In the previous chapter you have seen how the Kinect camera works, how you can capture color image data from the sensor, and played around with the three basic color components: red, green, and blue. In a similar fashion, you can capture the data from the Kinect depth sensor; however, the working principle of the depth sensor and information returned by the depth sensor are totally different than that of the color camera. Each color frame consists of numbers of pixel values, which give the values of red, green, and blue color components; whereas each pixel information in the depth data represents the distance of an object from the sensor. Not to mention, the depth data is one of the most important aspects of the Kinect device.
The basic depth data is really important for building any useful Kinect application. If you are going to build an application that detects you, your computer table or chair, or an application that controls a robot, or...