7 days to Go and still I cant make this work

symac

My attempt to set up a camera that sits looking down on a space . It watches for when someone enters a space and then triggers a video has been a messy failure. The camera should recognise up to 6 blobs and fire a burst of video when the blob moves.

Alternately I tried to set up Shapes and eyes and have 6 separate areas so when a particpant enters an area a video is triggered and stops when they leave.

Help.. Any body I have 7 days to get this right.

Michel

@symac

It would be easier if you added your patch, it's difficult to read your settings on the screenshot. And what exactly is the "messy failure", can you explain that a bit more?
What camera are you using? Are you making the settings of it manually?

Best Michel

symac

@Michel

Thanks for the reply

i'll get back to you with the patch.

I have isadora on an 2011 macbook pro

a Sony DCR-TRV950 TRV950 3CCD Mini DV Camcorder

the camera is hooked up through a 7m firewire to the computer

the camera is on auto settings

There was some stutter on the video files so i reduced their size.

Im back on it tomorrow night and ill send you the patch

vanakaru

It is very difficult to track more than one blob reliably with any system. Usually it has been done with combination of camera + additional sensors like IR light+IR capable camera, Kinect etc. The most easy way is to attach IR light to the object(person) moving around and track that. In order to avoid the objects merging and confusing the tracker different wavelength or binking IR lights could be used. But if you have random visitors like in a gallery situation it is tricky to do. They need to carry the light source. The same goes to track by the color.

Also Isadora is tracking blobs by comparing changes relative to the center-point. Some other tools do it relative to the whole space. I find it sometimes better. Look at the app Junxion. You can do tracking there and bring data to Isadora.

Also there is Wekinator(based on Processing) that could be programmed much more flexibly.

https://community.troikatronix...

7 days is not much time to study alternative options so I would either rethink the goal or try to fake it to the best result.

I am waiting to see the patch too. Specially how you're trying to track 6 blobs.

dbini

you could try using Eyes instead of Eyes++

maybe even 6 instances of the Eyes actor, each set to look for movement in a different area of the frame - it might be easier to track what's going wrong this way.

and your camera needs to be set on manual focus and exposure to be able to track anything with any accuracy.

good luck with it....

DusX

you could crop your video into multiple hot zones and use eyes to track 1 blob entering and exit the hot zone. .. that may not be the same exact effect but should be drastically easier to make work in a meaningful way. It will not eliminate the issue of blob collision but should still allow the Hotspot to work as triggers.

Skulpture

@DusX said:

you could crop your video into multiple hot zones and use eyes to track 1 blob entering and exit the hot zone. .. that may not be the same exact effect but should be drastically easier to make work in a meaningful way. It will not eliminate the issue of blob collision but should still allow the Hotspot to work as triggers.

I've tried to do a basic patch that does this. I have email him. But it wasn't the best. I was in a rush.

symac

Thanks for the patch Graham . This is what it looks like I'll be able to try it out tonight DRagons Dance patch 2.izz

so the camera is looking at 5 spaces and anything entering triggers a video any comments welcome

GertjanB

Hi,

Like @DusX said i would crop the image with a chop pixel actor to look at specific parts.

I made a quick sketch with some mathematics: you can put in the number of divisions you want horizontally and vertically. and than what part you want to look at.

For simple motion detection and triggering I normally just use the difference actor and calculate brightness.

Dragon dance Gertjan Biasino Test.izz

Groeten Gertjan

DusX

I'm loving how into this everyone is ☺

Seems like the solution is in hand.

symac

so I tried out the patch that graham sent me and also the patch that Gerjan Suggested.

The chop worked well but had a lot of echo in it in the end I adapted Graham's patch .

I mount the camera above an area and down light it. The audience will enter wearing hats with tags as they move into an area it will trigger the video. I can adjust the threshold so as to cut out the echo feedback that starts sending everything into a loop.

Can you see any flaws in this patch ??Dragon dance floor.izz

dbini

the echo/feedback issue can be solved by putting an infrared filter in front of the camera (assuming your camera is sensitive to infrared light, cctv cameras and camcorders with the 'nightshot' function are the safest bet) and lighting the people with something that contains infrared (basically: not LED) - if you want it to be dark to see the projection best, you can use pure infrared light.

mark_m

@symac

I'll echo (!) @dbini's suggestion of nightshot camera and cheap-as-chips IR lights from Amazon or eBay. I'm doing reasonably consistent on-stage tracking with this method: ancient Sony Camcorder with nightshot and wide angle adaptor, and a quartet of these guys:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pr... using a patch a bit like Graham's.

Maximortal

about eco if you must stay with normal light many years ago i did something using linear polarizing filters, one for the projector and one for the camera twisted of 90°. It worked prettw well on a silver sceen, I don't know if work also on a normal projecting surfaces

Woland

@primaldivine once suggested to me making use of IR floodlights, specifically the type manufactured for mounting on vehicles/to be used for nighttime hunting because of the quantity of IR light they’re designed to produce. While I never gave it a go, it always seemed to be a great idea.

Woland

@mark_m

Any chance you’d be willing to post here, or as a new topic, the make and model of your old-but-gold Sony camcorder and the wide-angle lens/adaptor? I’d also love to know your method for getting it into Isadora. (Canopus? Black magic?Cables used?) It’d be great to have the info here on the forum for a full IR setup that’s already been vetted/verified as working.

Maxime

Hi,

I've read through the feed and notice @symac mentioned to make the audience wear hats. Then he could maybe solve the IR problem by mounting little IR LED with battery on the hats. You can have very fine tracking after and no more echo problem with your projection.

That seems also easier than preparing the proper IR lighting of the area