Today I was able to get 8 cameras capturing at a solid 60 fps along with 2 move controllers:




For anyone wondering about what setup I used:
Computer was i5 3.0ghz dell XPS 8300
I recorded to a 4 gig ram disk. Ram was DDR3 1333
3 Rocketfish 2 port USB 3.0 controllers and onboard USB controlled everything. None of the cards internal power is currently hooked up.
An Asus bluetooth adapter was used for the move controllers. Same model mentioned in the wiki.

In the end I was not able to get a good calibration. I assume my issue was user related and not a bug, I figure it is worth mentioning just in case. I only had time to see if I could get the whole thing capturing during lunch break. The cameras were out all out of sequence but they were pointed at the volume. I am waiting on more active USB cables so 4 of the cameras were all near the computer. Does anyone know if calibration failure is an issue with out of sequence cameras?

The error I observed was the last 4 cameras calibrated properly, the first 4 did not. The first 4 were showing all sorts of angles and the marker dots were not even in their views. The last 4 cameras had a dark yellow green consistent marker color with very little strays of any color. I was not able to process any action takes using that calibration data. Other thing to note was I calibrated using one of the move controllers with the white color setting.

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried more than 8 cameras? The cameras are so cheap it seems a shame not to if it is possible. I am going under the assumption larger volumes could benefit from extra visibility.

Hello, foy
Did you enable the 'Auto detect initial camera positions' checkbox while processing the calibartion video? If so, this may be the cause of inadequate results. Auto detection works pretty good for 3-4 cameras, but often fails with greater number. Refer to this wiki page for calibration tips.
Also, open your processed calibration project and look at the Marker misdetection percentage in the Scene tab. Switch active camera in the toolbar - the number for each of the cameras should not exceed 20% (10% or less is recommended). Otherwise it signals that your marker was badly visible to this camera. This may be caused by occlusions of the marker with your body, or going out of sight of this camera. Or maybe you should just use brighter source than PS Move's sphere. Watch through the video carefully to make proper reasoning for bad visibility.
In case of further troubles you may share with us one of your calibration videos, using your website or some file sharing service.

That option is grayed out when I load a scene using 8 cameras.

I did also finally get 8 cameras to cooperate. My guess as to the failed calibration(s) was due to a very series of very bright large windows running along one side of our room.

The good news is so far the data I am seeing from 8 cameras is substantially cleaner than 4 (as one would expect).

Wow, nice work! Crazy but cool. :)

Please continue to share your experience.

G.

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Of course! Sorry, I've totally forgot about this. I disabled this option myself when adding support for 7-8 cameras, but it's so much time since then :)

Yesterday I only had time to run a calibration and some quick shots.

Some things I noticed from yesterdays shooting:

Camera mis-detections:

Cameras 1,2,3,4,6 are all at 2.027
Camera 5 is at 2.534
Camera 7 is at 9.155
Camera 8 is at 21.014

The cameras are currently laid out in a semi circle of sorts. We are waiting on more cables to properly place the cameras.

Currently:
Cameras 2,3,4,6,7 are all at similar heights and angles.
Cameras 1,5 and 8 are the most different from the others.

Camera 8 is pointing towards some windows that weren't covered, but was at the same height as the majority of the cameras. I assume that was its misdetection issue, or possibly inadvertently me blocking it while doing the calibration pass.
Camera 5 was angled in a way that it missed a small portion of the calibration.
Camera 1 is also a high camera. It has a good view of the majority of the room

Some things I observed in the shots we captured yesterday:

I observed at least one instance of legs getting confused and tracking as one. I am certain most of the cameras had full visibility of the legs. The motion was a crouched sidestep on a circular path.

I saw one instance where 7 cameras had an arm in full view but it lost track of where it was. The body was positioned in a way that completely occluded it from only one camera - 7.

The head is still the main area we have not figured out successfully. With both 4 and 8 cameras I am seeing lots of noise and it seems head tracking, less of course with 8 cameras.Both myself and my coworker are balding to some degree. I think we need to invest in some hats or hair covering.

Feet are tracking much better even with shoes that were not tracking with our 4 camera setup. I didn't see any flipping or folded feet, just varying degree of noise.

Hi Foy. hey when you say "None of the cards internal power is currently hooked up." do you mean that you can plug usb 3 mini pci E cards on mini pci E slots without connecting the white power connector from the computer power source? the card works without connecting the power? Im asking because I had one usb 3 card that I Connected to the mini pciE slot and also the power cable and like 2 or 3 hour later , it just burnt. It stops working . not a drivers problems because it was listed as a third usb 3 controller in the device manager but I could hear a little burning sound when I was hooking all the cameras and this happens because I was turning the pc on and off a lot, but I think this mainly happens because my power source is only 850 watts for a core i7 3960x processor plus an nvidia gtx580 plus 16 memory ram, plus 3 hard drives plus an audigy sound card. I think it´s a lot of hardware for just 850 watts so adding another card just was too much.So if I can buy another usb 3 card connect it to the pcie slot and not connected the power I think I could have an extra usb 3 controller so I could use 8 cameras like you and not having the risk of this new card get burnt. Please let me know

wicq,

Thanks for the heads up. I did mean not getting power via the white internal power connectors. Actually I hadn't thought of frying anything in doing that, that's a bit of a scary thought and something to keep in mind for the future. I assumed if there was a power problem the cameras just wouldn't work :) And the cards are currently plugged in. The cables arrived on Monday. I haven't noticed anything odd, so I guess my computer had some extra juice to spare.

Foy,
If you already have the 3 usb 3.0 cards working without connecting the white power connectors, I think you should leave it like that. Mine got burnt because I did connect the power connector and I start to on and off the computer repitedly just to figure out where the cameras should be connected to have cero frame lost. So in one of those attempts I heard a burning sound and Im sure it was an excess of power sent to the usb 3.0 card. If I hadnt had the white power connector connected, my usb 3.0 card wouldn´t burnt. So I think you should leave your 3 usb cards without connecting the power. I was only asking if the cards works withouth connect the power. The one I used was an encore and Im not sure if itshould have work without the power connected because in its manual it says that plug the card in the pcie slot and connect the power too and then install the drivers.

Keep testing.
Love to see some non - post processed simple BVH files to see how well initial 8 camera does.
Unfortunately, have all the equipment, just lack the room to attempt it myself.