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Grant support

This research has been partially funded by projects CGL2010-19388, CGL2014-58821-C2-1R-BTE and RTI2018-098743-B-I00 of the Spanish Science Minister, project Y2018/EMT-5062 of the Madrid Regional Government and project CVIP_2016 of the URJC. We acknowledge B. van Wyk de Vries for introducing us in the use of the Kinect device for monitoring analogue models and Guldstrand for their help in the Oslo laboratory during data acquisition. We acknowledge the useful and constructive reviews from two anonymous reviewers and S. Poppe that have greatly improved the manuscript.

Analysis of institutional authors

Rincon, MCorresponding AuthorMarquez, AAuthorHerrera, RAuthorSanchez-Oro, JAuthorConcha, DAuthorMontemayor, AsAuthor

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September 27, 2022
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Monitoring Volcanic and Tectonic Sandbox Analogue Models Using the Kinect v2 sensor

Publicated to:Earth And Space Science. 9 (6): e2020EA001368- - 2022-06-01 9(6), DOI: 10.1029/2020EA001368

Authors: Rincon, M; Marquez, A; Herrera, R; Galland, O; Sanchez-Oro, J; Concha, D; Montemayor, A S

Affiliations

Univ Complutense, Dept Mineral & Petrol, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Oslo, Dept Geosci, Phys Geol Proc PGP, Njord Ctr, Oslo, Norway - Author
Univ Rey Juan Carlos, CAPO Comp Sci, ETSII, Mostoles, Spain - Author
Univ Rey Juan Carlos, Tecvolrisk Res Grp, ESCET, Area Geol, Mostoles, Spain - Author

Abstract

The measurement of surface deformation in analogue models of volcanic and tectonic processes is an area in continuous development. Properly quantifying topography change in analogue models is key for a useful comparison between experiment results and nature. The aim of this work is to evaluate the capabilities of the simple and cheap Microsoft (R) Kinect v2 sensor for monitoring analogue models made of granular materials. Microsoft (R) Kinect v2 is a video-gaming RedGreenBlue-Depth device combining an optical camera and an infrared distance measurement sensor. The precision of the device for model topography measurements has been quantified using 64 experiments, with variable granular materials materials and distance to the model. Additionally, we tested the capabilities of averaging several distance images to increase the precision. We have developed a specific software to facilitate the acquisition and processing of the Kinect v2 data in experiment monitoring. Our results show that measurement precision is material dependent: with clear-colored and fine-grained materials, a precision similar to 1.0 mm for digital elevation models with a 1.6 mm pixel size can be obtained. We show that by averaging >= 5 consecutive images the distance precision can reach values as low as 0.5 mm. To show the Kinect v2 capabilities, we present monitoring results from case study experiments modeling tectonics and volcano deformation. The Kinect v2 achieves lower spatial resolutions and precision than more sophisticated techniques such as photogrammetry. However, Kinect v2 provides a cheap, straightforward and powerful tool for monitoring the topography changes in sandbox analogue models.

Keywords

Analogue modelsCohesionCollapseDeformationElevationEnvironmental monitoringEvolutionGranular-materialsInsightsKinect v2ModelingMonitoringPixelSensorSurface deformationTectonicsTopographyVolcano

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Earth And Space Science due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2022, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Earth and Planetary Sciences (Miscellaneous).

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2025-07-05:

  • WoS: 4
  • Scopus: 4

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-05:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 14.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 15 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 6.7.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 8 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Norway.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Rincón Ramos, Marta) and Last Author (Sanz Montemayor, Antonio).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Rincón Ramos, Marta.