Which hardware is required to use SDK

[Kolya_I_]

Hello everyone!

We are developing a software for agricultural needs that will make use of R200's functionality. However, it is somewhat unclear to us, what kind of hardware are we to possess in order to work with the SDK. To be more precise:

In order to download the RealSense SDK for Windows, are we to

 - purchase a separate R200 camera, i.e. http://click.intel.com/intel-realsense-developer-kit-r200.html

OR

- a device of some particular model with an integrated R200 camera

OR

- any Windows-running device with an integrated R200

Similarly, for the future use of RealSense SDK for Android, are we to

- purchase (pre-order) a newly presented device  http://click.intel.com/intelrealsensesmartphone-developer-kit.html

OR

- it is enough to owe any Android-running device with an integrated R200 or ZR200 (Like Dell Venue 8 7000)

The software we are looking forward to deliver is to run on smartphones and tablets which that are easy to handle in non-office-like environments, so the choice of a suitable device to proceed with the development is crucial.

Thank You in advance

[MartyG]

If you are thinking at this stage about just developing the software instead of testing it in an actual smartphone or tablet, you can develop it with a PC with a USB 3.0 port and the R200 USB development kit camera.

Looking at the image of the ZR-300 in the Intel store and the lack of mention of PCs in its specification, it looks like a self-contained smartphone-format device   So I'm not sure how it interfaces with the RealSense SDK or Google Project Tango SDK.

[Henning_J_]

Looking at the image of the ZR-300 in the Intel store and the lack of mention of PCs in its specification, it looks like a self-contained smartphone-format device   So I'm not sure how it interfaces with the RealSense SDK or Google Project Tango SDK.

The announcement article says the ZR300 supports both Project Tango and RealSense SDK:

...implements Google’s Project Tango Product Development Kit (PDK) and the Intel RealSense SDK add-on for Android.

The article also says the ZR300 is just an R200 with some additional sensors.

[MartyG]

The point I was making Henning was that whilst the Zr-300 can interface with both the RealSense and Tango SDKs, it wasn't clear how you transfer the programming from the SDK onto the device.  Articles about the ZR-300 mentioned a dock with a USB 3.0, so that would be a logical way to develop on PC and transfer to the ZR-300 for testing.  It wasn't clear whether the dock came with the ZR-300 or was an optional extra though.  :)

Edit: going by the image in the article linked to below, it looks like the dock comes with the camera kit.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/intel-smartphone-realsense-project-tango,news-52152.html

[Kolya_I_]

Marty G. wrote:

If you are thinking at this stage about just developing the software instead of testing it in an actual smartphone or tablet, you can develop it with a PC with a USB 3.0 port and the R200 USB development kit camera.

But still, purchasing a development kit camera is a requirement, right? Sorry for such a silly question, but it's not me who is making a decision of purchasing hardware and software, so I need to make it clear.

Just let me be a bit more specific. As said, it's agriculture, and we are situated in a rural area. As a developer, I'll need to go to some not very comfortable places like fields or stalls to capture the data with a RealSense camera. And it's a bit uncomfortable to take along a laptop, let alone a stationary PC, as it was done before. Thus a tablet is needed anyway.

In effect, the question is: can we just buy a tablet WITH a camera and the use it, or it doesn't matter if the tablet has an R200, because a development kit camera is to be purchased anyway.

[MartyG · Accepted solution]

There's no such thing as a silly question.  *smiles*  Yes, a camera kit purchase is definitely required.

[Kolya_I_]

Ok, thanks Marty G., this settles my question.

[jb455]

If your device has a realsense camera built in you can develop on it without buying an extra camera, or you could buy a non-realsense device that meets the minimum specs (USB 3.0, 4th Gen Intel Core processor, Win 8.1/10) and plug in a peripheral camera.

[MartyG]

James is right that the SDK software could be used at a very basic level with an ordinary webcam.  The reason I stated that a RealSense camera would be required is that it is very likely that the kind of application that you are developing would very likely use features that only a RealSense camera could provide.  

If a basic webcam was being used then the best you could probably get out of it was the streaming of raw camera data that you couldn't do much with, or simple audio or RGB video type functions.  You certainly couldn't use functions relating to depth analysis, hand / face tracking, object tracking, etc.

[jb455]

I meant if a device has a RealSense camera built in you can use that device for development (assuming it runs Visual Studio or some other IDE) without buying a devkit; or you can use any device which meets the min specs and buy a devkit/peripheral RealSense camera to plug into it. In #6 Marty, you seemed to suggest that Koyla would need to buy a camera kit even if (s)he has a device with an R200 embedded.

[MartyG]

Thanks for the clarification, James.  I don't have any experience in developing for RealSense on a mobile integrated device, only having a humble PC and F200, so my comments were focused on the need for a dev kit for development on PC.  Looking back at the original question, I see that it was a multi-part one asking about various scenarios, and I failed to address the "developing on mobile with an integrated camera" aspect of those questions.  So I apologize for that.  :) 

[Kolya_I_]

Thanks James, now it becomes clearer.

Because my weapon of choice for now would be something like Ideapad Miix 700, and we already have a Dell Venue 8 7000 for android development.

BTW I am a "he"

[jb455]

No problem. We've been working with a few devices, starting with PCs with USB cameras and now testing on tablets/laptops with RealSense built in. The camera stuff works the same on all of them, you just have to make considerations for the UI being on touch-based or on different sized screens.

I had heard the Miix 700 was supposed to have RealSense built in, and it says it's an optional extra on this page, though there doesn't seem to be a way to add it to the order when you go through it..
Looks like a good device though, assuming you can persuade them to sell you one with RealSense!

[Kolya_I_]

Thanks James.

So, just to make it as clear as possible for noobs like me. Suppose we've bought a Windows tablet with a RealSense camera. Then, with this device I can:

collect the data in the field

AND

register the camera do download the SDK

AND

use the camera from the device via USB for overall development on a work PC

I am just puzzled whether, in order to download the SDK, we

HAVE TO

pre-order a USB camera on the Intel site

OR

any device with an R200 will do.

What we really need from the camera at this stage is making point clouds for further processing. We did it with a Kinect before, but it is unhandy.

[jb455]

I don't think you can 'share' the camera from an embedded device to a PC directly, though you can certainly develop an app on a PC then test it on a tablet. If you want to test it on a PC, you'll have to acquire a USB camera.

I don't think you need a camera (either USB or embedded) to download/install the SDK, so you could develop on your PC even without a camera, then send the exe to some another device which does have RealSense to test it.

So: if you have a device with RealSense embedded already, you don't need to buy an extra USB camera to be able to develop on/for it.