Real-time RGB-D image stitching using multiple Kinects for improved field of view. (29th March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Hengyu; Liu, Hang; Cao, Ning; Peng, Yan; Xie, Shaorong; Luo, Jun; Sun, Yu
• Is Part Of: International journal of advanced robotic systems. Volume 14:Number 2(2017:Mar./Apr.)
• Publication Date: 2017-03-29
• Subjects: Depth image stitching -- RGB-D panorama -- improved field of view -- depth map hole filling -- Kinect -- image registration; Robotics -- Periodicals; Robotics; Periodicals; 629.892
• DOI: 10.1177/1729881417695560
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1729-8806

Abstract

This article concerns the problems of a defective depth map and limited field of view of Kinect-style RGB-D sensors. An anisotropic diffusion based hole-filling method is proposed to recover invalid depth data in the depth map. The field of view of the Kinect-style RGB-D sensor is extended by stitching depth and color images from several RGB-D sensors. By aligning the depth map with the color image, the registration data calculated by registering color images can be used to stitch depth and color images into a depth and color panoramic image concurrently in real time. Experiments show that the proposed stitching method can generate a RGB-D panorama with no invalid depth data and little distortion in real time and can be extended to incorporate more RGB-D sensors to construct even a 360° field of view panoramic RGB-D image.