Accuracy and reliability of optimum distance for high performance Kinect Sensor

A depth/range camera is able to return images like an ordinary camera, however, instead of color, each pixel value represent a particular distance correspond to a point in a real world. Recently, the Microsoft Kinect Sensor is a popular measurement tool due to its ability to provide length measurement, volume measurement, and motion measurement in Biomedical Application. Every researcher wants to know accuracy, precision and reliability of Kinect sensor depth distance performance. This paper presents an investigation of the quality of depth data obtained by Kinect sensor. Based on Kinect Sensor´s specification by Microsoft a theoretical accuracy, precision and reliability analysis is presented, which provides an insight into the factors influencing the accuracy of the data. Experimental results show that the absolute mean percentage error of depth measurement increases with increasing distance to the sensor, and ranges from a few millimeters up to about 40mm at the maximum range of sensor. The standard deviation at different distances of plane to the sensor is provided a similar quadratic curve in precision. The reliability of Kinect Sensor is evaluated by using Kuder-Richardson formula 20 shown that 0.76 in reliability. The accuracy, precision and reliability of depth distance is important and beneficial to biomedical application due to the depth perception is required to determine the 3D estimation pose in human motion application.