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RSS >  Single Point tracking not working properly
doveman #1 02/09/2012 - 17h11

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I've built a single LED model to test with my PS3 Eye, to be able to look left/right and up/down.

In Freetrack, set to Single Point model, to look up or down (Pitch) I have to move my head up or down, not rotate it back/forward and to look left or right (Yaw) I have to move left or right, not turn my head.

If I do rotate my head in any direction, it doesn't really make the Avatar move much at all and what little it does move is just because of the small up/down, left/right movements my head is making as a side-effect.

So starting with the Image Points 14,88 and centered so Yaw and Pitch are on 0, moving my head left/right changes the Yaw from roughly -45 to +45 and moving my head up/down changes the Pitch from roughly +30 to -30. Whilst doing this the Avatar moves as if I'm rotating my head forwards, backwards, left or right.

I tested in ArmA II and it's the same there.

Another problem I have it that every time I start Freetrack, click Stream then Start and Camera, it's reset the Gain to 0 so I have to change it to the correct position each time. The Exposure (mid-way) and RGB (Full) sliders keep their position, it's just Gain that doesn't.
doveman #2 10/09/2012 - 18h57

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Bump. Does anyone know why single-point tracking isn't working properly?
Steph #3 10/09/2012 - 19h53

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In Freetrack, set to Single Point model, to look up or down (Pitch) I have to move my head up or down, not rotate it back/forward and to look left or right (Yaw) I have to move left or right, not turn my head.



I'm not shure about the "problem" you see in that behaviour. This is quit normal. In one point mode the program do not distinguish between turning or moving out of center.


If I do rotate my head in any direction, it doesn't really make the Avatar move much at all and what little it does move is just because of the small up/down, left/right movements my head is making as a side-effect.



It depends on amplitude of movement the light-dot makes. How do you fixed the LED (front of a cap, headset)?

Try to increase the sensibility for the x- and y-axis.
doveman #4 11/09/2012 - 13h49

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Steph @ 10/09/2012 - 19h53 a dit:


I'm not shure about the "problem" you see in that behaviour. This is quit normal. In one point mode the program do not distinguish between turning or moving out of center.



The issue is only moving was working and turning/tilting my head wasn't, so to look left/right I had to move my head left/right and to look up/down I had to move my head up or down, which is obviously unusable.

It depends on amplitude of movement the light-dot makes. How do you fixed the LED (front of a cap, headset)?

Try to increase the sensibility for the x- and y-axis.



OK, thanks I'll try that. I'm using a clip on the side of my headphones.
Steph #5 12/09/2012 - 12h00

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Some points to verify:
    l is well selected in the model section.
    - when turning your head, does the light-dot in the cam-window move out of centre the same way as when you move the head? Normally it does,
    (and again, in one point mode, there is no difference for output between moving and turning.)
    - when turning, does the  systray FreeTrack icon (bottom right side in window) stay green? If not (turning to red) the light dot is lost, probably because of low beam angle or low intensity of LED.


I'm using a clip on the side of my headphones.



This is not the best configuration for one point. X-axis turning movements are not symmetrical.
Posted Image
As you can see, 30° to the left do not give the same result as 30° to the right.
This could be at the origin of your problem.
A centre mount is better.
Edited by Steph on 07/11/2012 at 13h38.
doveman #6 24/09/2012 - 02h42

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Ah I see, thanks for explaining, that's probably the problem then. I'll try mounting on the centre of the headphones and test that.
doveman #7 01/11/2012 - 20h37

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OK, I had a chance to test with a single LED mounted on top of my headphones, in the centre, powered by 2.4v rechargeable batteries with a 18ohm resistor.

As you can see from this screenshot, the LED doesn't appear to be detected very well Posted Image

After a lot of tweaking the camera gain/exposure and Freetrack's Threshold, I managed to get it working a bit with the settings shown in this screenshot, but the green light is flickering a lot.

Posted Image

It still doesn't track turning/tilting my head very well either. If I turn my head, the Yaw goes to about 0.5/-0.5 and if I tilit it up or down Pitch goes to about 0.3/-1.1 (tiliting up it loses track after about 0.3, whereas tilting down it's able to keep track of it for longer).

By contrast, if I lean left/right Yaw goes to about 3.0/-3.0 and if I move my head and body up or down, Pitch goes to about 1.2/-1.25, so it seems that this 1-point model is only good for tracking such movement, rather than turning/tiliting my head.
Steph #8 03/11/2012 - 11h07

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Hi,

the light dot is definitely too little. Try to get it at least like this:
Posted Image
Disable all auto function.

If you do not get it with the settings, see if you can get a larger dot without the daylight-filter. If you can, probably your filter is too strong and you have to look for an other.
If not, the LED isn't bright enough and yo can try to drive it with higher current (replace resistor).
Edited by Steph on 10/11/2012 at 15h25.
doveman #9 03/11/2012 - 14h39

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Thanks. I'm not actually using any daylight-filter (you mean like camera film?) at the moment.
doveman #10 10/11/2012 - 14h21

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So what can I do? Is the IR filter in my PS3 Eye just too strong to allow this to work? Apparently I've got the non-removable filter so is there anything I can do? I'm using the recommended LEDs and resistors.
Steph #11 10/11/2012 - 15h48

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The problem without any daylight filter is, that you can't increase exposure and gain without capturing all non ir-light sources.
So you need a completely dark room without any other light source to make it work.
Without removing the ir-filter you need a good daylight filter. That means a filter that let pass only ir-light.
http://forum.free-track.net/index.php?showtopic=3339&message=17653
The floppy disk filter method isn't appropriated because it also blocks parts of ir-light.
doveman #12 10/11/2012 - 17h28

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So do you recommend three sheets of plastic, one filled with green felt-tip, one blue and one red, rather than three layers of camera film now?

I note xxtraloud was already using the camera film method and still had problems.
Steph #13 11/11/2012 - 15h22

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I recommend to experiment with all sort of coloured plastic sheets and films you can found.  :) That is what I do.
My Logitech QuickCam 5000pro also works without removing the ir-filter.
Following daylight-filters works fine for me:
1. Three layers of transparent plastic film coloured one with green felt-tip, one with red and one with blue.
2. Two layers of 3D glasses green and red picked up from a DVD box.
3. Real daylight-filter from front panel of an old VHS-recorder. It's a simple piece of black plastic. Some older remote control receiver diodes needs those ones.
Posted Image
Nearly the same result for the three solutions. (Threshold adapted).
doveman #14 11/11/2012 - 19h42

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Thanks. I'll try the coloured film or 3D glasses then. It'll be cheaper than buying camera film and getting it developed anyway :)

I'll see if I can find a daylight filter from an old piece of equipment as well, although I've got a feeling the ones I might have are probably smaller than the front of my cam.
doveman #15 14/11/2012 - 18h48

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So I bought a piece of plastic tube that just about fits over the PS3 Eye and I've got some plastic sheet I can cut up and colour in.

What's the best way to join the three sheets together and then to the plastic tubing? I'm mindful I don't want to splodge glue on the sheets where it might obscure any part of the lens, so I figure it would be best to cut three squares larger than the lens area and then I can glue them together outside the lens area but I still need a way to glue the finished 3-layer filter to the plastic tube.

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