CODEWITHSUNDEEP
visual-c++kinectopenni
KylePDM
KylePDM

Reputation: 67

Tracking the top of heads with Kinect

I was wondering if there was an existing API for tracking the top of people heads with the Kinect. e.g., the Kinect is facing downwards from a ceiling.

If not, how might I implement such a thing with its depth data.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1481

Answers (2)

Gregir
Gregir

Reputation: 1574

We built a Kinect-driven experience where the sensors had to point downward to detect users walking along a wall. We used openTSPS to do all the work of taking the camera input and doing blob detection and handing off tracked "persons" to (in our case) a Processing app. It works really well for us.

http://opentsps.com/

Upvotes: 0

Nicholas Pappas
Nicholas Pappas

Reputation: 10624

No. The Kinect expects to be facing a standing (or seated, given the appropriate flag) human. All APIs (official or 3rd party) that have a notion of skeleton tracking expect this.

If you wish you track someone from above, you will need to use a library such as OpenCV (or EmguCV, for C# development). Well, you don't have to, but they offer utilities to help with computer vision and image processing. These libraries don't care if you are using a Kinect or just a regular RGB camera.

Using the Kinect from above, you could use the depth data to help locate and track blobs. With the Kinect at a known distance from the floor, have a few people walk under it and see what z-coordinates you get out of it -- you can then assume that anything within a certain z-coordinate range is a person walking across the screen (vs. a cat, or something else).

You will need to use standard image processing techniques (see OpenCV reference above) to initially find the blobs within the image. Once found, the depth data from the Kinect might be useful but I think you'll find it isn't ultimately necessary if you're just watching people walk across the floor.

Upvotes: 1

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