Abstract
The Azure Kinect is the successor of Kinect v1 and Kinect v2. In this paper we perform brief data analysis and comparison of all Kinect versions with focus on precision (repeatability) and various aspects of noise of these three sensors. Then we thoroughly evaluate the new Azure Kinect; namely its warm-up time, precision (and sources of its variability), accuracy (thoroughly, using a robotic arm), reflectivity (using 18 different materials), and the multipath and flying pixel phenomenon. Furthermore, we validate its performance in both indoor and outdoor environments, including direct and indirect sun conditions. We conclude with a discussion on its improvements in the context of the evolution of the Kinect sensor. It was shown that it is crucial to choose well designed experiments to measure accuracy, since the RGB and depth camera are not aligned. Our measurements confirm the officially stated values, namely standard deviation ≤17 mm, and distance error <11 mm in up to 3.5 m distance from the sensor in all four supported modes. The device, however, has to be warmed up for at least 40–50 min to give stable results. Due to the time-of-flight technology, the Azure Kinect cannot be reliably used in direct sunlight. Therefore, it is convenient mostly for indoor applications.
Highlights
In 2019 Microsoft released the Azure Kinect, which is no longer meant for the gaming market in any way; it is promoted as a developer kit with advanced AI sensors for building computer vision and speech models
We recorded 4500 frames with timestamps and found only small fluctuation (±2 ms between frames), which was probably caused by the host PC, not the Azure Kinect itself
By examining the warm-up time, we came to the conclusion that it shows the same behavior as Kinect v2 and needs to be properly warmed up for about 50–60 min to give stable output
Summary
Its Comparison to Kinect V1 and Kinect V2. Sensors 2021, 21, 413. Meant only for the gaming industry, it was soon to be used by scientists, robotics enthusiasts and hobbyists all around the world It was later followed by the release of another Kinect—. According to [17] there have been hundreds of papers written and published on this subject Both sensors are discontinued and are no longer being officially distributed and sold. In 2019 Microsoft released the Azure Kinect, which is no longer meant for the gaming market in any way; it is promoted as a developer kit with advanced AI sensors for building computer vision and speech models. Our focus is not set on complex evaluation of previous Kinect versions as this has been done before (for reference see [18,19,20,21,22,23,24]).
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