Combining Two Kinects To Make Better 3D Video 106
suraj.sun sends this quote from Engadget about improving the Kinect 3D video recordings we discussed recently:
"[Oliver Kreylos is] blowing minds and demonstrating that two Kinects can be paired and their output meshed — one basically filling in the gaps of the other. He found that the two do create some interference, the dotted IR pattern of one causing some holes and blotches in the other, but when the two are combined they basically help each other out and the results are quite impressive."
Re:Two eyes are better than one (Score:5, Insightful)
The "good ol' brain" does a fairly crappy job, actually. 3D vision systems like these tend to perform quite a bit better than we do. And we only do as well as we do because we can use a lot of indirect clues based on our long experience with a 3D-world - we know how big stuff normally is, for instance, so we can judge distance from size. Mess up those clues and we completely lose it.
And even with good clues we don't actually measure distance well. Have somebody place items on a parking lot or some place like that, then try to guess the distances. Not going to be very accurate. Try to estimate distance vertically rather than horizontally and you'll do even worse; you have fewer clues and less experience to fall back on.
Polarizing filters! (Score:4, Insightful)
When I first saw the video of one Kinect, I immediately wondered how you could get multiple units working together.
It wasn't until I watched the video again later that day that it hit me. I had just explained to someone how 3D theater projection works, and so I had an epiphany: The most sensible course is to use polarizing filters.
With filters on the IR emitters and cameras, the units should be able to only see their own IR illumination. Of course, it would only work for two Kinects with maximum effectiveness, but considering how well this turned out with the units at right-angles from each other, I don't see why you couldn't combine the two ideas for 3-4 units and get sufficient quality.
I wish I had the money to get a couple Kinects and test my idea, but I'm no good with coding anyway.
It'd be awesome to see the Blender Foundation put out a bounty for a Kinect-based open source motion capture and 3D scanning suite though. :D
Purpose of Headings (Score:3, Insightful)
Headings are for brief topic summaries (a few words.) Not content.
Re:Two eyes are better than one (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, your wrong. "Connects" is a verb, and everybody knows that even plural verbs do not get apostrophe's. Sheesh man, do some research.
Re:Two eyes are better than one (Score:1, Insightful)
Thi's is a brilliant thread.