Volume measurement with a consumer depth camera based on structured infrared light

Abstract

The measurement of object volumes is of large importance for many sectors in industry, including agriculture, transportation, production, and forestry. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of using commercial depth-sensing devices based on structured light such as the Kinect camera for volume measurement of objects of medium size. Using a fixed set-up, depth data are acquired for different views of the object and merged. Volumes are carved using a volume-intersection approach, which is computationally simple, and, most importantly, model-free. The performance of the method is evaluated using ground-truth volumes of a benchmark data set of selected objects, and volume-measurement errors are reported for a set of household objects.