Performance evaluation of the 1st and 2nd generation Kinect for multimedia applications

Microsoft Kinect had a key role in the development of con-sumer depth sensors being the device that brought depth ac-quisition to the mass market. Despite the success of this sensor, with the introduction of the second generation, Mi-crosoft has completely changed the technology behind the sensor from structured light to Time-Of-Flight. This paper presents a comparison of the data provided by the first and second generation Kinect in order to explain the achievements that have been obtained with the switch of technology. After an accurate analysis of the accuracy of the two sensors un-der different conditions, two sample applications, i.e., 3D re-construction and people tracking, are presented and used to compare the performance of the two sensors. Index Terms — Kinect, depth estimation, 3D reconstruc-tion, people tracking. 1