How To Turn Your Xbox 360 Kinect Sensor Into a Webcam For Skype Using Kinect For Windows SDK 1.8

Before you read this blog, Here is a video summary of what you will be doing in this blog. 

One day, I got really curious about my Xbox 360 Kinect Sensor. I wondered if there was some way to use it as a webcam on my Windows 7 64 bit computer?  Well, after many exhaustive searches on Google, watching a bunch of Youtube videos, and after trying out many files on my computer to get it to work ( while neglecting my wife, which I REALLY did not like doing), I finally got it to work.

Note: As far as I know, this will only work with the Xbox 360 Kinect Sensor. ( it MAY also work with the Kinect For Windows as well. I have not tested that out yet) To get one, click HERE.

It should work on you computer as long as it is a Windows ( 7 and above) computer. I am not really sure about that but here is how I did it on mine:

Download version 1.8 of the Microsoft Kinect For Windows SDK by clicking HERE. When you get there, be sure to read the system requirements there to make sure this will install correctly on you system.

After you have downloaded the Kinect SDK go to the folder you downloaded it to and run it so that it is installed onto you computer. (A box may appear asking if you should run it.Go ahead and Click on the run button to proceed). After running the installer, another box that will appear will be the End User Agreement. Click on the box on the bottom left and then click the install button.

1. Go ahead and restart your computer. Download the latest version of KinectCam.ax by clicking HERE.(while you are there, be sure to click on the download button on the bottom to get it) Remember the folder you downloaded it to, or to make it even easier, create a new folder and put it in there so that you can find it later 
2. Go ahead and also manually download the Kinect10.dll by clicking here.( Apparently, this particular KinectCam.ax file was saying that Kinect10.dll was missing so here were are). When you are on that page, click on the white and green arrow facing down on the far right of the page the 32 bit version of this file. A box should appear that looks like this: 
3. Confirm that you are not a robot by clicking on that square and hit the download button to get the dll. After you downloaded it, place it in the same directory as the KinectCam.ax file.
4. Download DllRegSvr 2.0. It will help you to register the KinectCam.ax file so your computer can use it. It will have two versions of the same program( 32 bit and 64 bit). Go to the folder you downloaded it to and open it with windows explorer or any other zip file reader, extract it to a folder of your choosing and remember it. You will need this program. 

After you have followed the directions above, here is what you want to do next:

Go ahead and connect you Xbox 360 Kinect Sensor to your computer as you would to your Xbox 360, including making sure that the AC adapter ( that should have came with the sensor) is plugged into the AC outlet.

Your Windows 7  ( or above) computer should automatically then start finding and installing the necessary drivers( you should be seeing a dialog box telling you that it is doing this).

Note: The picture above is from an earlier attempt to install the earlier version of the Microsoft Kinect For Windows SDK, which, as you see, did not install correctly but the dialog box will appear similar to the one above. 

Next, go to the extracted (unzipped) folder where the two versions of the DllRegSvr programs are sitting. Run dllregsvr (not dllregsvr64). You should see a dialog box with a button that says "Browse".

Click that button.

Afterwards, you will see your familiar list of folders on your computer. Navigate to the folder that contains the KinectCam.ax file you downloaded earlier. Change the file type to ax. You then should see the KinectCam.ax file. Select it and then go ahead and open it. If everything went well, you should see a dialog box that says that it is registered.

Unplug the USB Kinect from your computer, restart your computer, wait until it is finished loading up, and then go ahead plug back your USB plug from your Kinect (if your see windows installing more drivers for your Kinect, let it finish,) and run Skype. When Skype finishes loading up, click on the tools tab, click options, select audio settings, then select kinect audio, and while still in the options tab in Skype, select video, then select the obvious selection, kinect webcam.

If everything went well, you and your buddies should be seeing video and hearing sound!

If you experience issues with the 360 Kinect, try a different USB port (plugging it into one of the USB ports in the back of the computer should help).

Hope this works for you. Let me know if it did.