kinectToPly

About

Quickly and easily convert a kinect point cloud to a PLY file which can be loaded and viewed using MeshLab or other such programs.

The depth data can optionally have a bilateral filter applied to it, and a rotation and position can be specified which will transform the resulting point cloud.

Install and set-up

git clone https://github.com/bponsler/kinectToPly.git
cd kinectToPly
./kinectToPly.py

Usage

Usage: Syntax: kinectToPly.py [output PLY filename] (options)

Options:
  -h, --help     show this help message and exit
  --bilateral    apply a bilateral filter to the depth data
  --x=X          x position (meters)
  --y=Y          y position (meters)
  --theta=THETA  rotation value (degrees)

Example

Save an unfiltered scan:

./kinectToPly.py /tmp/test.ply

Save a bilateraly filtered scan:

./kinectToPly.py /tmp/test.ply --bilateral

Save a scan at a different position and orientation (left 10 centimeters, and rotated counterclockwise 15 degrees):

./kinectToPly.py /tmp/test.ply --x=0.0 --y=0.1 --theta=15

Coordinate system

The kinect's coordinate system is as follows (note: directions are from the perspective of the kinect):

Positive X axis forward
Positive Y axis to the left
Positive Z axis to the sky
Positive rotation is counterclockwise