Camera jitter

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Marcoma
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2015 3:25 pm

Camera jitter

Post by Marcoma »

I've noticed recently that our VCS camera data is getting noisy.

I've restarted the system, it still occurs.
I've recalibrated, it still occurs.
I've focused the cameras, it still occurs.
I've blacked out the volume space from external light sources, it still occurs.

We have 16 cameras covering a 20 x 25 volume so I doubt it's because we don't have enough cameras. Any suggestions?
steven.andrews
NaturalPoint Employee
NaturalPoint Employee
Posts: 738
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2015 11:52 am

Re: Camera jitter

Post by steven.andrews »

Hello Marcoma,

Thank you for reaching out regarding your tracking quality.
Could you please open a ticket with us at help.naturalpoint.com?

I would like you to submit a short Motive recording of your camera being tracked while you experience this jitter. If you could share a .tak with us, this will allow us to better troubleshoot with you.

In your ticket, please let us know exactly which version of Motive and the MotionBuilder plugin you are using so we can provide relevant information.

Best regards,
Steven
--
Steven Andrews
OptiTrack | Customer Support Engineer
Marcoma
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2015 3:25 pm

Re: Camera jitter

Post by Marcoma »

Will do. Thanks Steven
Marcoma
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2015 3:25 pm

Re: Camera jitter

Post by Marcoma »

OK ticket opened.

I've sent an example - albeit short to keep within the 10 Mb max allowed upload limit.

While on set, I tried adjusting the LED levels. I zoomed in to the optical markers in Motive and you can see the hi-frequency jitter. Dropping the LED's to 3 improved it dramatically but there was significant differences in quality between the center of the volume and the edges. In fact, if you moved away from the center then it would immediately start to deteriorate. We have 16 Prime 17W cameras covering a 25 x 28 foot volume. They are mounted on a huge solid truss so there's no movement coming from the base/mounts. All the cameras have been focused and f-stops set according to the manual.
Marcoma
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2015 3:25 pm

Re: Camera jitter

Post by Marcoma »

Ok - I have a solution. Thanks to Steven for working thru this issue with me.

I rearranged the cameras to be less symmetrical but the key factor was there was too much IR in the volume. Lowering the camera LEDs to 7 reduced the jitter dramatically.

The icing on the cake was adding several extra tracking markers to the Insight Pro camera to create a super stable rigid body.
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