Partager via

V2 meets 3D

  • Article

As Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) James Ashley points out in a recent blog, it’s a whole lot easier to create 3D movies with the Kinect for Windows v2 sensor and its preview software development kit (SDK 2.0 public preview). For starters, the v2 sensor captures up to three times more depth information than the original sensor did. That means you have far more depth data from which to construct your 3D images.

The next big improvement is in the ability to map color to the 3D image. The original Kinect sensor used an SD camera for color capture, and the resulting low-resolution images made it difficult to match the color data to the depth data. (RGB+D, a tool created by James George, Jonathan Porter, and Jonathan Minard, overcame this problem.) Knowing that the v2 sensor has a high-definition (1080p) video camera, Ashley reasoned that he could use the camera's color images directly, without a workaround tool. He also planned to map the color data to depth positions in real-time, a new capability built into the preview SDK.

[View:https://vimeo.com/103756950]

Ashley shot this 3D video of his daughter Sophia by using Kinect for Windows v2 and a standard laptop.

Putting these features together, Ashley wrote an app that enabled him to create 3D videos on a standard laptop (dual core Intel i5, with 4 GB RAM and an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4400). While he has no plans at present to commercialize the application, he opines that it could be a great way to bring real-time 3D to video chats.

Ashley also speculates that since the underlying principle is a point cloud, stills of the volumetric recording could be converted into surface meshes that can be read by CAD software or even turned into models that could be printed on a 3D printer. He also thinks it could be useful for recording biometric information in a physician’s office, or for recording precise 3D information at a crime scene, for later review.

Those who want to learn more from Ashley about developing cool stuff with the v2 sensor should note that his book, Beginning Kinect Programming with Kinect for Windows v2, is due to be published in October.

The Kinect for Windows Team

Key links

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 22, 2014
    Would be nic with use of 3+ kinects - full 3d record

  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2014
    Is there some open code to achieve this color point cloud visualization?

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2014
    Hello Michele, Please contact James Ashley directly (@JamesAshley or jamesashley@imaginativeuniversal.com) for more information on his solution. Thank you!