the librarian.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.601997073170940.1073741862.106331659404153&type=3

I would love to find some time to get skanect to work, as a counter example to ReconstructMe. Time, is scarce and I only have 24 hours per day.