Depth Camera Noise Modeling

Abstract

Depth camera is a field-of-view (FoV) based distance sensor and has been widely used in commercial entertainments such as augmented reality, industrial field for object 3D modeling, as well as intelligence vehicle obstacle avoidance. No doubt, the depth camera measurement accuracy definitely affects the associated application performance and therefore the noise behavior should be properly modeled. The measurement noise of the depth cameras depends on various factors, which can be difficult to model in practice. In this short note, three different depth noise models are presented based on the pin-hole model of the camera. The goal is to match the practical depth camera noise distributions as close as possible and to provide a simulation sketch for further noise analysis and possible improvement of the depth measurements.