Investigating the impact of a motion capture system on Microsoft Kinect v2 recordings: A caution for using the technologies together.

Mreza Naeemabadi,John Hansen,Ole Kæseler Andersen,Birthe Dinesen,Manabu Sakakibara

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0204052

Abstract

Microsoft Kinect sensors are considered to be low-cost popular RGB-D sensors and are widely employed in various applications. Consequently, several studies have been conducted to evaluate the reliability and validity of Microsoft Kinect sensors, and noise models have been proposed for the sensors. Several studies utilized motion capture systems as a golden standard to assess the Microsoft Kinect sensors, and none of them reported interference between Kinect sensors and motion capture systems. This study aimed to investigate possible interference between a golden standard (i.e., Qualisys) and Microsoft Kinect v2. The depth recordings of Microsoft Kinect sensors were processed to estimate the intensity of interference. A flat non-reflective surface was utilized, and smoothness of the surface was measured using Microsoft Kinect v2 in absence and presence of an active motion capture system. The recording was repeated in five different distances. The results indicated that Microsoft Kinect v2 is distorted by the motion capture system and the distortion is increasing by increasing distance between Kinect and region of interest. Regarding the results, it can be concluded that the golden standard motion capture system is robust against interference from the Microsoft Kinect sensors.

Highlights

In 2010, Microsoft, in cooperation with Prime Sense, introduced an RGB-D camera called “Kinect”
The Qualisys passive marker-based motion capture system had been utilized as a golden standard
This study evaluated the impact of a marker-based motion capture system on the Microsoft Kinect v2 sensor in five different distances

Summary

Introduction

In 2010, Microsoft, in cooperation with Prime Sense, introduced an RGB-D camera called “Kinect”. The Microsoft Kinect was developed as a gesture-based game controller for Microsoft Xbox 360. This device is equipped with RGB and near-infrared (NIR) sensors and NIR projector. It represents the depth information of viewing areas based on a structured light principle [1,2,3]. Microsoft released official drivers and a software development kit (SDK) for Kinect for non-commercial use [1].

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