8Cam OptiTack+ARENA Test #2 (Jan.16.2008)

[johnou]

Hi all,

Thanks for the support last time.
Here is our test #2 for mocap session.

We are having space of 10m x 8m and performing stage is 2.5m only.
All camera is Excellent but one.

We always get 1 or 2 camera error. looks like not pickup anything. we've check it's all fine on hub indicator.

This happen everytime, and its randomly changes to different camera that does not pick up anything or freeze.


I've attached the screen capture. Also the source file if you like to check it. look at cam4 on the reference image.




Source File: SourceFile Download

[johnou]

Also I can not load the Skeleton back to Arena. Can someone help us out? (Urgent)

Please see our source file.

Many Thanks.

[yoshi]

John,

For the blank camera problem you can try:

1. turn off PC
2. power down USB hubs
3. disconnect/reconnect USB cables from camera to hubs
4. power on USB hubs
5. turn on PC

I've experienced the same problem before, above steps fixed it.

[johnou]

Thanks,

That's what we try, but during the capture, if we lost a camera, we are getting bad motion files....

[yoshi]

Since you have the T-pose in those takes, you can recreate skeleton with it using skeleton wizard.

Your original skeleton file is corrupted, I could not load it either.

[yoshi]

Does your USB hubs have external power source? If the cameras are not getting enough power, it can happen. Also I've had problem connecting more than 2 cameras per Belkin USB hub. I have not have any problem with the D-Link USB hub we provide, connecting 6 cameras.

[johnou]

Thanks for your help. T-Pose at start of captures really save us.

The problem still remains - random cameras dropping out. Restarting the system does seem to work, but to restart a system after two captures in a professional working environment simply because random cameras fail to capture points is a significant problem. This issue seems odd because some of our captures seem perfect, but other times due to the random camera dropping out, the capture results are below average quality. And I feel that all our captures would have been 99.9% perfect had the random camera problem fixed itself.

[VincentG]

What kind of PC system are you using, OS, hardware info, motherboard, etc......?

Have you tried turn off any kind of power save feature for your USB ports?

In the "Device Manager" you can right click the "USB Root Hub"(s), that show, and then select properties. On the power management tab, uncheck the box that allows the computer to turn off the USB port to save power (i.e. uncheck the box). Sometimes that has an impact on the connectivity of the devices.

Is it the same camera everytime?

[johnou]

Here are the details of the computer we used. Hope this is the sort of information you were looking for:

Processor
Model : AMD Athlon(tm)64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+
Speed : 2.21GHz
Model Number : 4400
Cores per Processor : 2 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Type : Dual-Core
Internal Data Cache : 2x 64kB, Synchronous, Write-Back, 2-way, 64 byte line size
L2 On-board Cache : 2x 1MB, ECC, Synchronous, Write-Back, 16-way, 64 byte line size

System
System : System manufacturer System Product Name
Mainboard : ASUSTeK Computer INC. A8N-VM CSM
Bus(es) : ISA PCI PCIe USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : 1 Processor(s)
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : No
System BIOS : American Megatrends Inc. 8.12
Total Memory : 1.94GB DDR

Chipset 1
Model : AMD Athlon 64 / Opteron HyperTransport Technology Configuration
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 1.00GHz (2.01GHz)
Total Memory : 2GB DDR
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 201MHz (402MHz)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : Plug and Play Monitor
Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 6150

Physical Storage Devices
WDC WD1600AAJS-00PSA0 3.5" 160GB (SATA300, 7200rpm, NCQ, 8MB Cache) : 149.05GB (C:)
LITE-ON DVD SOHD-16P9SV (ATAPI33, 48x CD-R, 6x DVD-R, 254kB Cache) : 609.44MB (D:)

Peripherals
Serial/Parallel Port(s) : 1 COM / 1 LPT
USB Controller/Hub : Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub : Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Composite Device
FireWire/1394 Controller/Hub : VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Keyboard : HID Keyboard Device
Keyboard : HID Keyboard Device
Mouse : HID-compliant mouse
Mouse : Wacom Mouse
Human Interface : HID-compliant consumer control device
Human Interface : HID-compliant device
Human Interface : HID-compliant consumer control device
Human Interface : Wacom HID Pen
Human Interface : Wacom HID Digitizer
Human Interface : HID-compliant device
Human Interface : Virtual Keyboard Interface
Human Interface : Virtual Media Keys
Human Interface : Wacom Virtual Hid Driver
Human Interface : Virtual Keyboard Driver
Human Interface : USB Human Interface Device
Human Interface : USB Human Interface Device
Human Interface : USB Human Interface Device

Operating System(s)
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP (2003) Professional 5.02.3790 (Service Pack 1)
Platform Compliance : Win64 x64

Network Services
Network Drivers Enabled : No

It is not the same camera - as in both the physical camera and the numbers assigned to the camera - it changes randomly not capturing points. A different camera may stop capturing or freeze after we calibrate, set-up skeleton and start to capture.

The power save issue for USB hubs is something we will have to look into next time when we setup. Thank you heaps for your help.

Edit: Must mention that during a portion of the shoot ALL cameras operate fine. It is just that sometimes without fail during our capture sessions one of the cameras seem to stop capturing.

[Jim]

Hello:

Just a few more suggestions:

- Can you try a different capture PC? Just to try and isolate the problem.

- Sometimes the USB cables can drag too much on the cameras and cause the connection to be lost. Try strain reliefing the USB cables, so there is no tension on them.