Editorial RGB-D Sensors and 3D Reconstruction

RGB-D sensors are a specific type of depth-sensing devices that work in association with RGB camera, that are able to augment the conventional image with depth information (related with the distance to the sensor) in a perpixel basis. In recent years, depth sensors have encouraged the communities of computer vision and computer graphics to explore novel solutions based on RGB-D images. The depth information may provide a significant contribution to solve or simplify many challenging tasks, such as object detection, scene parsing, pose estimation, visual tracking, semantic segmentation, shape analysis, image-based rendering, and 3D reconstruction. For example, once the depth formation of the scene is obtained, the corresponding 3D model can be directly constructed by the mapping approach. In other words, depth-based 3D reconstruction does not need to run the routines of structure from motion (SFM) which is too complex, and produce a high-quality geometric model. Thus, RGB-D sensors provide a chance for the 3D reconstruction communities.