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Oat is a set of programs for processing images, extracting object position information, and streaming data to disk and/or the network in real-time. Oat subcommands are independent programs that each perform a single operation but that can communicate through shared memory. This allows a user to chain operations together in arrangements suitable for particular context or tracking requirement. This architecture enables scripted construction of custom data processing chains. Oat is primarily used for real-time animal position tracking in the context of experimental neuroscience, but can be used in any circumstance that requires real-time object tracking.

Build Status DOI

Contributors

Table of Contents

\newpage

Manual

Introduction

Oat's design is influenced by the UNIX philosophy, suckless tools, and MEABench. Oat consists of a set of small, composable programs (called components). Components are equipped with standard interfaces that permit communication through shared memory to capture, process, and record video streams. Currently, Oat components act on two basic data types: frames and positions.

  • frame - Video frame.
  • position - 2D position.

Oat components can be chained together to realize custom dataflow networks that operate on instances of the aforementioned datatypes, called tokens. Token processing pipelines can be split and merged while maintaining thread-safety and sample synchronization. The messaging library underlying the communication between Oat components has been optimized to reduce token copying. For instance, frame passing is performed using a zero-copy protocol. This means that passing frames between components in a user-configured processing network incurs almost no memory or CPU cost compared to the monolithc equivalent. Further, great care was taken during implementations of Oat components to minimize time spent in critical sections. This means that individual components execute largely in parallel, even when components are highly interdependent, facilitating efficient use of multi-core CPUs and GPU-based processing acceleration.

To get a feel for how Oat is used, here is a script to detect the position of a single object in pre-recorded video file:

# Serve frames from a video file to the 'raw' stream
oat frameserve file raw -f ./video.mpg &

# Perform background subtraction on the 'raw' stream
# Serve the result to the 'filt' stream
# If an appropriately configured GPU is available, this process will
# use it
oat framefilt mog raw filt &

# Perform color-based object position detection on the 'filt' stream
# Serve the object positionto the 'pos' stream. Allow parameter tuning
# through a simple GUI.
oat posidet hsv filt pos --tune &

# Decorate the 'raw' stream with the detected position form the `pos` stream
# Serve the decorated images to the 'dec' stream
oat decorate -p pos raw dec &

# View the 'dec' stream
oat view frame dec &

# Record the 'dec' and 'pos' streams to file in the current directory
oat record -i dec -p pos -f ./

This script has the following graphical representation:

frameserve ---> framefilt ---> posidet ---> decorate ---> view
           \                          \    /        \
             -----------------------------           ---> record
                                        \           /
                                          ---------

Generally, an Oat component is called in the following pattern:

oat <component> [TYPE] [IO] [CONFIGURATION]

The <component> indicates the component that will be executed. Components are classified according to their type signature. For instance, framefilt (frame filter) accepts a frame and produces a frame. posifilt (position filter) accepts a position and produces a position. frameserve (frame server) produces a frame, and so on. The TYPE parameter specifies a concrete type of transform (e.g. for the framefilt component, this could be bsub for background subtraction). The IO specification indicates where the component will receive data from and to where the processed data should be published. A description of a component's purpose, its available TYPEs and correct IO specification can be examined using the --help command line switch

oat <component> --help

The CONFIGURATION specification is used to provide parameters to shape the component's operation and are TYPE-specific. Information on program options for a particular concrete transform TYPE can be printed using

oat <component> <type> --help

In addition to command line input, all options can be specified using a configuration file which is provided to the program using the -c command line argument.

  -c [ --config ] arg             Configuration file/key pair.
                                  e.g. 'config.toml mykey'

For instance:

oat frameserve gige raw -c config.toml gige-config

The configuration file may contain many configuration tables that specify options for multiple oat programs. These tables are addressed using a key (gige-config) in the example above. Configuration files are written in plain text using TOML. A multi-component processing script can share a configuration file because each component accesses parameter information using a file/key pair, like so

[key]
parameter_0 = 1                 # Integer
parameter_1 = true              # Boolean
parameter_2 = 3.14              # Double
parameter_3 = [1.0, 2.0, 3.0]   # Array of doubles

or more concretely,

# Example configuration file for frameserve --> framefilt
[frameserve-config]
frame_rate = 30                 # FPS
roi = [10, 10, 100, 100]        # Region of interest

[framefilt-config]
mask = "~/Desktop/mask.png"     # Path to mask file

These could then be used in a processing script as follows:

oat frameserve gige raw -c config.toml frameserve-config &
oat framefilt mask raw filt -c config.toml framefilt-config

The type and sanity of parameter values are checked by Oat before they are used. Below, the type signature, usage information, available configuration parameters, examples, and configuration options are provided for each Oat component.

\newpage

Frame Server

oat-frameserve - Serves video streams to shared memory from physical devices (e.g. webcam or GIGE camera) or from file.

Signature

oat-frameserve --> frame

Usage

Usage: frameserve [INFO]
   or: frameserve TYPE SINK [CONFIGURATION]
Serve frames to SINK.

INFO:
  --help                 Produce help message.
  -v [ --version ]       Print version information.

TYPE
  wcam: Onboard or USB webcam.
  usb: Point Grey USB camera.
  gige: Point Grey GigE camera.
  file: Video from file (*.mpg, *.avi, etc.).
  test: Write-free static image server for performance testing.

SINK:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment to publish frames to (e.g. raw).

Configuration Options

TYPE = wcam


  -i [ --index ] arg      Camera index. Useful in multi-camera imaging 
                          configurations. Defaults to 0.
  -r [ --fps ] arg        Frames to serve per second. Defaults to 20.
  --roi arg               Four element array of unsigned ints, 
                          [x0,y0,width,height],defining a rectangular region of
                          interest. Originis upper left corner. ROI must fit 
                          within acquiredmat size. Defaults to full sensor 
                          size.

TYPE = gige and usb


  -i [ --index ] arg             Camera index. Defaults to 0. Useful in 
                                 multi-camera imaging configurations.
  -r [ --fps ] arg               Acquisition frame rate in Hz. Ignored if 
                                 trigger-mode > -1 and enforce_fps=false. 
                                 Defaults to the maximum frame rate.
  -e [ --enforce-fps ]           If true, ensures that frames are produced at 
                                 the fps setting bool retransmitting frames if 
                                 the requested period is exceeded. This is 
                                 sometimes needed in the case of an external 
                                 trigger because PG cameras sometimes just 
                                 ignore them. I have opened a support ticket on
                                 this, but PG has no solution yet.
  -s [ --shutter ] arg           Shutter time in milliseconds. Defaults to 
                                 auto.
  -C [ --color ] arg             Pixel color format. Defaults to BRG.
                                 Values:
                                   GREY:  8-bit Greyscale image.
                                   BRG: 8-bit, 3-chanel, BGR Color image.
                                 
  -g [ --gain ] arg              Sensor gain value, specified in dB. Defaults 
                                 to auto.
  -S [ --strobe-pin ] arg        Hardware pin number on that a gate signal for 
                                 the camera shutter is copied to. Defaults to 
                                 1.
  -m [ --trigger-mode ] arg      Shutter trigger mode. Defaults to -1.
                                 
                                 Values:
                                  -1:  No external trigger. Frames are captured
                                       in free-running mode at the currently 
                                       set frame rate.
                                   0:  Standard external trigger. Trigger edge 
                                       causes sensor exposure, then sensor 
                                       readout to internal memory.
                                   1:  Bulb shutter mode. Same as 0, except 
                                       that sensor exposure duration is 
                                       determined by trigger active duration.
                                  13:  Low smear mode. Same as 0, speed of the 
                                       vertical clock is increased near the end
                                       of the integration cycle.
                                  14:  Overlapped exposure/readout external 
                                       trigger. Sensor exposure occurs during 
                                       sensory readout to internal memory. This
                                       is the fastest option.
  -p [ --trigger-rising ]        True to trigger on rising edge, false to 
                                 trigger on falling edge. Defaults to true.
  -t [ --trigger-pin ] arg       GPIO pin number on that trigger is sent to if 
                                 external shutter triggering is used. Defaults 
                                 to 0.
  -R [ --roi ] arg               Four element array of unsigned ints, 
                                 [x0,y0,width,height],defining a rectangular 
                                 region of interest. Originis upper left 
                                 corner. ROI must fit within acquiredframe 
                                 size. Defaults to full sensor size.
  -b [ --bin ] arg               Two element array of unsigned ints, [bx,by], 
                                 defining how pixels should be binned before 
                                 transmission to the computer. Defaults to 
                                 [1,1] (no binning).
  -w [ --white-balance ] arg     Two element array of unsigned integers, 
                                 [red,blue], used to specify the white balance.
                                 Values are between 0 and 1000. Only works for 
                                 color sensors. Defaults to off.
  -W [ --auto-white-balance ]    If specified, the white balance will be 
                                 adjusted by the camera. This option overrides 
                                 manual white-balance specification.

TYPE = file


  -f [ --video-file ] arg   Path to video file to serve frames from.
  -r [ --fps ] arg          Frames to serve per second.
  --roi arg                 Four element array of unsigned ints, 
                            [x0,y0,width,height],defining a rectangular region 
                            of interest. Originis upper left corner. ROI must 
                            fit within acquiredframe size. Defaults to full 
                            video size.

TYPE = test


  -f [ --test-image ] arg   Path to test image used as frame source.
  -C [ --color ] arg        Pixel color format. Defaults to BGR.
                            Values:
                              GREY:  8-bit Greyscale image.
                              BGR: 8-bit, 3-chanel, BGR Color image.
                            
  -r [ --fps ] arg          Frames to serve per second.
  -n [ --num-frames ] arg   Number of frames to serve before exiting.

Examples

# Serve to the 'wraw' stream from a webcam
oat frameserve wcam wraw

# Stream to the 'graw' stream from a point-grey GIGE camera
# using the gige_config tag from the config.toml file
oat frameserve gige graw -c config.toml gige_config

# Serve to the 'fraw' stream from a previously recorded file
# using the file_config tag from the config.toml file
oat frameserve file fraw -f ./video.mpg -c config.toml file_config

\newpage

Frame Filter

oat-framefilt - Receive frames from a frame source, filter, and publish to a second memory segment. Generally used to pre-process frames prior to object position detection. For instance, framefilt could be used to perform background subtraction or application of a mask to isolate a region of interest.

Signature

frame --> oat-framefilt --> frame

Usage

Usage: framefilt [INFO]
   or: framefilt TYPE SOURCE SINK [CONFIGURATION]
Filter frames from SOURCE and publish filtered frames to SINK.

INFO:
  --help                 Produce help message.
  -v [ --version ]       Print version information.

TYPE
  bsub: Background subtraction
  col: Color conversion
  mask: Binary mask
  mog: Mixture of Gaussians background segmentation.
  undistort: Correct for lens distortion using lens distortion model.
  thresh: Simple intensity threshold.

SOURCE:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment to receive frames from (e.g. raw).

SINK:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment to publish frames to (e.g. filt).

Configuration Options

TYPE = bsub


  -a [ --adaptation-coeff ] arg   Scalar value, 0 to 1.0, specifying how 
                                  quickly the new frames are used to update the
                                  backgound image. Default is 0, specifying no 
                                  adaptation and a static background image that
                                  is never updated.
  -f [ --background ] arg         Path to background image used for 
                                  subtraction. If not provided, the first frame
                                  is used as the background image.

TYPE = mask


  -f [ --mask ] arg       Path to a binary image used to mask frames from 
                          SOURCE. SOURCE frame pixels with indices 
                          corresponding to non-zero value pixels in the mask 
                          image will be unaffected. Others will be set to zero.
                          This image must have the same dimensions as frames 
                          from SOURCE.

TYPE = mog


  -a [ --adaptation-coeff ] arg   Value, 0 to 1.0, specifying how quickly the 
                                  statistical model of the background image 
                                  should be updated. Default is 0, specifying 
                                  no adaptation.

TYPE = undistort


  -k [ --camera-matrix ] arg       Nine element float array, [K11,K12,...,K33],
                                   specifying the 3x3 camera matrix for your 
                                   imaging setup. Generated by oat-calibrate.
  -d [ --distortion-coeffs ] arg   Five to eight element float array, 
                                   [x1,x2,x3,...], specifying lens distortion 
                                   coefficients. Generated by oat-calibrate.

TYPE = thresh


  -I [ --intensity ] arg   Array of ints between 0 and 256, [min,max], 
                           specifying the intensity passband.

Examples

# Receive frames from 'raw' stream
# Perform background subtraction using the first frame as the background
# Publish result to 'sub' stream
oat framefilt bsub raw sub

# Receive frames from 'raw' stream
# Change the underlying pixel color to single-channel GREY
oat framefilt col raw gry -C GREY

# Receive frames from 'raw' stream
# Apply a mask specified in a configuration file
# Publish result to 'roi' stream
oat framefilt mask raw roi -c config.toml mask-config

\newpage

Frame Viewer

oat-view - Receive frames from named shared memory and display them on a monitor. Additionally, allow the user to take snapshots of the currently displayed frame by pressing s while the display window is in focus.

Signature

token --> oat-view

Usage

Usage: view [INFO]
   or: view TYPE SOURCE [CONFIGURATION]
Graphical visualization of SOURCE stream.

INFO:
  --help                 Produce help message.
  -v [ --version ]       Print version information.

TYPE
  frame: Display frames in a GUI

SOURCE:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment to receive frames from (e.g. raw).

Configuration Options

TYPE = frame

  -r [ --display-rate ] arg   Maximum rate at which the viewer is updated 
                              irrespective of its source's rate. If frames are 
                              supplied faster than this rate, they are ignored.
                              Setting this to a reasonably low value prevents 
                              the viewer from consuming processing resorces in 
                              order to update the display faster than is 
                              visually perceptable. Defaults to 30.
  -f [ --snapshot-path ] arg  The path to which in which snapshots will be 
                              saved. If a folder is designated, the base file 
                              name will be SOURCE. The timestamp of the 
                              snapshot will be prepended to the file name. 
                              Defaults to the current directory.

Example

# View frame stream named raw
oat view frame raw

# View frame stream named raw and specify that snapshots should be saved
# to the Desktop with base name 'snapshot'
oat view frame raw -f ~/Desktop -n snapshot

\newpage

Position Detector

oat-posidet - Receive frames from named shared memory and perform object position detection within a frame stream using one of several methods. Publish detected positions to a second segment of shared memory.

Signature

frame --> oat-posidet --> position

Usage

Usage: posidet [INFO]
   or: posidet TYPE SOURCE SINK [CONFIGURATION]
Perform object detection on frames from SOURCE and publish object positions to SINK.

INFO:
  --help                 Produce help message.
  -v [ --version ]       Print version information.

TYPE
  diff: Difference detector (color or grey-scale, motion)
  hsv: HSV color thresholds (color)
  thresh: Simple amplitude threshold (mono)

SOURCE:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment to receive frames from (e.g. raw).

SINK:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment to publish positions to (e.g. pos).

Configuration Options

TYPE = hsv


  -H [ --h-thresh ] arg   Array of ints between 0 and 256, [min,max], 
                          specifying the hue passband.
  -S [ --s-thresh ] arg   Array of ints between 0 and 256, [min,max], 
                          specifying the saturation passband.
  -V [ --v-thresh ] arg   Array of ints between 0 and 256, [min,max], 
                          specifying the value passband.
  -e [ --erode ] arg      Contour erode kernel size in pixels (normalized box 
                          filter).
  -d [ --dilate ] arg     Contour dilation kernel size in pixels (normalized 
                          box filter).
  -a [ --area ] arg       Array of floats, [min,max], specifying the minimum 
                          and maximum object contour area in pixels^2.
  -t [ --tune ]           If true, provide a GUI with sliders for tuning 
                          detection parameters.

TYPE = diff


  -d [ --diff-threshold ] arg   Intensity difference threshold to consider an 
                                object contour.
  -b [ --blur ] arg             Blurring kernel size in pixels (normalized box 
                                filter).
  -a [ --area ] arg             Array of floats, [min,max], specifying the 
                                minimum and maximum object contour area in 
                                pixels^2.
  -t [ --tune ]                 If true, provide a GUI with sliders for tuning 
                                detection parameters.

TYPE = thresh


  -T [ --thresh ] arg     Array of ints between 0 and 256, [min,max], 
                          specifying the intensity passband.
  -e [ --erode ] arg      Contour erode kernel size in pixels (normalized box 
                          filter).
  -d [ --dilate ] arg     Contour dilation kernel size in pixels (normalized 
                          box filter).
  -a [ --area ] arg       Array of floats, [min,max], specifying the minimum 
                          and maximum object contour area in pixels^2.
  -t [ --tune ]           If true, provide a GUI with sliders for tuning 
                          detection parameters.

Example

# Use color-based object detection on the 'raw' frame stream
# publish the result to the 'cpos' position stream
# Use detector settings supplied by the hsv_config key in config.toml
oat posidet hsv raw cpos -c config.toml hsv_config

# Use motion-based object detection on the 'raw' frame stream
# publish the result to the 'mpos' position stream
oat posidet diff raw mpos

\newpage

Position Generator

oat-posigen - Generate positions for testing downstream components. Publish generated positions to shared memory.

Signature

oat-posigen --> position

Usage

Usage: posigen [INFO]
   or: posigen TYPE SINK [CONFIGURATION]
Publish generated positions to SINK.

INFO:
  --help                 Produce help message.
  -v [ --version ]       Print version information.

TYPE
  rand2D: Randomly accelerating 2D Position

SINK:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment to publish positions to (e.g. pos).

Configuration Options

TYPE = rand2D

  -r [ --rate ] arg          Samples per second. Defaults to as fast as 
                             possible.
  -n [ --num-samples ] arg   Number of position samples to generate and serve. 
                             Deafaults to approximately infinite.
  -R [ --room ] arg          Array of floats, [x0,y0,width,height], specifying 
                             the boundaries in which generated positions 
                             reside. The room has periodic boundaries so when a
                             position leaves one side it will enter the 
                             opposing one.

  -a [ --sigma-accel ] arg   Standard deviation of normally-distributed random 
                             accelerations

Example

# Publish randomly moving positions to the 'pos' position stream
oat posigen rand2D pos

\newpage

Position Filter

oat-posifilt - Receive positions from named shared memory, filter, and publish to a second memory segment. Can be used to, for example, remove discontinuities due to noise or discontinuities in position detection with a Kalman filter or annotate categorical position information based on user supplied region contours.

Signature

position --> oat-posifilt --> position

Usage

Usage: posifilt [INFO]
   or: posifilt TYPE SOURCE SINK [CONFIGURATION]
Filter positions from SOURCE and publish filtered positions to SINK.

INFO:
  --help                 Produce help message.
  -v [ --version ]       Print version information.

TYPE
  kalman: Kalman filter
  homography: homography transform
  region: position region annotation

SOURCE:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment to receive positions from (e.g. pos).

SINK:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment to publish positions to (e.g. filt).

Configuration Options

TYPE = kalman


  --dt arg                   Kalman filter time step in seconds.
  -T [ --timeout ] arg       Seconds to perform position estimation detection 
                             with lack of position measure. Defaults to 0.
  -a [ --sigma-accel ] arg   Standard deviation of normally distributed, random
                             accelerations used by the internal model of object
                             motion (position units/s2; e.g. pixels/s2).
  -n [ --sigma-noise ] arg   Standard deviation of randomly distributed 
                             position measurement noise (position units; e.g. 
                             pixels).
  -t [ --tune ]              If true, provide a GUI with sliders for tuning 
                             filter parameters.

TYPE = homography


  -H [ --homography ] arg   A nine-element array of floats, [h11,h12,...,h33], 
                            specifying a homography matrix for 2D position. 
                            Generally produced by oat-calibrate homography.

TYPE = region


  --<regions> arg         !Config file only!
                          Regions contours are specified as n-point matrices, 
                          [[x0, y0],[x1, y1],...,[xn, yn]], which define the 
                          vertices of a polygon:
                          
                            <region> = [[+float, +float],
                                        [+float, +float],
                                        ...              
                                        [+float, +float]]
                          
                          The name of the contour is used as the region label 
                          (10 characters max). For example, here is an 
                          octagonal region called CN and a tetragonal region 
                          called R0:
                          
                            CN = [[336.00, 272.50],
                                  [290.00, 310.00],
                                  [289.00, 369.50],
                                  [332.67, 417.33],
                                  [389.33, 413.33],
                                  [430.00, 375.33],
                                  [433.33, 319.33],
                                  [395.00, 272.00]]
                          
                            R0 = [[654.00, 380.00],
                                  [717.33, 386.67],
                                  [714.00, 316.67],
                                  [655.33, 319.33]]

Example

# Perform Kalman filtering on object position from the 'pos' position stream
# publish the result to the 'kpos' position stream
# Use detector settings supplied by the kalman_config key in config.toml
oat posifilt kalman pos kfilt -c config.toml kalman_config

\newpage

Position Combiner

oat-posicom - Combine positions according to a specified operation.

Signature

position 0 --> |
position 1 --> |
  :            | oat-posicom --> position
position N --> |

Usage

Usage: posicom [INFO]
   or: posicom TYPE SOURCES SINK [CONFIGURATION]
Combine positional information from two or more SOURCES and Publish combined position to SINK.

INFO:
  --help                 Produce help message.
  -v [ --version ]       Print version information.

TYPE
  mean: Geometric mean of positions

SOURCES:
  User-supplied position source names (e.g. pos1 pos2).

SINK:
  User-supplied position sink name (e.g. pos).

Configuration Options

TYPE = mean


  -h [ --heading-anchor ] arg   Index of the SOURCE position to use as an 
                                anchor when calculating object heading. In this
                                case the heading equals the mean directional 
                                vector between this anchor position and all 
                                other SOURCE positions. If unspecified, the 
                                heading is not calculated.

Example

# Generate the geometric mean of 'pos1' and 'pos2' streams
# Publish the result to the 'com' stream
oat posicom mean pos1 pos2 com

Frame Decorator

oat-decorate - Annotate frames with sample times, dates, and/or positional information.

Signature

     frame --> |
position 0 --> |
position 1 --> | oat-decorate --> frame
  :            |
position N --> |

Usage

Usage: decorate [INFO]
   or: decorate SOURCE SINK [CONFIGURATION]
Decorate the frames from SOURCE, e.g. with object position markers and sample number. Publish decorated frames to SINK.

SOURCE:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment from which frames are received (e.g. raw).

SINK:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment to publish frames to (e.g. out).

INFO:
  --help                          Produce help message.
  -v [ --version ]                Print version information.

CONFIGURATION:
  -c [ --config ] arg             Configuration file/key pair.
                                  e.g. 'config.toml mykey'

  -p [ --position-sources ] arg   The name of position SOURCE(s) used to draw 
                                  object position markers.
                                  
  -t [ --timestamp ]              Write the current date and time on each 
                                  frame.
                                  
  -s [ --sample ]                 Write the frame sample number on each frame.
                                  
  -S [ --sample-code ]            Write the binary encoded sample on the corner
                                  of each frame.
                                  
  -R [ --region ]                 Write region information on each frame if 
                                  there is a position stream that contains it.
                                  
  -h [ --history ]                Display position history.
                                  

Example

# Add textual sample number to each frame from the 'raw' stream
oat decorate raw -s

# Add position markers to each frame from the 'raw' stream to indicate
# objection positions for the 'pos1' and 'pos2' streams
oat decorate raw -p pos1 pos2

\newpage

Recorder

oat-record - Save frame and position streams to file.

  • frame streams are compressed and saved as individual video files ( H.264 compression format AVI file).
  • position streams saved to separate JSON file. Optionally, they can be saved to numpy binary files. JSON position files have the following structure:
{
    oat-version: X.X,
    header: {
        timestamp: YYYY-MM-DD-hh-mm-ss,
        sample_rate_hz: X.X
    },
    positions: [
        position, 
        position, 
        ..., 
        position 
    ]
}

where each position object is defined as:

{
  tick: Int,                  | Sample number
  usec: Int,                  | Microseconds associated with current sample number
  unit: Int,                  | Enum specifying length units (0=pixels, 1=meters)
  pos_ok: Bool,               | Boolean indicating if position is valid
  pos_xy: [Double, Double],   | Position x,y values
  vel_ok: Bool,               | Boolean indicating if velocity is valid
  vel_xy: [Double, Double],   | Velocity x,y values
  head_ok: Bool,              | Boolean indicating if heading  is valid
  head_xy: [Double, Double],  | Heading x,y values
  reg_ok: Bool,               | Boolean indicating if region tag  is valid
  reg: String                 | Region tag
}

When using JSON and the consise-file option is specified, data fields are only populated if the values are valid. For instance, in the case that only object position is valid, and the object velocity, heading, and region information are not calculated, an example position data point would look like this:

{ tick: 501,
  usec: 50100000,
  unit: 0,
  pos_ok: True,
  pos_xy: [300.0, 100.0],
  vel_ok: False,
  head_ok: False,
  reg_ok: False }

When using binary file format, position entries occupy single elements of a numpy structured array with the following dtype:

[('tick', '<u8'), 
 ('usec', '<u8'), 
 ('unit', '<i4'), 
 ('pos_ok', 'i1'), 
 ('pos_xy', '<f8', (2,)), 
 ('vel_ok', 'i1'), 
 ('vel_xy', '<f8', (2,)), 
 ('head_ok', 'i1'), 
 ('head_xy', '<f8', (2,)), 
 ('reg_ok', 'i1'), 
 ('reg', 'S10')]

Multiple recorders can be used in parallel to (1) parallelize the computational load of video compression, which tends to be quite intense and (2) save to multiple locations simultaneously (3) to save the same data stream multiple times in different formats.

Signature

position 0 --> |
position 1 --> |
  :            |
position N --> |
               | oat-record
   frame 0 --> |
   frame 1 --> |
     :         |
   frame N --> |

Usage

Usage: record [INFO]
   or: record [CONFIGURATION]
Record any Oat token source(s).

INFO:
  --help                         Produce help message.
  -v [ --version ]               Print version information.

CONFIGURATION:
  -s [ --frame-sources ] arg     The names of the FRAME SOURCES that supply 
                                 images to save to video.
  -p [ --position-sources ] arg  The names of the POSITION SOURCES that supply 
                                 object positions to be recorded.
  -c [ --config ] arg            Configuration file/key pair.
                                 e.g. 'config.toml mykey'

  -n [ --filename ] arg          The base file name. If not specified, defaults
                                 to the SOURCE name.
  -f [ --folder ] arg            The path to the folder to which the video 
                                 stream and position data will be saved. If not
                                 specified, defaults to the current directory.
  -d [ --date ]                  If specified, YYYY-MM-DD-hh-mm-ss_ will be 
                                 prepended to the filename.
  -o [ --allow-overwrite ]       If set and save path matches and existing 
                                 file, the file will be overwritten instead of 
                                 a incremental numerical index being appended 
                                 to the file name.
  -F [ --fourcc ] arg            Four character code (https://en.wikipedia.org/
                                 wiki/FourCC) used to specify the codec used 
                                 for AVI video compression. Must be specified 
                                 as a 4-character string (see 
                                 http://www.fourcc.org/codecs.php for possible 
                                 options). Not all valid FOURCC codes will 
                                 work: it must be implemented by the low  level
                                 writer. Common values are 'DIVX' or 'H264'. 
                                 Defaults to 'None' indicating uncompressed 
                                 video.
  -b [ --binary-file ]           Position data will be written as numpy data 
                                 file (version 1.0) instead of JSON. Each 
                                 position data point occupies a single entry in
                                 a structured numpy array. Individual position 
                                 characteristics are described in the arrays 
                                 dtype.
  -c [ --concise-file ]          If set and using JSON file format, 
                                 indeterminate position data fields will not be
                                 written e.g. pos_xy will not be written even 
                                 when pos_ok = false. This means that position 
                                 objects will be of variable size depending on 
                                 the validity of whether a position was 
                                 detected or not, potentially complicating file
                                 parsing.
  --interactive                  Start recorder with interactive controls 
                                 enabled.
  --rpc-endpoint arg             Yield interactive control of the recorder to a
                                 remote ZMQ REQ socket using an interal REP 
                                 socket with ZMQ style endpoint specifier: 
                                 '<transport>://<host>:<port>'. For instance, 
                                 'tcp://*:5555' to specify TCP communication on
                                 ports 5555.

Example

# Save positional stream 'pos' to current directory
oat record -p pos

# Save positional stream 'pos1' and 'pos2' to current directory
oat record -p pos1 pos2

# Save positional stream 'pos1' and 'pos2' to Desktop directory and
# prepend the timestamp to the file name
oat record -p pos1 pos2 -d -f ~/Desktop

# Save frame stream 'raw' to current directory
oat record -s raw

# Save frame stream 'raw' and positional stream 'pos' to Desktop
# directory and prepend the timestamp and the word 'test' to each filename
oat record -s raw -p pos -d -f ~/Desktop -n test

# Save the pos stream twice, one binary and one JSON file, in the current
# directory
oat record -p pos &
oat record -p pos -b

\newpage

Position Socket

oat-posisock - Stream detected object positions to the network in either client or server configurations.

Signature

position --> oat-posisock

Usage

Usage: posisock [INFO]
   or: posisock TYPE SOURCE [CONFIGURATION]
Send positions from SOURCE to a remote endpoint.

INFO:
  --help                 Produce help message.
  -v [ --version ]       Print version information.

TYPE:
  std: Asynchronous position dump to stdout.
  pub: Asynchronous position publisher over ZMQ socket.
       Publishes positions without request to potentially many
       subscribers.
  rep: Synchronous position replier over ZMQ socket. 
       Sends positions in response to requests from a single
       endpoint.Several transport/protocol options. The most
       useful are tcp and interprocess (ipc).
  udp: Asynchronous, client-side, unicast user datagram protocol
       over a traditional BSD-style socket.

SOURCE:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment to receive positions from (e.g. pos).

Configuration Options

TYPE = std


  -p [ --pretty-print ]    If true, print formated positions to the command 
                           line.

TYPE = pub


  -e [ --endpoint ] arg   ZMQ-style endpoint. For TCP: 
                          '<transport>://<host>:<port>'. For instance, 
                          'tcp://*:5555'. Or, for interprocess communication: 
                          '<transport>:///<user-named-pipe>. For instance 
                          'ipc:///tmp/test.pipe'.

TYPE = rep


  -e [ --endpoint ] arg   ZMQ-style endpoint. For TCP: 
                          '<transport>://<host>:<port>'. For instance, 
                          'tcp://*:5555'. Or, for interprocess communication: 
                          '<transport>:///<user-named-pipe>. For instance 
                          'ipc:///tmp/test.pipe'.

type = udp


  -h [ --host ] arg       Host IP address of remote device to send positions 
                          to. For instance, '10.0.0.1'.
  -p [ --port ] arg       Port number of endpoint on remote device to send 
                          positions to. For instance, 5555.

Example

# Reply to requests for positions from the 'pos' stream to port 5555 using TCP
oat posisock rep pos -e tcp://*:5555

# Asychronously publish positions from the 'pos' stream to port 5556 using TCP
oat posisock pub pos -e tcp://*:5556

# Dump positions from the 'pos' stream to stdout
oat posisock std pos

\newpage

Buffer

oat-buffer - A first in, first out (FIFO) token buffer that can be use to decouple asynchronous portions of a data processing network. An example of this is the case when a precise external clock is used to govern image acquisition via a physical trigger line. In this case, 'hickups' in the data processing network following the camera should not cause the camera to skip frames. Of course, there is no free lunch: if the processing pipline cannot keep up with the external clock on average, then the buffer will eventually fill and overflow.

Signatures

position --> oat-buffer --> position

frame --> oat-buffer --> frame

Usage

Usage: buffer [INFO]
   or: buffer TYPE SOURCE SINK [CONFIGURATION]
Place tokens from SOURCE into a FIFO. Publish tokens in FIFO to SINK.

INFO:
  --help                 Produce help message.
  -v [ --version ]       Print version information.

TYPE
  frame: Frame buffer
  pos2D: 2D Position buffer

SOURCE:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment to receive tokens from (e.g. input).

SINK:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment to publish tokens to (e.g. output).

Example

# Acquire frames on a gige camera driven by an exnternal trigger
oat frameserve gige raw -c config.toml gige-trig

# Buffer the frames separate asychronous sections of the processing network
oat buffer frame raw buff

# Filter the buffered frames and save
oat framefilt mog buff filt
oat record -f ~/Desktop/ -p buff filt

In the above example, one must be careful to fully separate the network across the buffer boundary in order for it to provide any functionality. For instance, if we changed the record command to the following

oat record -f ~/Desktop/ -p raw filt

Then the buffer would do nothing since the raw token stream must be synchronous with the recorder, which bypasses the buffer. In this case, the buffer is just wasting CPU cycles. Here is a graphical representation of the first configuration where the oat-buffer is used properly. The synchronization boundary is shown using vertical lines.

               |
frameserve --> buffer --> framefilt --> record
               |    \                  /
               |     ------------------

In the second configuration, the connection from frameserve to record breaks the synchronization boundary.

               |
frameserve --> buffer --> framefilt --> record
          \    |                      /
           ----|----------------------

\newpage

Calibrate

oat-calibrate - Interactive program used to generate calibration parameters for an imaging system that can be used to parameterize oat-framefilt and oat-posifilt. Detailed usage instructions are displayed upon program startup.

Signature

frame --> oat-calibrate

Usage

Usage: calibrate [INFO]
   or: calibrate TYPE SOURCE SINK [CONFIGURATION]
Camera calibration and homography generation routines.

INFO:
  --help                 Produce help message.
  -v [ --version ]       Print version information.

TYPE
  camera: Generate calibration parameters (camera matrix and distortion coefficients).
  homography: Generate homography transform between pixels and world units.

SOURCE:
  User-supplied name of the memory segment to receive frames from (e.g. raw).

Configuration Options

TYPE = camera


  -k [ --calibration-key ] arg    The key name for the calibration entry that 
                                  will be inserted into the calibration file. 
                                  e.g. 'camera-1-homography'
                                  
  -f [ --calibration-path ] arg   The calibration file location. If not is 
                                  specified,defaults to './calibration.toml'. 
                                  If a folder is specified, defaults to 
                                  '<folder>/calibration.toml
                                  . If a full path including file in specified,
                                  then it will be that path without 
                                  modification.

  -s [ --chessboard-size ] arg    Int array, [x,y], specifying the number of 
                                  inside corners in the horizontal and vertical
                                  demensions of the chessboard used for 
                                  calibration.
                                  
  -w [ --square-width ] arg       The length/width of a single chessboard 
                                  square in meters.
                                  

TYPE = homography


  -k [ --calibration-key ] arg    The key name for the calibration entry that 
                                  will be inserted into the calibration file. 
                                  e.g. 'camera-1-homography'
                                  
  -f [ --calibration-path ] arg   The calibration file location. If not is 
                                  specified,defaults to './calibration.toml'. 
                                  If a folder is specified, defaults to 
                                  '<folder>/calibration.toml
                                  . If a full path including file in specified,
                                  then it will be that path without 
                                  modification.

  -m [ --method ] arg             Homography estimation method. Defaults to 0.
                                  
                                  Values:
                                    0: RANSAC-based robust estimation method 
                                       (automatic outlier rejection).
                                    1: Best-fit using all data points.
                                    2: Compute the homography that fits four 
                                       points. Useful when frames contain known
                                       fiducial marks.
                                  

\newpage

Kill

oat-kill - Issue SIGINT to all running Oat processes started by the calling user. A side effect of Oat's architecture is that components can become orphaned in certain circumstances: abnormal termination of attached sources or sinks, running pure sources in the background and forgetting about them, etc. This utility will gracefully interrupt all currently running oat components.

Usage

Usage: kill

Example

# Interupt all currently running oat components
oat kill

\newpage

Clean

oat-clean - Programmer's utility for cleaning shared memory segments after following abnormal component termination. Not required unless a program terminates without cleaning up shared memory. If you are using this for things other than development, then please submit a bug report.

Usage

Usage: clean [INFO]
   or: clean NAMES [CONFIGURATION]
Deallocate the named shared memory segments specified by NAMES.

INFO:
  --help                Produce help message.
  -v [ --version ]      Print version information.
  -q [ --quiet ]        Quiet mode. Prevent output text.
  -l [ --legacy ]       Legacy mode. Append  "_sh_mem" to input NAMES before 
                        removing.

Example

# Remove raw and filt blocks from shared memory after abnormal terminatiot of
# some components that created them
oat clean raw filt

\newpage

Installation

First, ensure that you have installed all dependencies required for the components and build configuration you are interested in in using. For more information on dependencies, see the dependencies section below. To compile and install Oat, starting in the top project directory, create a build directory, navigate to it, and run cmake on the top-level CMakeLists.txt like so:

mkdir release
cd release
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release [CMAKE OPTIONS] ..
make
make install

If you just want to build a single component component, individual components can be built using make [component-name], e.g. make oat-view. Available cmake options and their default values are:

-DUSE_FLYCAP=Off // Compile with support for Point Grey Cameras
-DBUILD_DOCS=Off     // Generate Doxygen documentation

If you had to install Boost from source, you must let cmake know where it is installed via the following switch. Obviously, provide the correct path to the installation on your system.

-DBOOST_ROOT=/opt/boost_1_59_0

To complete installation, add the following to your .bashrc or equivalent. This makes Oat commands available within your user profile (once you start a new terminal):

# Make Oat commands available to user
eval "$(<path/to/Oat>/oat/bin/oat init -)"

If you get runtime link errors when you try to run an Oat program such as

error while loading shared libraries: libboost_program_options.so.1.60.0 then you need to ad the following entry to your .bashrc

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=</path/to/boost>/stage/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Dependencies

License compatibility

Oat is licensed under the GPLv3.0. Its dependences' are licenses are shown below:

  • Flycapture SDK: NON-FREE specialized license (This is an optional package. If you compile without Flycapture support, you can get around this. Also, see the GigE interface cleanup entry in the TODO section for a potentially free alternative.)
  • OpenCV: BSD
  • ZeroMQ: LGPLv3.0
  • Boost: Boost software license
  • cpptoml: Some kind of Public Domain Dedication
  • RapidJSON: BSD
  • Catch: Boost software license

These licenses do not violate the terms of Oat's license. If you feel otherwise please submit an bug report.

Flycapture SDK

The FlyCapture SDK is used to communicate with Point Grey digital cameras. It is not required to compile any Oat components. However, the Flycapture SDK is required if a Point Grey camera is to be to be used with the oat-frameserve component to acquire images. If you simply want to process pre-recorded files or use a web cam, e.g. via

oat-frameserve file raw -f video.mpg
oat-frameserve wcam raw

then this library is not required.

To install the Point Grey SDK:

  • Go to point-grey website
  • Download the FlyCapture2 SDK (version >= 2.7.3). Annoyingly, this requires you to create an account with Point Grey.
  • Extract the archive and use the install_flycapture.sh script to install the SDK on your computer and run
tar xf flycapture.tar.gz
cd flycapture
sudo ./install_flycapture

Boost

The Boost libraries are required to compile all Oat components. You will need to install versions >= 1.56. To install Boost, use APT or equivalent,

sudo apt-get install libboost-all-dev

If you are using an Ubuntu distribution older than Wily Werewolf, Boost will be too old and you will need to install from source via

# Install latest boost
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/latest/download?source=files -O tarboost
tar -xf tarboost
cd ./boost*
./bootstrap.sh
./b2 --with-program_options --with-system --with-thread --with-filesystem
cd ..
sudo mv boost* /opt

Finally, if you are getting runtime linking errors, you will need to place the following in .bashrc

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<path to boost root directory>/stage/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

OpenCV

opencv is required to compile the following oat components:

  • oat-frameserve
  • oat-framefilt
  • oat-view
  • oat-record
  • oat-posidet
  • oat-posifilt
  • oat-decorate
  • oat-positest

Note: OpenCV must be installed with ffmpeg support in order for offline analysis of pre-recorded videos to occur at arbitrary frame rates. If it is not, gstreamer will be used to serve from video files at the rate the files were recorded. No cmake flags are required to configure the build to use ffmpeg. OpenCV will be built with ffmpeg support if something like

-- FFMPEG:          YES
-- codec:           YES (ver 54.35.0)
-- format:          YES (ver 54.20.4)
-- util:            YES (ver 52.3.0)
-- swscale:         YES (ver 2.1.1)

appears in the cmake output text. The dependencies required to compile OpenCV with ffmpeg support, can be obtained as follows:

TODO

Note: To increase Oat's video visualization performance using oat view, you can build OpenCV with OpenGL and/or OpenCL support. Both will open up significant processing bandwidth to other Oat components and make for faster processing pipelines. To compile OpenCV with OpenGL and OpenCL support, first install dependencies:

sudo apt-get install libgtkglext1 libgtkglext1-dev

Then, add the -DWITH_OPENGL=ON and the -DWITH_OPENCL=ON flags to the cmake command below. OpenCV will be build with OpenGL and OpenCL support if OpenGL support: YES and Use OpenCL: YES appear in the cmake output text. If OpenCV is compiled with OpenCL and OpenGL support, the performance benefits will be automatic, no compiler options need to be set for Oat.

Note: If you have NVIDIA GPU that supports CUDA, you can build OpenCV with CUDA support to enable GPU accelerated video processing. To do this, will first need to install the CUDA toolkit.

  • Be sure to carefully read the installation instructions since it is a multistep process. Here are some additional hints that worked for me:
  • I have found that installing the toolkit via 'runfile' to be the most painless. To do this you will need to switch your system to text mode using Ctrl + Alt + F1, and killing the X-server via sudo service lightdm stop (or equivalent), and running the runfile with root privileges.
  • I have had the most success on systems that do not use GNOME or other fancy desktop environments. The install on lubunut, which uses LXDE as its desktop environment, was especially smooth.
  • Do not install the nvidia drivers along with the CUDA toolkit installation. I found that (using ubuntu 14.04) this causes all sorts of issues with X, cinnamon, etc, to the point where I could not even boot my computer into anything but text mode. Instead, install the NVIDIA drivers using either the package manager (nvidia-current) or even more preferably, using the [device-drivers]'(http://askubuntu.com/a/476659) program or equivalent.
  • If you hare getting a cv::exception complaining that about code=30(cudaErrorUnknown) "cudaGetDeviceCount(&device_count)" or similar, run the affected command as root one time.

If OpenCV is compiled with CUDA suport, the CUDA-enabled portions of the Oat codebase will be enabled automatically. No compile flags are required.

Note: GUI functionality is enhanced in OpenCV is compiled with Qt support. You can build OpenCV with Qt by first installing the Qt SDK and these dependencies:

# Additional dependencies for integraged QT with OpenGL
sudo apt-get install libqt5opengl5 libqt5opengl5-dev

The you can compile OpenCV using QT support by adding -DWITH_QT=ON flag to the cmake command below. QT functionality will then be used by Oat automatically.

Finally, to compile and install OpenCV:

# Install OpenCV's dependencies
sudo apt-get install build-essential # Compiler
sudo apt-get install cmake git # For building opencv and Oat
sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev pkg-config libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libswscale-dev libv4l-dev # Required
sudo apt-get install libv4l-dev # Allows changing frame rate with webcams
sudo apt-get install python-dev python-numpy libtbb2 libtbb-dev libjpeg-dev libpng-dev libtiff-dev libjasper-dev libdc1394-22-dev
sudo apt-get install # ffmpeg support [TODO]
sudo apt-get install # OpenGL support [TODO]
sudo ldconfig -v

# Get OpenCV
wget https://github.com/Itseez/opencv/archive/3.1.0.zip -O opencv.zip
unzip opencv.zip -d opencv

# Build OpenCV
cd opencv/opencv-3.0.0-rc1
mkdir release
cd release

# Run cmake to generate Makefile
# Add -DWITH_CUDA=ON for CUDA support and -DWITH_OPENGL for OpenGL support
cmake -DWITH_LIBV4L=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local ..

# Build the project and install
make
sudo make install

ZeroMQ

ZeroMQ is required by the following Oat components:

  • oat-record
  • oat-posisock

Download, compile, and install ZeroMQ as follows:

wget http://download.zeromq.org/zeromq-4.1.4.tar.gz -O tarzmq
tar -xf tarzmq
cd ./zeromq*
./configure --without-libsodium
make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

Additionally, you will need to download the ZeroMQ C++ binding (this is just a single header file) and place it somewhere that your compiler will find it.

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zeromq/cppzmq/master/zmq.hpp
sudo mv zmq.hpp /usr/local/include/

RapidJSON, cpptoml, and Catch

These libraries are installed automatically by cmake during the build process.

RapidJSON is required by the following Oat components:

  • oat-record
  • oat-posisock

cpptoml is required by the following Oat components:

  • oat-frameserve
  • oat-framefilt
  • oat-posidet
  • oat-posifilt
  • oat-posicom
  • oat-positest

Catch is required to make and run tests using make test

Performance

Oat is designed for use in real-time video processing scenarios. This boils down the following definition

The average execution time for an Oat dataflow network must not exceed the camera(s) image transfer period

If this condition is not met, then frames will eventually be dropped. There is no way around this. The guts of Oat consist of a simple, but very efficient message passing library that links together processing routines taken from a variety of sources (some written by me, some by third party projects such as OpenCV). The speed of each processing step is determined both by its computational complexity and deftness of implementation, both of which can vary quite a lot for different components. To see some rudimentary performance numbers for Oat components in isolation, have a look at these numbers. There is definitely room for optimization for some components. And, several components that are ripe for GPU implementation do not have one yet. This comes down to free time. If anyone wants to try there hand at making some of the bottleneck components faster, please get in touch.

Outside of code optimization, there are a few things a user should be aware of to make efficient use of Oat, which are listed below.

Frames are slow

The first thing to know is that working with frames is orders of magnitude slower than working with positions. Therefore, minimizing the number of processing steps operating on frames is a good way to reduce computational requirements. Processing on positions is in the noise in comparison.

Parallelism

Increasing the number of components in your chain does not necessarily cause an appreciable an increase in processing time because Oat components run in parallel. Instead, up to the limit of the number of hyperthreads/GPU resources your computer supports, the slowest component in a dataflow network will largely determine the speed of the processing rather than the number of components within the processing network.

Resolution

Do you really need that 10 MP camera? Recall that increases in sensor resolution cause a power 2 increase in then number of pixels you need to smash into RAM, process, write to disk, and, probably, post process. Its really best to use the lowest resolution camera that suites your needs, both for the sake of real-time processing in Oat and your future sanity when trying to deal with those 30 GB video files.

Hard-disk

If you are saving video, then the write speed of your hard disk can become the limiting factor in a processing network. To elaborate, I'm just quoting my response to this issue:

Q: I also ran into an issue with RAM and encoding. I have 8 GB, and they fill up within about 20 seconds, then goes into swap.

A: I suspect the following is the issue:

(22 FPS * 5 MP * 24 bits/pixel) / ( 8 bits/ byte) = 330 MB/sec

This (minus compression, which I'm admittedly ignoring, but is probably made up for by the time it takes to do the compression...) is the requisite write speed (in actuality, not theoretically) of your hard disk in order not to get memory overflow.

8 GB / 0.330 GB =~ 24 seconds.

The RAM is filling because your hard disk writes are not occurring fast enough. Oat is pushing frames to be written into a FIFO in main memory that the recorder thread is desperately trying to write to disk. Getting more RAM will just make the process persist for a bit longer before failing. I would get an SSD for streaming video to and then transfer those videos to a slower long term storage after recording.

Setting up a Point-grey PGE camera in Linux

oat-frameserve supports using Point Grey GIGE cameras to collect frames. I found the setup process to be straightforward and robust, but only after cobbling together the following notes.

Camera IP Address Configuration

First, assign your camera a static IP address. The easiest way to do this is to use a Windows machine to run the Point Grey 'GigE Configurator'. If someone knows a way to do this without Windows, please tell me. An example IP Configuration might be:

  • Camera IP: 192.168.0.1
  • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
  • Default gateway: 192.168.0.64

Point Grey GigE Host Adapter Card Configuration

Using network manager or something similar, you must configure the IPv4 configuration of the GigE host adapter card you are using to interface the camera with your computer.

  • First, set the ipv4 method to manual.

  • Next, you must configure the interface to (1) have the same network prefix and (2) be on the same subnet as the camera you setup in the previous section.

    • Assuming you used the camera IP configuration specified above, your host adapter card should be assigned the following private IPv4 configuration: - POE gigabit card IP: 192.168.0.100 - Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 - DNS server IP: 192.168.0.1
  • Next, you must enable jumbo frames on the network interface. Assuming that the camera is using eth2, then entering

      sudo ifconfig eth2 mtu 9000
    

    into the terminal will enable 9000 MB frames for the eth2 adapter.

  • Finally, to prevent image tearing, you should increase the amount of memory Linux uses for network receive buffers using the sysctl interface by typing

      sudo sysctl -w net.core.rmem_max=1048576 net.core.rmem_default=1048576
    

    into the terminal. In order for these changes to persist after system reboots, the following lines must be added to the bottom of the /etc/sysctl.conf file:

      net.core.rmem_max=1048576
      net.core.rmem_default=1048576
    

    These settings can then be reloaded after reboot using

      sudo sysctl -p
    

Multiple Cameras

  • If you have two or more cameras/host adapter cards, they can be configured as above but must exist on a separate subnets. For instance, we could repeat the above configuration steps for a second camera/host adapter card using the following settings:
    • Camera Configuration: - Camera IP: 192.168.1.1 - Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 - Default gateway: 192.168.1.64
    • Host adapter configuration: - POE gigabit card IP: 192.168.1.100 - Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 - DNS server IP: 192.168.1.1

Example Camera Configuration

Below is an example network adapter and camera configuration for a two-camera imaging system provided by Point Grey. It consists of two Blackfly GigE cameras (Point Grey part number: BFLY-PGE-09S2C) and a single dual-port POE GigE adapter card (Point Grey part number: GIGE-PCIE2-2P02).

Camera 0

  • Adapter physical connection (looking at back of computer)
RJ45 ------------
          |      |
    L [  [ ]    [x]  ] R
  • Adapter Settings
    • Model: Intel 82574L Gigabit Network Connection
    • MAC: 00:B0:9D:DB:D9:63
    • MTU: 9000
    • DHCP: Disabled
    • IP: 192.168.0.100
    • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
  • Camera Settings
    • Model: Blackfly BFLY-PGE-09S2C
    • Serial No.: 14395177
    • IP: 192.168.0.1 (Static)
    • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
    • Default GW: 0.0.0.0
    • Persistent IP: Yes

Camera 1

  • Adapter physical connection (looking at back of computer)
RJ45 ------------
          |      |
    L [  [x]    [ ]  ] R
  • Adapter Settings
    • Model: Intel 82574L Gigabit Network Connection
    • MAC: 00:B0:9D:DB:A7:29
    • MTU: 9000
    • DHCP: Disabled
    • IP: 192.168.1.100
    • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
  • Camera Settings
    • Model: Blackfly BFLY-PGE-09S2C
    • Serial No.:
    • IP: 192.168.1.1 (Static)
    • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
    • Default GW: 0.0.0.0
    • Persistent IP: Yes

\newpage

TODO

  • Unit and stress testing
    • Unit tests for libshmemdf
      • Nominal data types, T
      • Specializations for Frames
    • Stress tests for data processing chains
      • I need to come up with a series of scripts that configure and run components in odd and intensive, but legal, ways to ensure sample sychronization is maintained, graceful exits, etc
  • Position type correction and generalization to 3D pose
    • It might be a good idea to generalize the concept of a position to a multi-positional element
    • For things like the oat-decorate, oat-posicom, and potentially oat-detect, this could increase performance and decrease user script complexity if multiple targets common detection features needed to be tracked at once.
    • Down side is that it potentially increases code complexity and would require a significant refactor.
    • Additionally, position detection might no longer be stateless. E.g. think of the case when two detected objects cross paths. In order to ID the objects correctly in subsequent detections, the path of the objects would need to be taken into account (and there is not guarantee this result will be correct...). A potential work around is to have IDed 'position groups' with annoymous position members. This would get us back to stateless detection. However, it would make the concept of position combining hard to define (although that is even true now is just a design choice, really).
    • EDIT: Additionally, there should certainly not be Position2D vs Position3D. Only Position which provides 3d specificaiton with Z axis defaulting to 0.
    • EDIT: In fact, positions should simply be generalize two a 3D pose. I've started a branch to do this.
  • oat-framefilt undistort
    • Very slow. Needs an OpenGL or CUDA implementation
    • User supplied frame rotation occurs in a separate step from un-distortion. Very inefficient. Should be able to combine rotation with camera matrix to make this a lot faster.
    • EDIT: Also should provide an oat-posifilt version which only applies undistortion to position rather than the entire frame.
  • Should components always involve a user IO thread?
    • For instance, some generalization of oat-record ... --interactive
    • For instance, it would be nice if PURE SINKs (e.g. oat frameserve) could have their sample clock reset via user input, without having to restart the program.
    • For instance, it would be nice to be able to re-acquire the background image in oat-framefilt bsub without have to restart the program.
    • Where should this come from? Command line input?
    • EDIT: Shea and I have been brainstorming ways to use unix sockets to allow general runtime control of oat components. This will doing things like easy, in general.
  • Add position history toggle in oat-decorate
    • Answer will come with solution to TODO above this one.
  • Type deduction in shmem Tokens
    • Sources should have a static method for checking the token type of a given address.