Indoor mapping for smart cities — An affordable approach: Using Kinect Sensor and ZED stereo camera

With the advancement in the technology, objects can be represented effectively in their 3D digital models which accurately represents their physical counterparts. Navigation services and mapping based on geographical data have become very popular in supporting our everyday lives. Much of these services are currently available mostly for outdoor purposes, however applications for indoor purposes are being explored where most of the human activities takes place. This can help transform cities into “Smart Cities”. The aim of this study is to develop an indoor mapping system for data collection in a building environment by exploring new, efficient and cost effective scanning devices. The conventional devices currently in use are expensive which makes them difficult to implement for large scale applications. The data will be collected using a 3D scanning camera technology which develops depth maps of various locations. Xbox's Kinect Sensor and Stereolab's ZED camera are being used and compared in this study. Comparisons based on resolution, lighting, accuracy, speed and memory are being made in this study. Their pros and cons over conventional scanning devices are also discussed. The study shows the possibility of using this technology in a large scale building environment in an autonomous method for the future. This technology can then be potentially used for commercial purposes especially to track progress at construction sites, security purposes, facility management, retail and augmented reality applications.