A new jump edge detection method for 3D cameras

Abstract

Edges are a fundamental clue for analyzing, interpreting, and understanding 3D scenes: they describe objects boundaries. Available edge detection methods are not suited for 3D cameras such as the Microsoft Kinect or a time-of-flight camera: they are slow and do not take into consideration the characteristics of the cameras. In this paper, we present a fast jump edge detection technique for 3D cameras based on the principles of Canny's edge detector. We first analyze the characteristics of the range signal for two different kinds of cameras: a time-of-flight camera (the PMD[vision] CamCube) and the Microsoft Kinect. From this analysis, we define appropriate operators and thresholds to perform the edge detection. Then, we present some results of the developed algorithms for both cameras.