Long distance blob tracking using kinect?

vvvv beta question
1

hey there,

i am owning a kinect, and i want to do some simple movement tracking from my window to the street. during the night mostly, just to reconize people.

so i was very happy to use the skeleton node and have exactly this effect.
the problem i was running into yesterday, is that i just live in the 4th floor,
so the street is quit far away and it seems that it couldnt catch them.

in the future i want to use this system for both, close range and far.
so it would be great to get also this function out of my kinect.

it doesnt need to be skeleton data, just a moving blob is enought.

thanks,
YSAP

2

hi ysap,
i think this is impossible, because the kinect comes with a limited range by default (i think it’s a matter of laser power, that could not travel so long).
for what you are needing you should try with infrared cameras, and probably some bgsub and contour.

3

a key problem for me is,

that the kinect depht image is giving me
just a black screen.

i tried a lot, also combine a
levels node to get the contrast,
but no succsess.

4

alright, i expected something like this.

do u know the max distance of the kinect?

all the best,
Ronny

5

“The Kinect depth sensor range is: minimum 800mm and maximum 4000mm.”
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh438998.aspx

6

thank you,

40 m is quite far :)

7

oh sorry

4 m is not that far :)

omg

8

Actually 4 meters is the save range for skeleton tracking. Beyond 4 meters it becomes unstable so the SDK stops beyond that range. The depth map goes further. How far I can’t say for sure. I testet it to apr. 8 meters. With increasing distance the data from depth becomes more and more noisy. However you should test it. Maybe good starting point is the virtual hitbox contribution. For blob tracking I think there is no finished solution for vvvv and kinect. Would be interested in that too. Please share your progress if you decide to give it a shot.

9

perhaps, you can use the IR texture - with classic blob tracking techniques.