the new wand

[FutureFarmer]

Hi,

We got our brand new 8 cam setup this week and were testing and screwing around with it. When calibrating and stuff we noticed that our wand was the one with 3 markers instead of one (please don't put the "important notice" on a piece of paper the size of a stamp:)) It cost us 3 hours to figure out we had to use 1 marker instead of 1, new wand, old software

But we figured that part out (yeah yeah, read the f#$@$ manual:) )

The question here is, in the part of camera positioning, the wand is mounted on the ground square and pulled out. We can't do that, we just have the neptune like staff The workaround is pretty obvious (i think), setup a tripod to the same height the wand will reach, but we don't know how high that is.

What is the lenght of the old wand, Or is there another way to do this part of the setup, please some advice

Wgr,

Tiemen










W

[Seth Steiling]

The max length of the old wand is 57.3" (1.46m). I wouldn't worry about matching it's height exactly when pointing the cameras. To approximate, you can mount a marker on a tripod, like you mentioned. Or, you can put the cameras in grayscale mode and just have an actor stand in your volume for reference. (This is what we do.)

Once the new calibration comes out, it will afford you even more flexibility in aiming. It doesn't require that all cameras be pointed in the center of the volume, so you can aim a few higher/lower to increase your coverage, if need be. As long as you have a few cameras overlapping to pull them all together, it should be able to calibrate.

[The_Nomad]

I'm not an expert, and obviously you should listen to the OptiTrack people, not me, but we've had pretty good results setting the top of the wand at waist height (which is easy to measure) and then pointing all cameras at that (in portrait). That's with a 12-camera system.

[the_lord799]

can you plz post a video that shows how to use the new wand and what are the steps to calibrate with it because i want to buy it(the new wand ) but i am waiting to c how i twill effect on my calibration result
thank you

[Seth Steiling]

A video is in the works right now, and we'll post it as soon as it's ready.

[CDMoran]

What version of software is required for the new wand and does it provide enough improvement over the old wand to switch?

[Seth Steiling]

Tracking Tools 2.2 Beta 1 (released a few days ago) is required for the new calibration. ARENA/Expression customers will need to wait a little longer, as supported builds are still in development.

The new calibration enables significantly improved tracking accuracy, and it also gives you much more flexibility in how you aim your cameras and configure your volume. We invested a sizable chunk of development resources in it, because it's a very important improvement to our tracking capabilities. I would highly recommend that all users make the upgrade, if possible.

[FutureFarmer]

thanx for the info.
I fooled around a little, the second day i was by myself and setup a roll of cardboard in the center approx. 1.20 meters high.
I aimed the camera like the tutorial video (centering, etc) and was getting acceptable results.

The high camera are around 2.5 meters in the air and de lower camera's around 1.8 meters (sorry for not giving measurements in feet, i'm from europe ), i assume this is correct.

BTW. a foot, is around 30 cm's am i right? Searched wiki for it, but different sizes show up.

[VincentG]

30 centimeters = 0.98425197 foot
http://www.infoplease.com/pages/unitcon ... grp=common

We prefer the upper cameras around 8'-10'(2.6 - 3.3 meters)

With the lower cameras 2-2.5' below that (2.6-2.8 meters)

The aiming sounds about right

[Jim]

Hello:

The info on the new calibration system and video is here:
http://www.naturalpoint.com/optitrack/p ... ation.html