Development kit offers superior depth sensing for augmented reality and facial recognition

RS Components offers the Intel RealSense SR300 development kit, which is ideal for software development, prototyping and depth-sensing evaluation in a wide range of applications such as full-hand skeletal tracking and gesture recognition, facial recognition and tracking, depth-enhanced augmented reality, and voice command and control. Based on Intel’s RealSense technology, the kit features the SR300 webcam, which integrates an audio subsystem together with the SR300 Intel RealSense front-facing camera. The advanced camera has a short-range coded-light imaging system to deliver depth information in a variety of imaging applications. The camera also offers 1080p full-HD video image quality at up to 30FPS, or 720p HD video image quality at up to 60FPS. The audio subsystem integrates a dual microphone array that provides audio input to the client system to improve the voice module robustness in noisy environments. Use of Intel’s DCM software for Windows also enables users to realise all the capabilities of the kit. Key potential applications include dynamic background segmentation, in which user backgrounds are masked out and replaced with alternative backgrounds for video conferencing, for example. The kit’s improved colour quality in low-light conditions also enables 3D scanning applications with an increased range for image capture at only 70cm at 50FPS. In addition, hand-gesture recognition can be enabled using three primary tracking modes, which includes ‘cursor mode’, ‘extremities’ and ‘full-hand’ mode. The camera weighs only 9.4g and has dimensions of approximately 110mm x 12.6mm x 3.8–4.1mm, which allows it to be easily clipped onto a mobile platform lid or desktop monitor, while also providing stable video output.