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RSS >  Easy Solution!!remove IR filter PS3Eye
Stormrider #16 21/06/2013 - 10h30

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Hi doveman,
I just started with that ps3-eye because I bought it cheap an I just was curieus about the working of it.And specialy why the one have problems and the other don't have.
For now I just keep using my good old ms-vx3000.
I just like experimenting with different models of webcams so I (hopefully) understand better the problems others have.And maybe.... I can help them  to solve their problems one day.
greetz Stormrider
doveman #17 27/11/2013 - 14h33

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I'm curious about this out-of-focus problem after removing the IR lens. Does it affect the camera's ability to track the LEDs or does it just make it unusable as a normal webcam. I don't need to use it for that anyway, so that wouldn't matter to me but if it's going to affect it's LED tracking ability, I need to be prepared to fix it after removing the lens.
Volans #18 29/11/2013 - 11h19

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No, tracking wil bee smooth (I have one ps3cam without ir filter from almoust two years....). However, it wil not be usable anymore as an 'normal' cam.
riccardosl #19 07/12/2013 - 23h26

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doveman @ 21/06/2013 - 10h35 a dit:

Hi Stormrider

I too have the SLEH-00448 and I believe that is the "good" model, as it has the IR filter lens at the back where it's easily accessible, whereas the other model (I believe there are only two) has it between the other two lenses and so is impossible to get two without removing/destroying that first.

Both models have the IR filter, it's just that with the "good" model it's possible to remove the IR filter lens, or as has been suggested here, scrub off the filter without removing the lens, which as you've unfortunately learnt can stop the cam from working :(

Even if you can't see a proper picture anymore, perhaps it may still be able to track the LEDs? You could try turning the focus ring so that it's half-way between positions as mossbros suggested.

If you have to buy a new cam, you might want to get something like the Logitech Quickcam, which I understand has a very easy to remove IR filter. I think it can only run at 30fps, compared to the PS3-Eye's 60fps but that may be sufficient and an easier option.

I think before removing the filter, I should try and see if I can make a better daylight filter than the one I'm currently using (3 pieces of red, green, blue coloured film) as that does seem to be blocking a large amount of IR as well. I'm using a 6.8 Ohm resistor but even with a 10 Ohm resistor, it does seem to pick up enough IR to track, I just think if more IR could get through it would work a lot better in certain situations, such as when tilting my head back, when it tends to lose track of the top LED. Using a clip might be an alternative as well, as then the top LED can be positioned lower down than it can in a cap-style arrangment, and so the cam may be less likely to lose track of it.




Hello! I bought a PS3 eye camera and I removed IR filter lens, do I also need to put black part of floppy disk as a filter ?

thx a lot
doveman #20 15/01/2014 - 02h27

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Volans @ 29/11/2013 - 11h19 a dit:

No, tracking wil bee smooth (I have one ps3cam without ir filter from almoust two years....). However, it wil not be usable anymore as an 'normal' cam.



OK, that's fine. Jitsi doesn't even recognise it as a cam anyway and that's about the only other thing I might want to use it for.
doveman #21 15/01/2014 - 02h30

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riccardosl @ 07/12/2013 - 23h26 a dit:

Hello! I bought a PS3 eye camera and I removed IR filter lens, do I also need to put black part of floppy disk as a filter ?

thx a lot



You do need to filter daylight but floppy disk isn't very good. Try some coloured plastic sheet (red, green and blue) and cut a square from each sheet and layer them on top of each other over the lens. If it still lets in too much light, try adding an extra square of each colour, one at a time as two squares of each colour might block too much (that was my experience but I haven't removed the IR filter yet, so two layers might be perfect to block daylight but still allow IR through, with the IR filter removed).
doveman #22 13/02/2014 - 02h36

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I rebuilt my clip today and was trying it with someone's profile in FTNoIR and it was actually quite solid in the Black Shark. I think what might have made the difference is that I'd measured the Model Position offsets as -150, 80, 50 but I ran the calibration inside FTNoIR and that calculated 120, -86, -1! I'm sure I measured right as I had a friend take the measurements to double-check as it was a bit impractical to do them accurately by myself whilst wearing my headphones and clip (I was fairly close but a bit off on some as I recall). Whatever, it seemed to work better after letting FTNoIR decide what to use ;)

However, it wasn't perfect as it would lose tracking and stick if I tried to turn far enough to look at my 9'o clock, which made it difficult to view the KA-50 Wall panel and impossible to view the back panel (I had to pause tracking and use the mouse to view that) and when I tried it later in the evening, FTNoIR was now having trouble tracking 3 points consistently, even though I hadn't changed anything.

So I decided to take the plunge and remove the IR filter. I must have the most awkward PS3 Eye in the world and it took me about an hour to even open the chassis as it seems to have been (over)glued tight, so I had to scrape a groove along all the seams to remove the glue before I could even start to pull the two halves apart.

Once dismantled, I then had to spend another hour carving away this hard dry stuff that was encasing the IR filter before I managed to get it out.

Put the thing back together, expecting amazing results but it still seems rather fussy :(

Even with my layered coloured plastic daylight filter (Green, Green, Red, Blue - I might not need two Green layers but previously I found two layers blocked visible light better, except two Blues blocked too much IR so I had to stick with one of that) and the Gain on 0, Exposure on about 50% and the White Balance on 40%, I've had to set FTNoIR as shown in these screenshots.

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As you can see in the first screenshot, where I'm looking straight ahead, the blobs are rather big so I've had to increase the min/max Diameter but I've also had to set the Threshold to near the top, when I'm sure the advice I've received previously was to set it as near the other end as possible, so something doesn't seem right.

The second screenshot is with me looking to my left and up a bit, where it seems to hold tracking OK. The third screenshot is with me looking to my right and up a bit, where it struggles and tends to lose a point (or sometimes find a fourth!). It's particularly annoying as it's turning right that was giving me problems before and I thought it was just because the blobs were too weak through the IR filter and so getting lost when the LEDs were turned away from the camera but clearly they're not too weak now and it's still losing them for some reason :(

Do my images look similar to what other people who've removed the IR filter see and do you have to use similar settings to me (both camera settings (gain, exposure, white balance) and FTNoIR settings)?
Stormrider #23 13/02/2014 - 21h05

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Hi Doveman,
my blobs look a bit different.
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I also removed the ir-filter.First it was not a succes, the ir-filter and a lense was one piece.So my ps3-eye didn't work anymore.I found a shop in the USA who sells normal lenses or modified lenses for ps3-eye.So I ordered one normal lens, one modified lense and a normal daylight filter.The shipping was not cheap but how it works now is priceless.
I was satisfied with my vx3000 webcam and freetack, but facetracknoir with this ps3-eye  works a lot better.
I use 60fps with the ps3-eye.
this is my ps3-eye setting
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With the new modified lense, my ps3-eye is a little out of focus but it doesn't seem to affect  tracking.
Edited by Stormrider on 13/02/2014 at 21h07.
doveman #24 15/02/2014 - 23h34

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Hi Stormrider,

Luckily I got the "good" PS3 Eye with the separate IR filter, so at least I don't need to replace the lens.

With your cam settings I see a faint pink/lavender colour in CL Eye test. I removed my daylight filter (three layers of R,G,B plastic) and the blobs were sharper as the plastic was making them a bit fuzzy which probably doesn't help. I'll have to check it's still OK in actual daylight but I think it will be with low cam settings like yours.

I tested in FTNoIR again and I guess the image is a bit more blue like yours, although I have to turn the threshold up a bit to avoid it losing tracking and that pretty much eliminates the blobs.

I'm testing Opentrack at the moment as it seems to have some nice extra features and in that the blobs are more green than anything. As you can see in the third shot, if I turn down Hysterisis to minimum, the blobs disappear but I still get good tracking on the 3 dots. I've got the low resistor on at the moment as I needed the maximum output before I removed the IR filter but I should swap that for the higher one now to reduce power and extend the lifespan of the LEDS.

Obviously my measurements were quite off before, as if I auto-calibrate in either FTNoIR or Opentrack (I seem to have to move my head around a bit for this to work) it gives me 123, -86, 4 and 113, -97, -5 respectively, which are rather different to the -150, 80, 50  I came up with!

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screen shot on pc

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doveman #25 16/02/2014 - 00h13

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I'm still running into this annoying problem where when I look in a certain place (in this case down and to the left), it loses one of the points and so stops tracking.

These shots show me looking straigh ahead, then down and to the left where the top two spots merge into each other, than slightly more to the left where they separate again and finally to the right, where there's no problem as the points actually move away from each doing that. I've tried adjusting both sliders but even if I can get it so that it sees 3 points again in the problematic position, those settings just don't work very well for looking everywhere else!

Actually, it seems my cam settings have reset the exposure to near max again, so maybe that's the problem! Do you have a problem with them changing themselves as well?

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Stormrider #26 16/02/2014 - 15h44

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I have re-read your posts a few times, you've measured the position of your model but what is the dimension of you model?
First I used a ms vx3000 webcam and I never had problems that the blobs melted together.
Now with my ps3-eye it happent rather quick, it made tracking stop/crash.Now I made a bigger model and that problem is solved.
When I look at your picture, your model is not so big or your are sitting at greater distance of your ps3-eye.
on this picture you can see my old model, the small one, and the new bigger one.
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on this picture you can see the difference in facetracknoir when I look up.With my old model I got problems with tracking.With my new model you don't see that melting together and no problem anymore
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and in this picture you see the differnce when I look straight forward.
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Edited by Stormrider on 16/02/2014 at 15h46.
doveman #27 17/02/2014 - 16h23

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Thanks for the advice.

I'm about 2.5ft from my PS3 Eye and my model dimensions are as shown here (probably easier than just giving you numbers) Note the Model position is as calculated by the auto-calibrate, so might not be perfect but is still a lot better than what I manually entered originally!

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However, it seems that that I can stop the blobs merging together by angling my clip so that it's pointing a bit upwards, rather than straight ahead. I don't know if this is only necessary because my cam is on top of my monitor, so is roughly in line with the top of my head (the top LED is a bit lower than this) but I have seen a lot of people with their cams in the same position. It also seems to work better for me with the Exposure quite low (between the o and s) but I'll check that again.

If I still have problems though (and I might do as I had to spend a lot of time tweaking the threshold, etc so that all 3 blobs stay tracked throughout the full range of head movement) I'll try building a bigger clip.

Are you using your modified lens (how is it different to the normal lens you bought anyway) and the daylight filter and are you using the 10 ohm or 6.8 ohm resistor?

EDIT: It seems with Exposure high like you have it, with my clip angled up it solves the problem of the blobs merging when I look down but they do it when I look up now, so I haven't really solved it, although I do have to look up quite a bit so I might be able to settle on an angle with allows me to look up and down sufficiently without it happening.

If I turn the Exposure right down near the other end, then I can turn the Threshold up a bit and don't have any problem with the blobs merging, no mattter how much I look up but then have a different problem with it losing the blobs, particularly when I turn my head right but also looking up or down, whether the cam is in the middle of my monitor or on the right, in line with the clip.

So definitely full Exposure is what's needed and as I spend more time looking down at the cockpit than looking up at the sky directly above me, hopefully I can find an angle for the clip that works well.

I seem to be fine without any daylight filter but it is rather overcast today so I'll need to test again when it's brighter.
Edited by doveman on 17/02/2014 at 16h42.
Stormrider #28 18/02/2014 - 12h10

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Are you using your modified lens (how is it different to the normal lens you bought anyway) and the daylight filter and are you using the 10 ohm or 6.8 ohm resistor?



my modified lens is a lens were that shop took out de ir-filter.So probably is it is similar to yours.For the rest nothing special about it.
My daylight-filter is something I bought at that shop.
I use it with 6.8 ohm at this moment but it will try it, if you want with 10 ohm.That wil be something for the weekend.
I also have a clip somewhere to try.
I sit at the same distance, I think of my cam.

I sent you a pm about that shop
Edited by Stormrider on 18/02/2014 at 12h10.
doveman #29 18/02/2014 - 23h58

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Thanks for the PM. So far I seem to be OK without a daylight filter but if I have problems when it gets a bit sunnier, I'll probably buy that one as it's not expensive.

I don't really need you to test with the 10 ohm, I was just curious as to what is working for you. I think I'm still using the 10 ohm so I need to swap it for the 6.8 ohm and see if it still works well for me.

I've realised I can't turn my head as much as I thought I might be able, maybe 45 degress, at least not to the right without it losing the LEDs, so I'm now only turning it maybe 20-25 degress and it seems to track well like that. I just need to see if I can work with that and still be able to turn to see the rear of the cockpit but still not have too much movement/jitter when I'm looking ahead.

It was working well with ArmA2 earlier though, even looking over my shoulder (in-game) behind me and I was able to still aim and fire straight ahead with the tracking enabled, although it makes it a bit harder so I tended to disable it when doing that. It would probably be nice if it automatically disabled tracking when looking down sights.
Stormrider #30 19/02/2014 - 10h54

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I've realised I can't turn my head as much as I thought I might be able, maybe 45 degress, at least not to the right without it losing the LEDs,



isn't it something you can fix by changing the curves?
I use SFH485 p ir-leds, those have an viewing angle of 40 degrees to one site, if Iam sitting in the centre of my cam.What if Iam not, because Iam moving my head, maybe changed my sitting position an little in the heat of battle, not anymore in center of my cam.I think to be on the safe side it is better not to go further then 30 degrees (35 degrees max) of head movement and set the curves like 30 degres headmovent make in game 180 degrees(or little more) view.
In Freetrack it was a bit more a problem to keep the movements smooth, but got it working good enough for myself.
Facetracknoir gave me les problems,  but Iam also using a ps3-eye now and not my ms vx3000.
In my curves you see I don't go(for yaw and pitch)  to the max viewing angle of my leds.With this setting I can check my 6 with yaw but also with pitch-up.
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