Kinect v4 (aka Kinect for Azure)
You can find all the details of this new sensor at Microsoft’s official product page:
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/kinect-dk
The details below were from before it was officially announced and archived here:
As some of you may have heard Microsoft (actually Alex Kipman (the man behind Kinect1/2/HoloLens) himself) recently (May 7th 2017) announced their plans for the future of Kinect through the following article:
Introducing Project Kinect for Azure
Some of the details of Kinect v4 (v1 = XBox 360, v2 = XBox One, v3 = embedded in HoloLens)
- Time of Flight technology (like v2 & v3)
- depth resolution of 1024 x 1024
- Highest Figure of Merit (highest modulation frequency and modulation contrast resulting in low power consumption with overall system power of 225-950mw)
- Automatic per pixel gain selection enabling large dynamic range allowing near and far objects to be captured cleanly
- Global shutter allowing for improved performance in sunlight
- Multiphase depth calculation method enables robust accuracy even in the presence of chip, laser and power supply variation
- Low peak current operation even at high frequency lowers the cost of modules
- >6 meter range (with <1cm error at 4 meters), uses <1W power (thanks to Tim Field)
- Minimum range is 20cm (in lower power mode) with 1-2mm error for distances <1m (thanks to Tim Field)
You can find the signup page for dev-kit here: https://developer.microsoft.com/perception
Here are the first images showing data (again to Tim Field)
[flv:http://brekel.com/kinect4.mp4 512 512]
[youtube]qAmgfl_WC78[/youtube] [youtube]B_BXmoTy61o[/youtube]
Kinect v4 prototype ‘in the wild’ at CVPR2018 by Karl Sanford
[flv:http://brekel.com/kinect4_2.mp4 694 644]
At one of the Microsoft Research talks at CVPR2018, by Sean Kuno
Some (highly technical) specs (page 16) in ISSCC2018 PDF
https://www.bioee.ee.columbia.edu/mediawiki/images/2/2b/ISSCC2018-99_DemoSessions.pdf
Microsoft’s (highly technical) paper from ISSCC2018 )note that PDF download is not free)
“1Mpixel 65nm BSI 320MHz Demodulated TOF Image Sensor with 3.5μm Global Shutter Pixels and Analog Binning” – ISSCC 2018 / SESSION 5 / IMAGE SENSORS / 5.8
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel7/8304413/8310156/08310200.pdf
Microsoft’s CVPR18 presentation showing of the prototype for Kinect v4 aka Kinect for Azure (as well as HoloLens research mode).
(presentation starts at 35:40, sensor footage at 39:45)
Close up view of both the short and long range modes of the prototype:
Interview by ZDNet with one of the technical people behind the new sensor:
https://www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/how-microsoft-is-making-its-most-sensitive-hololens-depth-sensor-yet/
