Kinect for Windows v2 depth to color image misalignment

Question

currently I am developing a tool for the Kinect for Windows v2 (similar to the one in XBOX ONE). I tried to follow some examples, and have a working example that shows the camera image, the depth image, and an image that maps the depth to the rgb using opencv. But I see that it duplicates my hand when doing the mapping, and I think it is due to something wrong in the coordinate mapper part.

here is an example of it:

And here is the code snippet that creates the image (rgbd image in the example)

void KinectViewer::create_rgbd(cv::Mat& depth_im, cv::Mat& rgb_im, cv::Mat& rgbd_im){
    HRESULT hr = m_pCoordinateMapper->MapDepthFrameToColorSpace(cDepthWidth * cDepthHeight, (UINT16*)depth_im.data, cDepthWidth * cDepthHeight, m_pColorCoordinates);
    rgbd_im = cv::Mat::zeros(depth_im.rows, depth_im.cols, CV_8UC3);
    double minVal, maxVal;
    cv::minMaxLoc(depth_im, &minVal, &maxVal);
    for (int i=0; i < cDepthHeight; i++){
        for (int j=0; j < cDepthWidth; j++){
            if (depth_im.at<UINT16>(i, j) > 0 && depth_im.at<UINT16>(i, j) < maxVal * (max_z / 100) && depth_im.at<UINT16>(i, j) > maxVal * min_z /100){
                double a = i * cDepthWidth + j;
                ColorSpacePoint colorPoint = m_pColorCoordinates[i*cDepthWidth+j];
                int colorX = (int)(floor(colorPoint.X + 0.5));
                int colorY = (int)(floor(colorPoint.Y + 0.5));
                if ((colorX >= 0) && (colorX < cColorWidth) && (colorY >= 0) && (colorY < cColorHeight))
                {
                    rgbd_im.at<cv::Vec3b>(i, j) = rgb_im.at<cv::Vec3b>(colorY, colorX);
                }
            }

        }
    }
}

Does anyone have a clue of how to solve this? How to prevent this duplication?

Thanks in advance

UPDATE:

If I do a simple depth image thresholding I obtain the following image:

This is what more or less I expected to happen, and not having a duplicate hand in the background. Is there a way to prevent this duplicate hand in the background?

Answer 1

I suggest you use the BodyIndexFrame to identify whether a specific value belongs to a player or not. This way, you can reject any RGB pixel that does not belong to a player and keep the rest of them. I do not think that CoordinateMapper is lying.

A few notes:

• Include the BodyIndexFrame source to your frame reader
• Use MapColorFrameToDepthSpace instead of MapDepthFrameToColorSpace; this way, you'll get the HD image for the foreground
• Find the corresponding DepthSpacePoint and depthX, depthY, instead of ColorSpacePoint and colorX, colorY

Here is my approach when a frame arrives (it's in C#):

depthFrame.CopyFrameDataToArray(_depthData);
colorFrame.CopyConvertedFrameDataToArray(_colorData, ColorImageFormat.Bgra);
bodyIndexFrame.CopyFrameDataToArray(_bodyData);

_coordinateMapper.MapColorFrameToDepthSpace(_depthData, _depthPoints);

Array.Clear(_displayPixels, 0, _displayPixels.Length);

for (int colorIndex = 0; colorIndex < _depthPoints.Length; ++colorIndex)
{
    DepthSpacePoint depthPoint = _depthPoints[colorIndex];

    if (!float.IsNegativeInfinity(depthPoint.X) && !float.IsNegativeInfinity(depthPoint.Y))
    {
        int depthX = (int)(depthPoint.X + 0.5f);
        int depthY = (int)(depthPoint.Y + 0.5f);

        if ((depthX >= 0) && (depthX < _depthWidth) && (depthY >= 0) && (depthY < _depthHeight))
        {
            int depthIndex = (depthY * _depthWidth) + depthX;
            byte player = _bodyData[depthIndex];

            // Identify whether the point belongs to a player
            if (player != 0xff)
            {
                int sourceIndex = colorIndex * BYTES_PER_PIXEL;

                _displayPixels[sourceIndex] = _colorData[sourceIndex++];    // B
                _displayPixels[sourceIndex] = _colorData[sourceIndex++];    // G
                _displayPixels[sourceIndex] = _colorData[sourceIndex++];    // R
                _displayPixels[sourceIndex] = 0xff;                         // A
            }
        }
    }
}

Here is the initialization of the arrays:

BYTES_PER_PIXEL = (PixelFormats.Bgr32.BitsPerPixel + 7) / 8;

_colorWidth = colorFrame.FrameDescription.Width;
_colorHeight = colorFrame.FrameDescription.Height;
_depthWidth = depthFrame.FrameDescription.Width;
_depthHeight = depthFrame.FrameDescription.Height;
_bodyIndexWidth = bodyIndexFrame.FrameDescription.Width;
_bodyIndexHeight = bodyIndexFrame.FrameDescription.Height;
_depthData = new ushort[_depthWidth * _depthHeight];
_bodyData = new byte[_depthWidth * _depthHeight];
_colorData = new byte[_colorWidth * _colorHeight * BYTES_PER_PIXEL];
_displayPixels = new byte[_colorWidth * _colorHeight * BYTES_PER_PIXEL];
_depthPoints = new DepthSpacePoint[_colorWidth * _colorHeight];

Notice that the _depthPoints array has a 1920x1080 size.

Once again, the most important thing is to use the BodyIndexFrame source.

Answer 2

Finally I get some time to write the long awaited answer.

Lets start with some theory to understand what is really happening and then a possible answer.

We should start by knowing the way to pass from a 3D point cloud which has the depth camera as the coordinate system origin to an image in the image plane of the RGB camera. To do that it is enough to use the camera pinhole model:

In here, u and v are the coordinates in the image plane of the RGB camera. the first matrix in the right side of the equation is the camera matrix, AKA intrinsics of the RGB Camera. The following matrix is the rotation and translation of the extrinsics, or better said, the transformation needed to go from the Depth camera coordinate system to the RGB camera coordinate system. The last part is the 3D point.

Basically, something like this, is what the Kinect SDK does. So, what could go wrong that makes the hand gets duplicated? well, actually more than one point projects to the same pixel....

To put it in other words and in the context of the problem in the question.

The depth image, is a representation of an ordered point cloud, and I am querying the u v values of each of its pixels that in reality can be easily converted to 3D points. The SDK gives you the projection, but it can point to the same pixel (usually, the more distance in the z axis between two neighbor points may give this problem quite easily.

Now, the big question, how can you avoid this.... well, I am not sure using the Kinect SDK, since you do not know the Z value of the points AFTER the extrinsics are applied, so it is not possible to use a technique like the Z buffering.... However, you may assume the Z value will be quite similar and use those from the original pointcloud (at your own risk).

If you were doing it manually, and not with the SDK, you can apply the Extrinsics to the points, and the use the project them into the image plane, marking in another matrix which point is mapped to which pixel and if there is one existing point already mapped, check the z values and compared them and always leave the closest point to the camera. Then, you will have a valid mapping without any problems. This way is kind of a naive way, probably you can get better ones, since the problem is now clear :)

I hope it is clear enough.

P.S.: I do not have Kinect 2 at the moment so I can'T try to see if there is an update relative to this issue or if it still happening the same thing. I used the first released version (not pre release) of the SDK... So, a lot of changes may had happened... If someone knows if this was solve just leave a comment :)