POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.general : Camera Tracking? Server Time
1 Aug 2024 18:27:38 EDT (-0400)
  Camera Tracking? (Message 1 to 10 of 10)  
From: Tim Nikias
Subject: Camera Tracking?
Date: 4 May 2005 15:31:56
Message: <4279232c$1@news.povray.org>
I've learned today of ARToolKit, an "Augmented Reality" application which
will take the input of an USB Webcam, try to find a certain marker-image in
it and will place a 3D-Object at it.
(http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/) Works nice for, as the name
says, Augmented Reality: overlaying a realtime image with some
cg-enhancement.

Anyways, I was wondering, as this thing is supposed to be for realtime and
such, if there's a similiar freeware tool out there for still image, e.g. I
could take a photo of something, get some camera data back from the
application, and (probably with some conversion) feed it to POV-Ray to
automatically place an object at the proper location for later composition
into the photograph. Anyone know of any such thing? Or maybe even for
pre-recorded videos? The tool Rune once used for his holographic projector
(known worldwide for the attention it received ;-) isn't available anymore.
Well, at least the free version isn't, IIRC, though I don't know the name to
check on it again...

Regards,
Tim

-- 
"Tim Nikias v2.0"
Homepage: <http://www.nolights.de>


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From: Dave Dunn
Subject: Re: Camera Tracking?
Date: 4 May 2005 16:15:00
Message: <web.42792cc0dc2b89061cd1be070@news.povray.org>
"Tim Nikias" <JUSTTHELOWERCASE:timISNOTnikias(at)gmx.netWARE> wrote:
> Anyways, I was wondering, as this thing is supposed to be for realtime and
> such, if there's a similiar freeware tool out there for still image, e.g. I
> could take a photo of something, get some camera data back from the
> application, and (probably with some conversion) feed it to POV-Ray to
> automatically place an object at the proper location for later composition
> into the photograph. Anyone know of any such thing? >
> Regards,
> Tim
>
> --
> "Tim Nikias v2.0"
> Homepage: <http://www.nolights.de>

Hello Tim
There is a program advertised on the Animation Master CD called SynthEyes
that seems to do what you are asking. I haven't really looked at the demo,
but you might try their website: www.ssontech.com
Dave


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From: Rune
Subject: Re: Camera Tracking?
Date: 4 May 2005 17:25:54
Message: <42793de2$1@news.povray.org>
Tim Nikias wrote:
> The tool Rune once used for his holographic projector
> (known worldwide for the attention it received ;-)

Still do thanks to google:
http://www.google.com/search?q=hologram+projector
More than 1% of the visitors of my site are people coming from google 
looking for a hologram projector... ;)

> isn't available anymore. Well, at least the free version
> isn't, IIRC, though I don't know the name to check on it
> again...

It was called Icarus.
http://aig.cs.man.ac.uk/early/icarus/

Icarus has turned into various products at
http://www.thepixelfarm.co.uk/
probably most relevant is PFTrack:
http://www.thepixelfarm.co.uk/products/products.aspx?PID=3

PFTrack has apparently been used by VFX supervisor Dennis Lowe (Cold 
Mountain, Harry Potter), so it seems to be professional alright.
http://www.thepixelfarm.co.uk/content.aspx?Content=userstories.htm

Competitor SynthEyes (http://www.ssontech.com/) has been used in numerous 
major Hollywood productions (http://www.ssontech.com/seenon.htm), so it's 
must be assumed to very professional also.

PFTrack v3:


All prices exclude V.A.T. and taxes.

SynthEyes:
$349

Quite a shame that free Icarus simply disappeared...

Rune
-- 
3D images and anims, include files, tutorials and more:
rune|vision:  http://runevision.com
POV-Ray Ring: http://webring.povray.co.uk


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From: Rune
Subject: Re: Camera Tracking?
Date: 4 May 2005 17:53:11
Message: <42794447@news.povray.org>
Hmm, this "Commercial Icarus Succesor Lite" might be a good choice:
http://www.thepixelfarm.co.uk/contentfull.aspx?content=pfhoe.htm

From the page: "For the first time it is possible for those wanting to learn 
about match moving or experiment with matching computer graphics to video 
footage, to use cutting edge tools without price tag to match. (...) PFHoe 
is a perfect introduction to camera tracking for video hobbyists and 
professionals alike."



Not that much cheaper than the professional PFTrack, but it seems to be a 
userfriendly all-in-one package, while PFTrack probably is meant to be used 
in conjunction with some of their other products.

Rune
-- 
3D images and anims, include files, tutorials and more:
rune|vision:  http://runevision.com
POV-Ray Ring: http://webring.povray.co.uk


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From: Tim Nikias
Subject: Re: Camera Tracking?
Date: 5 May 2005 10:34:54
Message: <427a2f0e@news.povray.org>
Hi Rune, thanks for the information.

It seems that no freeware in this regard is to be found, which is sad. And
PFHoe Trial seems to be very limited in the type of movies it will accept.
Of all the hundreds of animations I've got on my PC, there are only a few
which are in "standard AVI" (whatever "standard AVI" is supposed to mean)
and it's very annoying that it'll generate a ".thumbnail" folder in every
folder I check, and doesn't even ask permission to spread some data all over
the HD.

I guess I'll leave camera tracking and such away until I'm really in dire
need to get used to it, right now, it seems the effort isn't worth the fun I
*possibly might* have (can't even think of any use for it right away aside
of doing something similiar to your hologram vid: testing the tracking :-)

-- 
"Tim Nikias v2.0"
Homepage: <http://www.nolights.de>


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From: Tim Nikias
Subject: Re: Camera Tracking?
Date: 5 May 2005 10:37:33
Message: <427a2fad$1@news.povray.org>
> Hello Tim
> There is a program advertised on the Animation Master CD called SynthEyes
> that seems to do what you are asking. I haven't really looked at the demo,
> but you might try their website: www.ssontech.com
> Dave

Thanks Dave!

I don't like giving out my stuff and registering for some software which
would be too expensive anyway, so I didn't check it, but thanks anyway.

I'm kinda wondering why no one in the Open Source Community has done
anything about all the expensive camera tracking, there surely is a need for
such an application in the hobbyist fraction?

-- 
"Tim Nikias v2.0"
Homepage: <http://www.nolights.de>


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From: Dave Dunn
Subject: Re: Camera Tracking?
Date: 5 May 2005 11:50:00
Message: <web.427a4048dc2b89064ce44b20@news.povray.org>
"Tim Nikias" <JUSTTHELOWERCASE:timISNOTnikias(at)gmx.netWARE> wrote:
> Thanks Dave!
>
> I don't like giving out my stuff and registering for some software which
> would be too expensive anyway, so I didn't check it, but thanks anyway.
>
> I'm kinda wondering why no one in the Open Source Community has done
> anything about all the expensive camera tracking, there surely is a need for
> such an application in the hobbyist fraction?
>
> --
> "Tim Nikias v2.0"
> Homepage: <http://www.nolights.de>

Just a strange thought here. I am wondering if the frames of the live action
video could somehow be fed into POV itself and converted to height_fields.
You could then use trace to find a given range of heights on the tracking
object, which would show up against the background, and place the object in
reference to that. It probably won't work, but wouldn't it be cool if it
did.


//Dave Dunn - hos### [at] aolcom
#local D = union { torus {1,.1 clipped_by {plane {-x,0}}} sphere
{<0,0,1>,.1} sphere {<0,0,-1>,.1} cylinder {<0,0,-1>,<0,0,1>,.1} pigment
{rgb .8} finish {ambient .5 reflection {.5}} rotate x*-90 translate
<-.5,.5,5>} object {D} object {D translate <.5,-1,0>} plane {y,-2 pigment
{checker rgb 1, rgb 0 scale 5} finish {ambient .5}}


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From: leope
Subject: Re: Camera Tracking?
Date: 16 May 2005 10:15:00
Message: <web.4288aac7dc2b890686b00bd30@news.povray.org>
There is a camera tracking sw linux and windows.
You can ask for a pov output.
http://www.digilab.uni-hannover.de/docs/manual.html


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From: Tim Nikias
Subject: Re: Camera Tracking?
Date: 16 May 2005 11:57:16
Message: <4288c2dc$1@news.povray.org>
> You can ask for a pov output.
> http://www.digilab.uni-hannover.de/docs/manual.html

OOOOOH! That's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for (at least judging
by the website). Don't have time right now to install and test it, but I
hope it'll do what I want it to do. :-) I'll let you guys know once I've
fumbled with it.

Regards,
Tim

-- 
"Tim Nikias v2.0"
Homepage: <http://www.nolights.de>


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From: Rune
Subject: Re: Camera Tracking?
Date: 16 May 2005 17:58:22
Message: <4289177e@news.povray.org>
leope wrote:
> There is a camera tracking sw linux and windows.
> You can ask for a pov output.
> http://www.digilab.uni-hannover.de/docs/manual.html

Last time I checked that one, it was mentioned somewhere on the site that it 
only supported rotation of the camera, but not translations (it was not very 
clearly mentioned though). I.e. you had to have the camera mounted on a 
tripod or something like that. Also, the fact that the test animations was 
all shown from a static angle supported this suspicion. I don't know if it 
has been developed further in the mean time though.

Rune
-- 
3D images and anims, include files, tutorials and more:
rune|vision:  http://runevision.com
POV-Ray Ring: http://webring.povray.co.uk


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