Microsoft's KinectFusion research project offers real-time 3D reconstruction, wild AR possibilities

It's a little monstrous to think about the impact that Microsoft's Kinect camera has had on the gaming megacorp* at large, let alone the 3D modeling industry. Here at SIGGRAPH 2011, we attended a KinectFusion analysis talk hosted by Microsoft, where a fascinating new look at real-time 3D reconstruction was detailed. To better appreciate what's case here, we'd indeed inspire you to hop back and have a gander at our hands-on with PrimeSense's raw motion sensing metalware from GDC 2010 -- for those who've forgotten, that very ironware was finally outed as the guts behind what consumers simply know as "Kinect." The boost wasn't in how it allowed gamers to control common disk operating system titles sans a joystick -- the boost was the price. The Kinect took 3D sensing to the mainstream, and moreover, allowed researchers to pick up a commodity product and go yes

roget's ii: the new thesaurusmain entry:completely
part of speech:adverb
definition:to the fullest extent.
all nuts. Turns out, that's precisely what a smattering of highly intelligent blokes in the UK have done, and they've built a new method for reconstructing 3D scenes (read: real-life) in real-time by using a simple Xbox 360 peripheral.

The actual technobabble ran deep -- not shocking given the scholastic nature of the consultation -- but the demos shown were nothing short of jaw-dropping. There's no inquire that this methodology could be used to spark the next generation of gaming interaction and augmented reality, taking a user's surroundings and making it a live part of the experience. Moreover, game design could be significantly impacted, with live scenes able to be acted out and stored in real-time rather than having to build thing frame by frame within an application. by the book to the presenter, the tech that's been created here can "extract surface geometry in real-time," right down to the millimeter level. Of course, the Kinect's camera and abilities are approximately limited when it comes to resolution; you won't be pile 1080p scenes with a $150 camera, but as CPUs and GPUs become more powerful, there's nothing stopping this from scaling with the future. Have a peek at the links below if you're rapt in diving deeper -- don't be shocked if you can't find the exit, though.

Gallery: Microsoft's KinectFusion probe project at SIGGRAPH 2011

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