Attempts to using Kinect libraries

This still seems the best approach (if it ever worked). The Kinect camera was developed, at the first place,for human body gesture recognition and I could not think of any reason not using it but to reinvent wheels. However, since the library interfacing Kinect and ROS never worked and contains little documentation ( meaning it is very difficult to debug), I spent many sleepless nights and still wasn't able to get it working.However, for the next generation, I will still strongly recommend you give it a try.

ROS BY EXAMPLE V1 INDIGO: Chapter 10.9 contains detailed instructions on how to get the package openni_tracker working but make sure you install required drivers listed in chapter 10.3.1 before you start.