According to the developers, Kinect Avatar is a “novel scanning system for capturing a full 3D human body model using just a single depth camera and no auxiliary equipment.”
The developers claim that data captured from a single Kinect is sufficient to produce a good quality full 3D human model:
“In this setting, the challenges we face are the sensor’s low resolution with random noise and the subject’s non-rigid movement when capturing the data. To overcome these challenges, we develop an improved super resolution algorithm that takes color constraints into account. We then align the super-resolved scans using a combination of automatic rigid and non-rigid registration.’
One of the advantages of the hack is, of course, it’s low price when placed side-by-side with commercial options. However, as you can see in the video, users are still able to obtains impressive results in several minutes; full 3D human body scanning technology can now become more accessible to everyday users at home.
For more details, be sure to check out the project website below.