Camera Placement 12 Prime 13, 2 Prime 13W

Post Reply
ryanl
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2017 10:28 pm

Camera Placement 12 Prime 13, 2 Prime 13W

Post by ryanl »

Hello,

My institution has 12 X Prime 13 and 2 X Prime 13W cameras and we are looking to mount them on a 5X5 square grid attached to the ceiling of a room where each side of each square is 90cm. The setup is intended to be multi-purpose - basically for whatever application that a researcher requests. I am finding it difficult to figure out how best to optimise the camera placement (position and pose) to maximise the volume such that every point within that volume is picked up by at least 3 (that's the minimum number for tracking, right?) cameras. Are there any tools and/or documents etc that can help me to determine the volume that each camera can capture, and perhaps somehow visualise the 14 camera volumes intersecting?

Thanks in advance.
steven.andrews
NaturalPoint Employee
NaturalPoint Employee
Posts: 737
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2015 11:52 am

Re: Camera Placement 12 Prime 13, 2 Prime 13W

Post by steven.andrews »

Hello ryanl,

Thank you for reaching out to the community regarding your questions.

In general, an even spread around the perimeter of your volume is optimal positioning for a square volume.
To get an idea of this setup and the expected coverage, you can view the Build Your Own on our website.
http://optitrack.com/systems/#motive-body/prime-13/12
http://optitrack.com/systems/#motive-tr ... rime-13/12

Additionally, you can find some tips on camera placement in our online documentation.
http://wiki.optitrack.com/index.php?tit ... _Placement


For a typical setup like this one, we would not expect to cover the entire area within the 5 x 5 perimeter the cameras are mounted on. 5 x 5 sounds a bit on the smaller side and may be quite limiting. In general, the strongest capture area occurs a few feet in from the perimeter, as this is where overlap begins to occur. Having the high camera count may help to compensate for this, however, and if you are primarily tracking rigid bodies you should have a decent sized capture area.

The 13W cameras have a wider field of view, so if there is any side of your volume where you particularly need more coverage/overlap, the W's can go there.

I hope you find this information to be useful. If you would like some more direct assistance with your setup, please feel free to open a Support ticket with us at help.naturalpoint.com

Best,
Steven
--
Steven Andrews
OptiTrack | Senior Customer Support Engineer
ryanl
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2017 10:28 pm

Re: Camera Placement 12 Prime 13, 2 Prime 13W

Post by ryanl »

Thanks for the reply Steven. Is there any way to find out the precise shape, size and location of the volume that each camera can capture effectively? I assume something like a truncated cone starting from a few feet away from the camera? Is there also a particular angle that each camera should be mounted at for optimal coverage, eg 45 degrees?
Post Reply