Guru Session #13: Body Tracking with Depth Cameras (Fri May 8th, 6pm CEST/5pm GMT/12pm EDT/9am PDT)

jfg

Asus Xtion Pro liveand Mac Pro 2012

has somebody an Idea where it is coming from:

I use OpenNi on my Macbook without a problem.

on my macPro (2012) I cannot get the OpenNI tracker to see a body. I get the depth picture from the Asus Xtion Live Pro but no body are tracked.

Both Computer run Mojave.

I have also tried on the same computer with an simple installation of High Sierra ( no extensions or programs running by start): same result.

Could it be a hardware problem (USB 2.0 instead of 3.0 or…)?

I have also installed Delicode Ni-Mate on both. It runs on the MacBook but crash by start on the MacPro.

Perhaps the other difference could be (in relation with USB 3.0) that I am sure I made the Hotfix for USB 3.0 on the Macbook but I don't know if I made it too on the MacPro. Unfortunately my Software Backup Harddrive died and the website with this hotfix doesn't exist any more. https://www.reconstructme.net/... But at least I think it was a firmware for the xtion and is independent from the computer.

one more thing: What I described was with a connexion over USB 2.0. I have also in the macPro a Card for USB 3.0 but if I connect the Xtion over USB 3.0 I only get device init error in the Openni actor

Help !!

thanks

Jean-François

mark

@danielpineiro

Very good to hear. Let me know what else you find out.

Best Wishes,
Mark

bonemap

@jfg said:

on my macPro (2012) I cannot get the OpenNI tracker to see a body

Hi,

When testing the Open Ni plugin a few months ago I was unable to initialise any of my Orbbec sensors directly attached to a Mac Pro (2013). They initialised immediately on the Mac Pro using a thunderbolt hub with USB3 ports. I also tried a USB 2 hub but the Orbbecs' didn't initialise through that either. My Kinect sensors worked directly on the MacPro it was my Orbbec Astra’s that required the hub workaround.

I don’t know if that will help your situation.

Kind Regards

Russell

Juriaan

Hi there,

Windows 10 (Isadora 3.0.7, Normal version)

When I try the sensor (Kinect 2 - Xbox One) I get an image and it sees my skeleton. When it does the garbage collection, so after 10 seconds or so when I'm out of the picture again you see the load going up and then the load goes down again but it crashes Isadora.(It also doesnt go down to the load before the load went up) I sent the crash report to your servers :) (Juriaan as License name)

nandada

@mark THANKS MARK!!

Demetri79

@mark thanks for the help so far.

I dont have any homebrew installed. it came back with "-bash: brew: command not found"

i tried the process you outlined over and over and still cant get it working again regardless of which version of the OpenNItracker i use. I tried every usb port on my machine as some are 2.0 and some 3.0 on a pcie card. Sometimes when the OpenNI is placed in the blank scene it immediately reads: "resolving" in status and does nothing.. sometimes it flashes "init device" for a while and then stops flashing that and stays on init device.. sometimes the kinect itself stops flashing green once i place the OpenNI actor.. ive tired everything.. deleted prefs again, disconnected all non essential devices from computer.. deactivated all my qartz plugins, corea audio plugins not loaded, deleted my global user actor folder (since it had a full setup saved with tracker, skeleton, etc).. makes no sense as it worked all week.. the only software I installed since it was working is Newtek NDI tools.

the kinect itself is not the issue ..i tested the kinect on my macbook pro 2013 also running the same Mac os 10.13.6 and isadora 3.0.7.. and IT WORKS.. just can't get it working again on my tower. the laptop is too old and slow to use for my insatiable needs:(

jfg

@demetri79 said:

on my tower

can you tell us which tower? it is the same as mine: Mac Pro 2012 (5.1) USB 2.0 native+ Inatek PCIe USB 3.0 Card.

best

Jean-François

mark

Dear All,

v0.9.6 of OpenNI Tracker is available in the "alpha builds" forum thread.

The record feature is now enabled. It seems to work well on both Mac and Windows now. I'm sure this feature will be a boon for development, since you can now record and play the depth streams and have the tracking work as if there were a person in front of the camera. Let me know how it works for you.

@jfg This version may solve your problem with the Asus Xtion. Try it and let me know.

Best Wishes,
Mark

DanielPineiro

Hi!

The record feature works fine for me! That´s great. Thanks Mark!!!!

mark_m

@mark said:

v0.9.6 of OpenNI Tracker is available in the "alpha builds" forum thread.

The Windows link doesn't seem to be working, but it's available at:
https://troikatronix.com/files...

Cheers

Mark

jfg

@mark

Dear Mark,

I have to apologise because I gave you yesterday wrong information. I tested yet all different configurations new and the result is:

- 0.9.2 works fine on both computers (I have to use the masquerade file)

-0.9.5 and 6 won't recognise bodies on both (I haven't forget to put the masquerade file at the right place)

on the Macbook with USB 3.0 the Xtion is recognised.

on the MacPro (2012) the Xtion is only recognised over USB 2.0. If I connect it on the USB 3.0 Inateck PCIe card i get only device init error

The color video output give me only a frozen picture on the macBook (usb 3.0).(the first picture after switching). Work ± on MacPro (Jitter)

thank you for your help

best

Jean-François

JJHP3

Just sayin' the new openNI plugs are TERRIFIC! They work perfectly with my aging MBP laptop and kinect 1414. I used the kinect for a performance/installation back in 2012 and it was a pain... it then went on the shelf. I used DeliCode program in get the info into Isadora and then it was a bit of a crap shoot whether it would work or not. Congratulations to Mark and the team on getting this wonderful re-addition to Isadora up and running. The tutorial and the guru session were both most useful. Bravo ~

John

DillTheKraut

@mark

Hello and congratulations to this amazing peace of plugin. Same as @JJHP3, for the Guru Session I freed my 1414 from the years old dust and it ran on my MacBook in no Time!
I'm especially impressed by how fast the body recognition reacts and the accuracy of the skeleton tracking.

But I do have an issue on a windows pc. With the OpenNI plugin in the plugin folder, I get the following error:

This is true with Tracker plugin ver. 0.9.6 and 0.9.2

Isadora 3.0.7
Windows 10 Pro 1909 1836.592
AMD A-5000
4GB RAM

Best
Dill

DillTheKraut

@dillthekraut

I could solve the starting error by installing the OpenNI drivers from structur.io. https://structure.io/openni

But I do have a general issue now, as the pc isn't recognizing the kinect right. In the windows device manager list, only the XBOX NUI Monitor is appearing under other devices, without a proper driver associated.
At a Parallel Windows VM, it shows additional XBOX NUI Audio and XBOX NUI Camera. Which is missing on the pc. The actor in here keeps saying 'resolving uri'.
Does anyone have an idea?

Dill

Juriaan

Hi there,

A few things that I noticed

1) Kinect v2 (Xbox One) is still crashing with the current version that was provided to us today. Sadly Isadora crashes so badly that I can't send the Crash logs to you since it doesnt create one with the normal workflow (So that you can send it from the Error prompt that pop-ups)

2) Load becomes massive like 70.6% on a Windows 10, MSI GE73VR 7RF Raider laptop (2000 euro gaming laptop with a Nvidia dedicated graphic card with just the Kinect v2 / OpenNi Tracker and a Projector attached to it's depth image in full screen mode)

3) When I say against Isadora that I only wish to receive the color map it still sends out the depth video signal as well.

4) I can't get the recording to work properly. What I did was I set the File input to tracking.oni and told the plugin to Record, do a silly dance, and press 'stop'. Then I try to play it back by pressing 'Play' and it doesn't show anything. It stops the active sensor flow and showcases a blank screen. When I'm looking in my file explorer or it even made a file called tracking.oni it doesn't show up.

DillTheKraut

@dillthekraut

Could solve it by removing the OpenNI drivers and installing the official Microsoft Kinect SDK.
Works perfectly now on the pc.

Demetri79

@jfg

Hardware: Mac Pro 2012 5,1 PCIe USB 3
MacOS Version: High Sierra 10.13.6
Depth Camera: Kinect v1 (Model 1414)
Isadora Version: 3.0.7

@mark

I dont have any homebrew installed. it came back with "-bash: brew: command not found"

So after much more testing I have more insight to my problem at least:

I tested all 3 versions now (0.9.2,0.9.5,0.9.6) , over 100 times shutting down my computer and following the suggested process. I think the problem for me is something related to the USB ports.. USB communication or USB power. I have tried all 9 (5 usb3 via pcie and 5 USB2 via 3 rear and 2 front). The USB3 ports on my PCIe card had better results working to provide power most of the time. i.e. sometimes the blinking green light on the kinect would stop blinking after a few blinks when connected to a USB2 port. This did happen a couple times on the USB3 ports as well though.

This led me to believe maybe an SMC reset might fix the problem which seems to be either USB communication or USB power. BUT I HAVE NO PROBLEMS WITH ANY OTHER USB DEVICE EVEN THOSE DRAWING POWER.. THEY ALL WORK PERFECTLY??

I performed an SMC reset (remove power cable from mac for 15 sec) and booted up and the Kinect was finally recognized for the first time since it stopped working thursday. But soon as I got the skeleton decoder and projector connected the skeleton data froze and the depth image froze. Deleting the Open NI tracker and placing in a new one did not work. The only way to get the kinect to be recognized by the Open NI is doing the whole process over again.. shutdown - SMC reset - boot up - place Open NI- kinect recognized - then freezes again within 5 sec.. even this process does not get the kinect recognized every time.. only about a about 25% of the time. I cannot get the kinect working properly like it was earlier this week.. it was working perfectly every time i connected it and never crashed once even with 4hour+ sessions.

All 3 versions of openNI have been tested over 30 times each .. I only got the kinect even recognized about 4 times total.. and the times it did get recognized it froze within seconds.. but the green light did not stop blinking when the data and image froze. I'm so bumed and confused

mark

@mark_m said:

The Windows link doesn't seem to be working.Ooops. Sorry about that. I fixed the link in the alpha builds thread. Thanks for the heads up.

Best Wishes,
Mark

mark

@dillthekraut said:

[EDIT: I see you figured this out and it worked. Glad to know that this installing the SDK solves the problem.]

But I do have an issue on a windows pc. With the OpenNI plugin in the plugin folder, I get the following error:

There was an omission in the original installation instructions. Please try the following:

1) Make a backup copy of the OpenNI Tracker.izzyplug folder
2) Delete the entire plugin OpenNI Tracker.izzyplug
3) Reinstall v0.9.6
4) But also also install the Kinect SDK v2.0. This is required to use the Kinect drivers on windows.

I'd like to know if that procedure gives you a working plugin. While the old drivers you downloaded may work, they do not support changes I have made in those drivers improve how they work. (Specifically, if you try the new record function with those old drivers, I'm pretty sure Isadora will crash as soon as you try to play the ONI file.)

Best Wishes,
Mark

mark

@juriaan said:

A few things that I noticed

I'll go through your list point by point

1) Kinect v2 (Xbox One) is still crashing with the current version that was provided to us today. Sadly Isadora crashes so badly that I can't send the Crash logs to you since it doesnt create one with the normal workflow (So that you can send it from the Error prompt that pop-ups)

Yeah, I don't really expect it to work well yet. It was an accident that it went out with the 0.9.5 build, but I figured at this point I'll just put it in and let people try. I think people on MacOS will have a better result since the entire driver was hacked/created from the ground up. They will have to deal with 512x424 image being embedded in a 640x480 frame right now.

2) Load becomes massive like 70.6% on a Windows 10, MSI GE73VR 7RF Raider laptop (2000 euro gaming laptop with a Nvidia dedicated graphic card with just the Kinect v2 / OpenNi Tracker and a Projector attached to it's depth image in full screen mode)

It's unclear to me if you're talking about a Kinect v1 or Kinect v2 here. I guess it's Kinect v1 since v2 is crashing, but please be specific. That said, loads that high are not my experience. I'll edit this post in a few minutes with my load figures from Windows 10. Keep in mind that the GPU is going have like zero impact on the efficiency of this plugin. The data from the camera comes in as CPU bitmaps, and everything is thus handled on the CPU not the GPU.

3) When I say against Isadora that I only wish to receive the color map it still sends out the depth video signal as well.

I think that "against Isadora" must be a typo... I guess what you're saying is that if you attempt to get the RGB camera only, you cannot. Yes??

4) I can't get the recording to work properly. What I did was I set the File input to tracking.oni and told the plugin to Record, do a silly dance, and press 'stop'. Then I try to play it back by pressing 'Play' and it doesn't show anything. It stops the active sensor flow and showcases a blank screen. When I'm looking in my file explorer or it even made a file called tracking.oni it doesn't show up.

Did you save the file? Unless you specify a full path name (e.g., C:\Users\USERFOLDER\Documents) the plugin creates a path name based on the path of the Isadora .izz file. If you haven't saved the file, maybe this fails?

Best Wishes,
Mark