Estimation of Kinect depth confidence through self-training

All depth data captured by Kinect devices are noisy, and sometimes even lost or shifted, especially around the edges of the depth. In this paper, we propose an approach to generate a per-pixel confidence measurement for each depth map captured by Kinect devices in indoor environments through supervised learning. Several distinguishing features from both the color images and depth maps are selected to train depth map estimators using Random Forest regressor. Using this estimator, we can predict a confidence map of any depth map captured by Kinect devices. Usage of other devices, such as an industrial laser scanner, is unnecessary, making the implementation more convenient. The experiments demonstrate precise confidence prediction of the depth.