Hey.

I been reading some guides on how to setup single/dual sensor motion capture and on both cases my biggest room barely fits since Im rather tall (1.9m).
No matter what angle I do I end up having my back against the wall in order to fit inside the frame.
Will I still be able to do any decent mocap or should I give up and spare myself the hassle?

Anyone else having experiences trying to do any mocap in small rooms?

I think you can do it, and possibly with 2 sensors if both are at the same end of the room (60 - 90 degree setup, as opposed to near 180 and facing each other from opposite corners.) I think you'll need to perform near the far wall but not too close to it, and you won't have a lot of space to walk around it...maybe a step or two.

I'm recording with dual Kinect sensors tonight. I have a bit more space but maybe not much bigger when I factor in furniture. I sometimes use a near 180 setup but usually 60 - 90 because that gives me more walking space. I'll make measurements of my actual usable space and camera distances, and post the info this evening.

Are you planning to use Kinect One (v2) or Kinect XBox 360 sensors (v1)? The reason I ask is because Kinect One has a slightly wider FOV, so it might give a little more 'room' to perform in.

_________________
Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | Demo Reel (2017) | Demo Reel (2015) | Demo Reel (2013)


Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

I looked up the specs to confirm what I wrote above:

Kinect V1 FOV: 57° horizontal & 43° vertical field of view standard lens for Kinect 1.
Kinect V2 FOV: 70° horizontal & 60° vertical field of view wide-angle lens (quite a bit wider actually)

Kinect 1 recommended distance: 6ft
Kinect 2 recommended min distance for full body tracking (standing): 4.5 ft

Note that this doesn't necessarily mean you have half the room to perform in if you use Kinect One (v2). You'll need to avoid getting too close to the far wall, and your height might make some difference in what the sensors can actually see in the room. That said, if you're really tall, you might possibly offset the sensors tilt angle so they cover slightly different heights--that could be tricky though, and I'm not 100% sure that will work.

Let me try some tests this week--I'll let you know what I learn.

_________________
Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | Demo Reel (2017) | Demo Reel (2015) | Demo Reel (2013)


Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Thanks for quick reply.
Also sorry for unintentionally lying to you. My room is actually 360cm L x 300cm W x 230cm H.

Anyway here's a rough sketch picture of what I have in mind:

http://imgur.com/a/pyamH

If you could test this setup then that would be grand.
Im eagerly waiting for your results.

I made a very rough simulation on how the views would look like in DAZ3D.

If I were to go with dual v1 sensors I would get this.
http://imgur.com/a/vnKFk
http://imgur.com/a/Bw0o3

If I were to go with single v2 sensor I would get this.
http://imgur.com/a/ooJVf

The single sensor seems to give me a bit more breathing space and it's much cheaper but it comes at a cost of losing the ability of tracking rotations.
I'll probably go with it anyway since I wont be able to avoid post work in such small space anyway.

Also, be aware that there need to be enough floor surface in the view of a sensor for the floor to be detected correctly. A box at the right may be a problem.
In case the floor is not detected correctly, the tracking cannot consider ground collisions.

The box on the right would happen to be a sofa which has a very similiar color to the carpet.
There really isnt much I could do about it except for throwing it out and replacing it with a smaller one.
The box is 1m x 1m x 2m just as a refference and not how the actual sofa looks like.

Also in which configuration would it be a problem? the 2 kinect v1 or 1 kinect v2?

A very easy fit to this would be to go with 1 kinect v2 setup and move the camera slightly to the left.

It may be a problem for both configs, or may not. I just noticed that on your images there is far less floor than usually expected. Thus floor misdetection is also more likely.


Yes, I think this is the right way to go.

I been further messing around in Sketchup and I found few more options that take advantage of my room's 360cm length.
Rather than have cameras on the longer wall, I could instead have them on the shorter wall since it's 3m anyway.

Here's what I could do with 1 Kinect V2 70' FoV:
http://imgur.com/a/3vxfs
http://imgur.com/a/9i7nO
http://imgur.com/a/aYGvf

And here's IMO most optimal 2 Kinect V1 54' FoV Setup:
http://imgur.com/a/FqrFS

I'll make a DAZ3D simulation Tomorrow and See how it might work out.

Just following up: Sorry, I haven't had a chance to check your configuration yet. Looking at the sketch, I think the room might be too small for dual Kinect, especially with large pieces of furniture present. vmaslov is correct: the floor has be be visible for the devices to properly detect it so you need to minimize occlusion from furniture. Depending on the height of the desk, I think it might partially block the view of both Kinect sensors. When I'm shooting with dual Kinect in our living room, I have to shove one sofa about a foot away to prevent this problem, and the room is a bit bigger. You also need to be able to perform without getting too close to walls or furniture--getting too close to large objects can create data confusion. (Comments based on first drawing. Haven't seen the others sketches yet.)

I'll be shooting motions tonight so I'll see if I can simulate your proposed configs and see what it looks like 'on screen'.

_________________
Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | Demo Reel (2017) | Demo Reel (2015) | Demo Reel (2013)


Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!