This book provides a comprehensive overview of the key technologies and applications related to new cameras that have brought 3D data acquisition to the mass market. It covers both the theoretical principles behind the acquisition devices and the practical implementation aspects of the computer vision algorithms needed for the various applications. Real data examples are used in order to show the performances of the various algorithms. The performance and limitations of the depth camera technology are explored, along with an extensive review of the most effective methods for addressing challenges in common applications. Applications covered in specific detail include scene segmentation, 3D scene reconstruction, human pose estimation and tracking and gesture recognition. This book offers students, practitioners and researchers the tools necessary to explore the potential uses of depth data in light of the expanding number of devices available for sale. It explores the impact of these devices on the rapidly growing field of depth-based computer vision.

Time-of-flight (TOF) cameras provide a depth value at each pixel, from which the 3D structure of the scene can be estimated. This new type of active sensor makes it possible to go beyond traditional 2D image processing, directly to depth-based and 3D scene processing. Many computer vision and graphics applications can benefit from TOF data, including 3D reconstruction, activity and gesture recognition, motion capture and face detection. It is already possible to use multiple TOF cameras, in order to increase the scene coverage, and to combine the depth data with images from several colour cameras. Mixed TOF and colour systems can be used for computational photography, including full 3D scene modelling, as well as for illumination and depth-of-field manipulations. This work is a technical introduction to TOF sensors, from architectural and design issues, to selected image processing and computer vision methods.

Cameras for 3D depth imaging, using either time-of-flight (ToF) or structured light sensors, have received a lot of attention recently and have been improved considerably over the last few years. The present techniques make full-range 3D data available at video frame rates, and thus pave the way for a much broader application of 3D vision systems. A series of workshops have closely followed the developments within ToF imaging over the years. Today, depth imaging workshops can be found at every major computer vision conference. The papers presented in this volume stem from a seminar on Time-of-Flight Imaging held at Schloss Dagstuhl in October 2012. They cover all aspects of ToF depth imaging, from sensors and basic foundations, to algorithms for low level processing, to important applications that exploit depth imaging. In addition, this book contains the proceedings of a workshop on Imaging New Modalities, which was held at the German Conference on Pattern Recognition in Saarbrücken, Germany, in September 2013. A state-of-the-art report on the Kinect sensor and its applications is followed by two reports on local and global ToF motion compensation and a novel depth capture system using a plenoptic multi-lens multi-focus camera sensor.

This book is a valuable resource to deeply understand the technology used in 3D cameras. In this book, the authors summarize and compare the specifications of the main 3D cameras available in the mass market. The authors present a deep metrological analysis of the main camera based on the three main technologies: Time-of-Flight, Structured-Light and Active Stereoscopy, and provide qualitative results for any user to understand the underlying technology within 3D camera, as well as practical guidance on how to get the most of them for a given application.

This book explains how depth measurements from the Time-of-Flight (ToF) range imaging cameras are influenced by the electronic timing-jitter. The author presents jitter extraction and measurement techniques for any type of ToF range imaging cameras. The author mainly focuses on ToF cameras that are based on the amplitude modulated continuous wave (AMCW) lidar techniques that measure the phase difference between the emitted and reflected light signals. The book discusses timing-jitter in the emitted light signal, which is sensible since the light signal of the camera is relatively straightforward to access. The specific types of jitter that present on the light source signal are investigated throughout the book. The book is structured across three main sections: a brief literature review, jitter measurement, and jitter influence in AMCW ToF range imaging.

Today the cost of solid-state two-dimensional imagers has dramatically dropped, introducing low cost systems on the market suitable for a variety of applications, including both industrial and consumer products. However, these systems can capture only a two-dimensional projection (2D), or intensity map, of the scene under observation, losing a variable of paramount importance, i.e., the arrival time of the impinging photons. Time-Of-Flight (TOF) Range-Imaging (TOF) is an emerging sensor technology able to deliver, at the same time, depth and intensity maps of the scene under observation. Featuring different sensor resolutions, RIM cameras serve a wide community with a lot of applications like monitoring, architecture, life sciences, robotics, etc. This book will bring together experts from the sensor and metrology side in order to collect the state-of-art researchers in these fields working with RIM cameras. All the aspects in the acquisition and processing chain will be addressed, from recent updates concerning the photo-detectors, to the analysis of the calibration techniques, giving also a perspective onto new applications domains.

The potential of consumer depth cameras extends well beyond entertainment and gaming, to real-world commercial applications. This authoritative text reviews the scope and impact of this rapidly growing field, describing the most promising Kinect-based research activities, discussing significant current challenges, and showcasing exciting applications. Features: presents contributions from an international selection of preeminent authorities in their fields, from both academic and corporate research; addresses the classic problem of multi-view geometry of how to correlate images from different viewpoints to simultaneously estimate camera poses and world points; examines human pose estimation using video-rate depth images for gaming, motion capture, 3D human body scans, and hand pose recognition for sign language parsing; provides a review of approaches to various recognition problems, including category and instance learning of objects, and human activity recognition; with a Foreword by Dr. Jamie Shotton.