When working with the NYUv2 dataset in python I try to get a list of all 894 classes in the dataset. From the documentation I know that its listed in the names variable of the nyu_depth_v2_labeled.mat-file.
I want to have an array with 894 strings of the names of the classes, but when trying approaches i found online i could not make it work.

Here is my code:

import numpy as np
import h5py

# Load the .mat file
mat_path = '/path/to/nyu_depth_v2_labeled.mat'
mat_file = h5py.File(mat_path, 'r')
# get variable 'names'
names = mat_file.get('names')
print(names)
print('-------------------------------')
print(names[:])

The problem now is that the result looks like this:

<HDF5 dataset "names": shape (1, 894), type "|O">
-------------------------------
[[<HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
...
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>
  <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference> <HDF5 object reference>]]

How do i make the data “readable” as python strings?