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Is anyone in the chicago area, who is experienced with the calibration and setup of this system, willing spend a day helping me get it going? I'm having terrible luck with my calibrations so far.

I'm more than willing to compensate for your time. Please send me a private message if so. Thanks.

-Drew

What seems to be the issue that you are having?

How many cameras are you using?

What type of system are the cameras plugged into?

What version of Windows?

How do you have the setup arranged?

Okay, here�s my setup.

I have an older pc, (P4 3.0 with 2gigs of ram) connected to an 8 camera setup.

I�ve tried both the two cameras on a pole with high and low positioning and I�ve tried all cameras on their own poles all at high positioning.

My space is unfortunately not as large as would be ideal. It�s 13 foot by 16 foot, approximately.

I have everything sealed off so I don�t have much issue with random light or reflections. The only points I need to eliminate at the beginning of a calibration are the lights of the other cameras when I do the high low configuration.

When I do my wand calibration I generally am able to get mostly goods, an occasional excellent, but I almost always have at least one camera with a poor, and a couple fairs.

My median2Derror is usually .4 � 1.5 I think this is what I need to fix from what I�ve read.

I�m going to setup the high low setup again today and give it another go. I think my hardware is setup okay, I just feel like I�m flunking on my technique.

-Drew

As far as the high low setup goes......

What do you have the upeer cameras set up as?

The lower cameras?

Ideally, the upper camewras should be between 8' and 10', the higher the better. The lower cameras should be at approx 6'.

When aiming the cameras, have a single marker setup in the middle of the capture volume, at approx. waist high.

Also, since your capture volume is a little smaller, try rotating the cameras 90 degrees.

My cameras might have been a bit low. I moved the top set up to 10'2", and the low set to 6'.

I'm getting a bit better results.

-Drew

I have noticed something else that's 'odd' to me. When I show the capture area it seems to indicate a range limit on the cameras. And due to this limit there is little actual overlap, leaving my center uncovered.

Additionaly camera 1 seems to have a lot more range than the other cameras... I've linked a screen grab. Am I just interperting this wrong or does it show a misconfiguration?

-Drew

http://www.heidgerken.org/temp/captureArea.jpg

There is an issue with some video cards/drivers which causes the camera preview to show the camera ranges incorrectly. If the cameras are able to identify the markers in the 2D view, then you should be ok.

K, I won't worry about that one then.
I'm getting more goods and greats than poor and fairs now... I think it's just a mater of another dozen or so attempts... once I get this working I'm gona mark the spots for the cameras and weld the pols in place. ( I wish I could anyway.)

Hello:

Your capture volume size seems good for 8 cameras, if not a little on the big side really. That is more of a 12 camera size.

Calibration is the hardest thing to get right, but once you get the hang of it, it isn't that bad. We are also always working to make it easier in the software.

One thing that helps us a lot is to have one marker in the center of your calibration volume, at about head height, and try to aim the "high" cameras to just see this marker, and then aim the "lower" cameras to see a marker placed at about waist height. This can help make sure you have enough overlap with the cameras.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

I've got the top cameras at 10'11" now and the lower cameras at 7'6". The lower cameras are sideways to give better vertical coverage.

I'm still havening a heck of a time getting all goods on my calibration. Inevitably I always have at least one poor and usually a couple fairs.

I'm sure it's not far off, but my request is still open. If anyone is in the Chicago area who is good at this my company would be willing to make it worth your time to come over and help us get a good calibration.

Otherwise I'll keep messing with it. I just feel like each time I'm throwing shots in the dark with no real plan to make progress and hoping it turns out better.