Quick Start Guide for Single Depth Sensor Configuration

Revision as of 14:00, 22 February 2011

System Requirements

• CPU: x86 compatible (Intel Pentium 4 or higher, AMD Athlon or higher), dual- or quad- core is preferable
• Operating system: Windows 7 (x86 or x64), Windows Vista (x86 or x64), Windows XP SP3 (x86 or x64)
• Video card: Direct3D 10-capable (Shader Model 4.0) gaming-class graphics card (GeForce GTS 250 or Radeon HD 4850 or better recommended)
• Microsoft Kinect Sensor (“Depth Sensor”)

Software Installation

iPi Recorder

Note that even if you have used iPi Recorder before you will need to perform actions below anyway. Just letting iPi Recorder to be updated automatically will not work, because drivers for MS Kinect Sensor must be installed in addition.

iPi Recorder is a tool for recording video from web cameras and depth sensors. Download the setup package of iPi Recorder latest version: http://ipisoft.com/downloads/iPiRecorderSetup.exe. Run it. In the following dialog window make sure that item “LibUSB-win32 Driver Registration for MS Kinect Sensor” is selected:

Note that if you do not plan to use Sony PlayStation Eye cameras then you can deselect the appropriate item in the list.

Click “Install” button to start the installation process. You’ll be asked about installation of “iPi LibUSB-win32 Driver Registration for MS Kinect Sensor”:

Please read license agreement and accept it by checking the appropriate checkbox. Then press “Install” button. As soon as you get the Windows Security screen, please select “Install this driver software anyway”:

At this point the driver will complete its installation and should not give any other errors:

After that iPi Recorder itself will be installed:

After that, connect MS Kinect Sensor to your PC. Under Windows Vista and Windows 7 device initialization should be performed automatically and you’ll receive notification about it in the system tray area. Under Window XP you’ll be asked three times (for “Xbox NUI Motor”, “Xbox NUI Audio” and “Xbox NUI Camera”):

• “Can Windows connect to Windows Update to search for software?”
• “What do you want the wizard to do?”

In all three cases answer “No, not this time” and “Install the software automatically (Recommended)” respectively:

Run iPi Recorder and make sure that there is “MS Kinect Sensor” in “Camera Selector” dialog:

Select “MS Kinect Sensor” and press “Ok” button. Make sure that you can see colored “depth video” from sensor, that actual frame rate is 30 fps, that frames drop is in range from 0 to 5 and that you can change motor position using appropriate slider:

Note that values of Tilt and Roll are updated with a time lag. During recording these values cannot be updated assuming that in this case sensor should be static.

iPi Studio

Note that if you have used iPi Studio before and have Internet connection on your computer then you only need to let iPi Studio to automatically update:

iPi Studio is a core software of iPi Desktop Motion Capture (iPi DMC) solution. It’s used to process pre-recorded video and export resulted animation into most popular formats. You can use 30 days free trial. To install iPi Studio please download and run setup program: http://ipisoft.com/downloads/iPiStudioSetup.exe. Then, follow instructions of the installation wizard.

As a result of installation, iPi Studio will be executed. You will be prompted to enter unlock/trial key:

To obtain trial key please register to our user community forum: http://ipisoft.com/forum/ucp.php?mode=register. After registration please login to forum and take trial license key from forum’s “User Control Panel”:

Note that if you don’t receive activation e-mail after registration then:

1. Make sure that this e-mail is not in “Spam” folder of your mail client.
2. Check that you have entered correct e-mail address.
3. Try to resend activation email. To do it, go to login page and click “Resend activation e-mail” link.
4. If none of above actions help, please report the problem to ipi@ipisoft.com.

Recording Video from Depth Sensor

Finally, after all these preparations completed, you are ready for performance.

It is convenient to put MS Kinect Sensor on a chair or a table. The picture below will help you to understand possible capture area and required space:

Side view	Top view

Please start iPi Recorder and choose “MS Kinect Sensor” in Camera Selector dialog:

Using “Motor” slider, adjust direction of sensor so that you can see floor at the bottom and actor is fully visible (with hands up if needed):

Set output directory for recorded video:

Press “Start Video Recording” button to begin video recording.

Important! Initial two seconds of video should contain only background and static objects. Presence of actor or any moving objects in the initial two seconds of recorded video is unacceptable. It’s because initial seconds of video are used to calculate static background necessary to separate actor from other objects of 3D scene.

As soon as recorder starts and “clear” scene is recorded for a couple of seconds, go to the capture area and stand in a T-pose:

Note that current version uses only depth information to track motions. So there are no restrictions on clothes colors (just avoid shiny fabrics). Please use slim clothes to reduce noise in resulted animation.

After that you can act desired motions.

To stop recording, press “Stop Video Recording” button.

Using Windows Explorer, go to destination folder and open the recorded file with name video_YYYY-MM-DD_hh-mm-ss.avi in Windows Media Player. You should see depth information as a blue image:

Now you are ready for processing this video using iPi Studio.

Processing Video from Depth Sensor

• Run iPi Studio
• Press Ctrl+O or push “Open” button on toolbar
• Choose recorded avi file
• In the “Select Video Layout” dialog prefer the following values:
  • Depth video from MS Kinect Camera
  • Numbers of cameras: 1
  • Resolution: 640x480

• After video opening, background will be calculated automatically and position of camera will be detected based on floor plane.
• Make sure, that floor is detected correctly:
  1. Right mouse button down on 3d view port area
  2. Move mouse, as a result 3d scene will be rotated
  3. Right mouse button up
  4. Visually control that 3d points from floor are located on ground plane which is denoted by squared grid

Note that you always can come back to the camera point of view by pressing 1 key on keyboard or pushing “Camera 1” button on toolbar

• Save created project to the file by pressing Ctrl+S or pushing button “Save” on toolbar
• Dragging timeline slider to frame where actor is in T-pose
• Adjust actor height using appropriate slider on tab “Actor”
• Select “Move” tool on toolbar.
• Move actor model to left or right to approximately fit with actor silhouette on video. Note that actor model can look smaller due to its position along axis of view. Don’t pay attention to it on this step.

• Switch to “Tracking” tab and push “Refit pose” button.
• As a result model should be feted with actor image from video. If it does not happen then delete result using item “Edit” -> “Delete pose” from main menu and repeat actions.

• Using slider right from button “Show Skin” in toolbar, make sure that morph of model corresponds to the actor image. If no, than adjust arms/torso/legs morph using appropriate sliders from “Actor” tab.

• Set begging of Region-of-Interest (ROI) to the current frame with T-pose by pressing I key on keyboard or by double-clicking on the left edge of ROI bar under timeline.
• Switch to “Tracking” tab, check “Enable foot tracking” and “Enable shoulders tracking” checkboxes
• To start tracking just push “Track Forward” button

• Wait and watch...

Next steps

• Clean-up
• Animation export and motion transfer

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is tracking realtime?

A: No. You should record video first and after that process video offline. Speed of processing depends on model of Graphics Card and very from 5 to 0.25 frames per second.

Q: Does iPi DMC support facial mocap?

A: No.

Q: Are hands/fingers tracked by iPi DMC?

A: No.

Q: Hm. And what about head tracking?

A: Also no. We plan to add head tracking in future versions.

Q: What output formats are supported by iPi DMC?

A: COLLADA, BVH, SMD. Also iPi DMC can export BVH optimized for 3d Max Biped, Poser, MotionBuilder and iClone.

Q: And what about FBX?

A: Current version doesn’t support this format. But you can use Autodesk's free FBX Converter to convert your data between FBX and COLLADA format.

Q: Can I retarget result animation to my own character?

A: Yes. iPi Studio has built-in motion transfer. For more info see Animation export and motion transfer.

Q: Can I use 2 or 3 Kinects with iPi DMC?

A: No. Current version supports only one Kinect sensor.

Q: What drivers for Kinect are used in iPi DMC?

A: We use open source libusb-win32 drivers and library to communicate with device via USB. Protocol implementation is our own.

Q: Is this drivers compatible with OpenNI?

A: No. iPiRecorder with Kinect support cannot co-exist with PrimeSense's OpenNI drivers and Brekel plugin. If you want to restore PrimeSense's OpenNI drivers and Brekel plugin, you will have to uninstall "iPi LibUSB-win32 Driver Registration for MS Kinect" (see "Uninstall Program" in your Control Panel).

Q: Do you plan add support for OpenNI?

A: Yes. As soon as OpenNI drivers for Kinect will be stable and will include support of Kinect’s motor, we’ll add support for them to iPi Recorder.

Q: What does "iPi DMC" means?

A: "iPi DMC" is abbreviation for "iPi Desktop Motion Caption". It consists of several programs among which:

• iPi Recorder - tool for recording video from web cameras and depth sensors;
• iPi Studio - main software for processing pre-recorded video and exporting result animation.

Q: Is there version for Mac?

A: To run this software on Mac you need to install Windows on it using Boot Camp or Parallels Desktop for Mac

Q: How can I buy?

A: You can buy online: http://ipisoft.com/sales.php. Note that Express Edition is in beta status, thus you can't buy it now - use free trial instead or buy Basic edition.