Developing Kinect-like Motion Detection System using Canny Edge Detector

Abstract

With the advance in video technology, motion-based computing system has an effect on both hardware and software, such as video surveillance, security alarm systems and game entertainment. For example, Kinect is a webcam style add-on peripheral for Xbox 360 game console manufactured by Microsoft, which is featured by RGB camera and multi-array microphone. Kinect is a motion-based software technology that can provide 3-D motion detection, skeleton motion tracking, and voice and facial recognitions. It is currently considered the cutting edge in the gaming world. In this paper, we developed a Kinect-like motion detection system for video streams without using real Kinect device. There are many approaches of motion detection for video streams. However, most of them are based on frame-based comparisons, which could be resource intensive and make it challenging to keep up with the continuous need for speed. Therefore, we present a novel method for motion tracking and identification that are based on the Canny edge detector. The experimental results show that the method is fast and effective in simulating applications, such as Microsoft Kinect motion detection and video surveillance system.