Is it possible...

[scarabcoder]

I have a large request, and that is, is it possible to connect to the pi wirelessly (over LAN) from a computer, and read data coming from a USB cord connected to a Pi. Then, detect that data as though it was plugged into the computer itself.
And when I mean computer, I mean a mac or windows laptop.
I've been able to scan areas using Microsoft's Xbox Kinect, but would it be possible to connect the Kinect to the Raspberry Pi, (since it is small) and read data from the Kinect like it was plugged into the computer. I will be hopefully putting the Raspberry Pi on a drone, along with the kinect, to scan areas from the top. I can't very well send a computer in a drone, for two reasons. The first, is that obviously a computer would be either too heavy or would just fall and break. The second reason, is that I need to be able to see what is being scanned.

Tl;dr I want to connect a kinect to a Raspberry Pi (USB), then, wirelessly, get data from that Kinect. Is it possible?

[DougieLawson]

Yes.

You can run Samba on the RPi and mount the RPi filesystem on Windows as a shared drive.

[scarabcoder]

I've never used Samba before.
What does it do?
Are there any part-way tutorials to what I want to do?

[joan]

I've never used Samba before.
What does it do?
Are there any part-way tutorials to what I want to do?

Google?

[scarabcoder]

Duh.
Google, the source of all knowledge.
Also, since I doubt there is gonna be anyone attempting this, can Samba read data from a USB port on a different device over wireless, as though it was coming from the computer itself??
As in, it would have the same input/output as if the Kinect was plugged into the computer not the Pi.

[W. H. Heydt]

Might be a bit of a Rube Goldberg, but....

Have the Pi read the Kinect data and write to a file. Using an SSH session logged into the Pi, copy all output to a file (e.g. a PuTTY logfile) on the PC using a tail command on the file the Pi is writing. A program on the PC could then read the log file. With the possible exception of the last step, one could certainly do all the rest concurrently.

Since you're planning to scan the ground below the drone, why don't you just use a Pi camera instead of the Kinect? Not only is it lighter, but a lot of people have done various setups using the camera attached to a Pi.

Better advice might be possible if the whole project is described in more depth. (Of course, there *is* the risk that you'll be told that what you want to do is unethical or illegal....)

[marked]

Do you mean something like virtualhere which presents the pis usb ports to a networked pc as if they were on the pc itself? http://store.raspberrypi.com/projects/virtualhere

[scarabcoder]

Exactly! I don't think other people really understood what I wanted.

[scarabcoder]

I just checked it out, and it is EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED!
Thanks so much! Now, I just need to get a battery powered portable plug.