notes from the bigfug » camera calibration

PatchBox: 3D Geometry Scanner

Alex May — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:52:34 +0000

We?ve been keeping it under our hats for a while now but the code is nearing completion so it?s time to reveal one of the latest major features we?ve been adding to PatchBox: 3D Scanning.

The image above was created using one projector and one camera resulting in a 300,000 point cloud.? We haven?t smoothed this geometry yet, which is why it?s all bumpy ? it?s the raw feed from the system.? The large holes were in shadow, or were non-reflective such as the monitor screen.? The small holes (such as those on the keyboard) are caused by scanning errors larger than 1cm.

As well as taking stylised self portraits (!), we?ll be using this technology to perform dynamic projective geometry and a myriad of other real-time visual tricks that we?ve been planning for years.

The 3D scanning and associated camera/projector calibration systems are also extremely useful for correctly projecting on curved and other non-planar screens.

Live feed video mapping in PatchBox

Alex May — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:04:07 +0000

We?re heavily focussed, if you will excuse the pun, on camera and projector calibration at the moment.? The images above are a live video feed taken by a camera that has been calibrated to the geometry of the room that it is filming and reprojected onto the model?s geometry (!).

Twitter Updates for 2009-08-16

Alex May — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:21:00 +0000

Little bit blind (temporarily, hopefully) after projecting video onto his eyes on purpose. Ah R&D, it’s sometimes a dangerous business… #
Possible to use modified pyramid image segmentation with canny edge detection to fill in the holes? Would depend on input quality, I guess.. #
Listening to Tower of Power and downloading my brain into FreeMind. #
Ouch, just got hit in the head by a falling Dell Axim 51v with large capacity battery. Better my head than the floor, I guess… #
Experimenting with MS Speech API by playing the audio from Dr Strangelove into the recogniser. Mildly amusing but ultimately useless results #
Just hit a large roll of graph paper with my fist. In your FACE graph paper! #
Deep into planning our first guerrilla video projection session in London on Monday night… Mwahaha… #
@vj_anomolee All will be revealed in good time, my friend… in reply to vj_anomolee #
Mmm, 2pm – must be time for breakfast, yay! #
@nicklevine Good find! See you there! in reply to nicklevine #
The team is prepped for Monday night. Four men, in a van, with advanced technology, and mischief in mind. #
@nicklevine Will do, chap! in reply to nicklevine #
@StephenBrighton Like the look of the Iydea photo exhibition – is there a private view/event? #
@StephenBrighton Very kind of you, thanks! in reply to StephenBrighton #
Heading to Brighton to check out new exhibition at Prescription Art, followed by racking up the uncomfortably weird dial to 11. #
Listening to the recording of the last Belle Atmos gig – shame we didn’t get footage of the visuals, says visuals man: http://bit.ly/18bXlq #
@nicklevine Haven’t been up so much of recent since last job was in Hove but we’ve meetings in town a plenty coming up. in reply to nicklevine #
Going to have to refactor a large chunk of PaintBox – needs a floating point drawing buffer to get the nuance I need! #
Oh, that was easier than I expected then! Just got to add a cursor on the streamed output and it’ll be ready to go… #
Dammit, seemed to have messed up my nice Bresenham implementation. Just can’t leave things alone, me… #
@StephenBrighton Lovely, thanks again. in reply to StephenBrighton #
With a couple of hints from Ramesh Raskar I’ve finally got augmented geometry alignment working in PatchBox. Super yay! #
Projective alignment and projection working, off shortly to Lighthouse to see work and talk by Tina Gonsalves in #Brighton #

Twitter Updates for 2009-07-19

Alex May — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:21:00 +0000

Long day battling with matrices. Dull and little progress! #
Searching for camera calibration info over coffee this morning, may have a lead on the problem. Off to work to try it out (fingers crossed) #
Meeting about an egg, in Groucho’s, postponed due to problem in Shanghai. #
Going to try to have a non-programming day and attend to other work matters. Not easy with an N-point perspective solution almost complete! #
@awhillas Thought Watchmen could’ve been twice as long with more of the original story in. Fantastic visual realisation (apart from Veidt) in reply to awhillas #
@nlomioni Searching the web for nucleotide pr0n again? in reply to nlomioni #
If you’ve yet to treat yourself to the sonic delights of ‘Eye Bent Grape Spasm’, the official web site is back, enjoy: http://bit.ly/NJebl #
Fine evening at the #lewes arms: death-defying tales, conversations of high-wire work and art. Return to pile of nine old hard-drives on bed #
Following the issue of the #Lewes Pound, higher denomination notes are coming, including a ?21 note. This town is weird. http://bit.ly/KQ4Mv #
Listening to the #belleatmos set for our #London gig next Friday to work out the rough visuals framework – tasty musical manoeuvres! #
Eternal Moonwalk – Strangely hypnotic tribute to Michael Jackson. http://bit.ly/e75w0 #
@vjmorph fugScope already does colour, no? Have added a line thickness parameter… http://bit.ly/4uHqFZ in reply to vjmorph #

Twitter Updates for 2009-07-12

Alex May — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 11:21:00 +0000

Our latest two commissions revealed: http://www.quadratura.info/news/ #
Just finished the VBites media launch party. Much champagne and photos. Will post tomorrow. #
@BrightonNat Good to meet you last night at the vbites, sorry we didn’t get to chat about projections, another time? in reply to BrightonNat #
@vjmorph Not so much these days, it’s all about the CGFX shaders round these parts in reply to vjmorph #
Pics of our interactive AV installation from the VBites media launch last night #brighton – http://bit.ly/ZPc4V #
@vjmorph What’re you looking for? in reply to vjmorph #
Just added myself to the http://wefollow.com twitter directory under: #artist #vj #programmer #
@matthanson Another multiple projector installation at Heather Mills’ VBites cafe in Hove, it’s interactive too! http://bit.ly/ZPc4V in reply to matthanson #
Listening to Steve Reich’s ‘Electric Guitar Phase’ at a volume loud enough to drown out the raucous children’s procession roaming #lewes #
@awhillas Not one of his best but I love all the Reich… in reply to awhillas #
Enough with all this crazy video projection shiznaz for today – off to walk the dog and drink wine and maybe go see The Welfare Mothers #
http://tinyurl.com/mvjlaa – Having a bacon sandwich and coffee at Shoreham airport #
http://twitpic.com/a169y – Having a bacon sandwich and coffee at Shoreham airport #
http://twitpic.com/a3wkp – IMAG0218 #
Today’s focus: ignore hangover and experiment with vanishing points and projector calibration #