Universal Range Data Acquisition for Educational Laboratories Using Microsoft Kinect

Many experiments conducted in engineering and science laboratories involve the acquisition of range data such as linear or angular position, velocity and acceleration, distance, displacement, etc. This type of data acquisition (DAQ) is accomplished by sensors, DAQ measurement hardware and a computer with programmable software. This approach to DAQ can cause a series of problems hampering its implementation in educational laboratories. For instance, many sophisticated sensors (e.g. laser scanners) and the DAQ hardware are expensive, often the sensors and DAQ hardware and peripheral devices require modifications for being reused in other applications and most experimental setups need to be calibrated before each measurement. These facts tend to increase the up-front cost of the experimental devices and add to the required operating time. Therefore, low-cost range sensors such as the Microsoft Kinect could become a cost-effective and versatile DAQ alternative. Furthermore, Kinect has acceptable performance regarding sensitivity, accuracy, stability and reliability as well as low error rates, cost and power consumption. In this paper, the concept of using Kinect as a substitute range DAQ is presented and a prototype implementation targeting educational experiments is introduced. This system has several attractive features besides low cost, including that it (in conjunction with appropriate software) can be trained to recognize and remember multiple objects, is able to track these objects simultaneously, does neither need to be customized nor modified for measurements in different applications, and uses all the surface data (as opposed to single-point tracking) to calculate the positions and deformations of objects, which results in low drifting error. Taking advantage of these desirable characteristics, Kinect is believed to have the potential for becoming an economical and versatile tool for adoption in a wide variety of educational laboratories.