On Evaluation of Depth Accuracy in Consumer Depth Sensors

This paper presents an experimental study of different depth sensors. The aim is to answer the question, whether these sensors give accurate data for general depth image analysis. The study examines the depth accuracy between three popularly used depth sensors; ASUS Xtion Prolive, Kinect Xbox 360 and Kinect for Windows v2. The main attention is to study on the stability of pixels in the depth image captured at several different sensor-object distances by measuring the depth returned by the sensors within specified time intervals. The experimental results show that the fluctuation (mm) of the random selected pixels within the target area, increases with increasing distance to the sensor, especially on the Kinect for Xbox 360 and the Asus Xtion Prolive. Both of these sensors provide pixels fluctuation between 20mm and 30mm at a sensor-object distance beyond 1500mm. However, the pixel's stability of the Kinect for Windows v2 not affected much with the distance between the sensor and the object. The maximum fluctuation for all the selected pixels of Kinect for Windows v2 is approximately 5mm at sensor-object distance of between 800mm and 3000mm. Therefore, in the optimal distance, the best stability achieved.