Quick Update
Posted by: mtpsycho on: July 7, 2009
Well 2 weeks ago, i found couple of free hours and i installed a fresh Windows XP Professional SP2 and installed some Frameworks to get CCV running that are .NET Frameworks (1.0, 1.1 SP1, 2.0, 3.0) and Windows Installer latest, DirectX 9.0c, and PS3Eye Camera Driver, Also i installed all Chipset Drivers of the MotherBoard, and the Results are,………… .
GR888888, now am capturing everything very Close to 40fps and the Blobs are Clear. with resolution of 640 X 480.
Second Update i bought some Mechanical Parts to adjust the Laser Modules in Millimeters instead of the original way of Children Clay (selsal in arabic), and now the results are more convenient, i shall post 2omm isA the lasers diagram i made that is how the lasers are added on the surface so that i get the min Black Spot area AKA no lasers cross there.
Am really in a bad need to buy a Camera BandPass Filter of 780nm but, i cant get it now, i need some1 in the States to help me with that.
2omm isA i’ll post the latest Photos of my Table Live View.
Special Update
Posted by: mtpsycho on: May 21, 2009
I Know it has been a Quite while since i last written on this blog, but trust me i didnt let go on it at all, i have some new updates and some points that i figured out.
Well First of All, i bought some new stuff and they are owesome:
1) PS3Eye Camera Captures 640X480 @ 40fps
2) 6 Laser Modules of 780nm and 25mW Near IR lasers with 120 degree Line Generator, the wicked part is via only one Laser Module am having 100X better images and better Results, with nearly not pushing at all- Pressure ~ Zero -
So Currently my setup is like this:
——————————– Laser Modules
================== Acrylic Sheeet – i might replace that with Glass 
*********************** Sketching Paper
(1) (2) 1) Unibrain Camera 2) PS3Eye Camera
Yeah 2 Cameras but am Using Only one of them not both, yet 
i’ve modded the PS3Eye Camera and Removed the IR Block Filter from it’s Lens. and my Unibrain already ordered it without any IR filters.
Things i noticed:
1) WinXP SP3:
using tbeta or CCV over SP3 wont let both the PS3Eye nor the Unibrain to function correctly and actually will let them work at max 10fps, rather using the TouchLib for the unibrain made it Simple getting the 30fps but headache for configuring the Tracking itself. PS3Eye not over TouchLib yet, but am getting it really soon.
2) WinVista Home Premium:
Using CCV for the PS3Eye makes it Captures at 30fps with no blink but if i tried the 40fps it will work for couple of mins and halt for seconds, this is definately an issue to the OS not the Tracking S/W, i dnt have firewire on my Lap top to test the Unibrain over Vista – not tending to install it over the Desktop machine-
So i guess the issue with the SP3 i dunno y, but i’ll give it a try and install XP SP2 over my Desktop machine and let’s see how it’s gonne rock and roll.
List of Items to Buy next for the Final Modifications:
1) 2X BandPass Filter of 780nm
2) 1 X QuadCore Processor
3) 2 X 2GB Kingstone/Crossair DDR3
I Believe these updates would make the Table Boom on working and am in the process of taking pictures to the Table i assembled so Far.
The Update
Posted by: mtpsycho on: March 15, 2009
- In: Archi| Handwork| Hardware| Software
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I’ve been away for a while currently, but am back now and i worked for a sometime on the project, follows my update to what i’ve reached and my state.
1) Bought and Built the Container Wooden Box with Dimensions of 55 cm X 55 cm X 85 cm which means a square based box and with height of 85 cms, i chose those based over my current Acrylic sheet and the possible height to be comfortable. costed around 100 EGPs
2) My Unibrain Camera Arrived and i Configured it out to work, and had been through excessive testing for the capturing rates, and as u might know i’ve been using the tracking software released under the name tBeta, but wt has astonishing is that tBeta using the Unibrain camera only Captured 7 ~ 10 fps @ 640 X 480 resolution, so i freaked out as if i saw a gohst. i thought at first that my Computer is not functioning correctly, and i restarted it couple of times and tried the software once again, then i got this amazing idea to try some video capture software and see how fast it captures data, i tried the normal capturing apps that comes out with the webcams, and i’ve seeen more than amazing capture rates, i then decided it was tBeta’s fault and decided to change the tracking software, i then redirected towards TouchLib which is the mostly used Tracking Software out there nowadays, (tbeta is the latest and i decided that it would be gr88) however i got TouchLib to work and it wasnt a pretty good idea, i had almost no Finger Tracked from the Camera 
and i was crying out by that time, i suddenly noticed a massive increase in the CPU Usage and Memory Leakage towards Touchlib, i then shut the Computer off and went screaming OUT LOUD, then i remembered reading soemthing related to a CPU Fix for TouchLib or something that makes tracking more effective, i’ve went to nuigroup and then started digging and found the Fix, i applied the Fix and Voilat i have a working Camera with 30fps @ 640 X 480 but with no single fingure tracked!!!!!, i thought that would be the reason of normal color capture and not modding the camera to capture only IR light and that the 85 cm height made the refracted light weaker and not captured due to other color distortion or interferance, i went to my old webcamera (Trust) and picked the Film Negatives i made for it and tried them out on the new Camera and i finally got some bulbs they aint the best but they are bulbs, and finally i could use a speedy tracker and a good working hardware (not the best i imagined, but it’s good), according to my Military status and state of unemployment, so am broke off money and i cant yet buy the new Lasers and the IR Band Filter, for the time being, but what i can say is am NOW have a gr88 Step forward of having a Sterotype/Prototype that it’s a working and it’s working nicely.
NEXT STEPS:
1) Train for writting apps for MT
2) Write a Good Drawing and PhotoManipulation Application that is smart to detect a connected Camera, USB, etc… and get the photos in an album style, something good for a PhotoApplication.
3) Find a Job to pay the Bills and Pay for the New Materials
4) Making the MT Table more Affordable, am going to try out the PS3Eye Camera it would dramatically decrease the cost of it, with even better performance as has been published lately.
5) Accept All Possoble Donations from Money, Credit Cards, H/W, Projectors, Anything
6) Try to Integrate the WiiMote with the MT Table to make use of the Accelerometer presented there.
Please Donate to My Sweet Project (Just Kiddin)
Things Awaiting to Purchase
Posted by: mtpsycho on: February 12, 2009
Well, using the NUI Group Forum as a source for my MT project, i found a ZERO Pressure touch solution, regarding my first Trial, i’ve mentioned that bare hands over acrylic aint of a good touch or use. so a ZERO Pressure solution would be very great to have.
The Idea, is to replace the IR LEDS with IR Lasers ranging in qty from 2 ~ 6 lasers with Line Generators of angles 90 degrees or 120 degrees. those lasers should be placed 1mm above the Acrylic Sheet surface and by then u’ll have something like water spreaded over the acrylic sheet while it’s all IR Laser beams or light sheet, that means that u dnt need to press too hard to get the frustration occuring inside the acrylic but u are currently having frustration on the top of the acrylic and the reflection of the light occuring instantly by the touch/cutting the laser light sheet above the acrylic, this is resulting in better blobs, points and less pressure that is tending to be zero pressure solution.
IR Lasers specs:
Optimal Specs:
1) 4 x 840nm (wavelength) 25mW (max power) Laser Beamers
2) 4 x 120/90 Degrees Line Generator Glass Lens
3) 5 Volts Adaptor (DC offcourse)
dissadvantage: Hillariously pricey for Egyptian currency because one Laser module would cost from 100 to 200 USD$ which is an average of 600 to 1200 EGPs per module
Specs am going to use in my Project:
1) 4 x 780nm 25mW laser beamers
2) 4x 120 Degrees Line Generator Glass Lenses
3) 5 Volts Adaptor
According to my UB Camera specs sheet, the 780nm (near IR) is visible to the camera but not quite as normal Colored light, however, today i’ll try the Camera with my IR LEDs that i currently have and see the results . afterwards i’ll purchase the beamers.
Dissadvantage: the beamers cart only use PayPal account :S, but i’ll find a way through this.
Unibrain Camera Arrives
Posted by: mtpsycho on: February 12, 2009
Last week, while am inside military my parents recieved my Unibrain Camera i ordered 20 days ago, i got out of military for one day vaccation and this is the specs i got for my lovely camera:
1) 640 X 480 @ 30 fps Color and B/W
2) 4.3 mm Focal Length lens with no IR Block Filter
3) SDK to utilize the best use of the Camera
4) Firewire 400 Camera
this camera is a speedy rocket camera that am astonished with it’s speed and resolution till now. however the bad part is it’s price, it’s pretty pricey though, it costs like 1200 EGP including Shipment and Taxes and Customs to ur Door step .
Market Updates and Ingredients Pending
Posted by: mtpsycho on: January 16, 2009
hmmmm,
As am always awaiting for new updates for the market for stuff that could be usefull for the project, i’ve found the following updates:
1) Xbox 360 Live Camera – 60 fps at 320 X 240 Resolution and max 20 fps at 640X 480 @ cost 500 EGP @ Virgin Mega Stores
2) WiiMote – 100MHz 1024 X 768 Resolution with built in Accelerometer and H/W tracking, has an issue of max 4 points to track at the same time @ cost 499 EGP @ Virgin Mega Stores or CompuMe
For the First option it’s very well for resolution 320 X 240 but not for 640 X 480 resolution. Wiimote has the defect of max 4 points but very usefull for applications that wnt have any need for more than 4 points detection/tracking.
I’ve Ordered a better Option than both (given i have the WiiMote Already and it’s nice some how) which is a firewire camera to capture 30 – 40 fps at resolution 640 X 480 named unibrain fire-i camera board with 4.3 mm lens with no IR polish it costs like hell to be honest at it costs 900EGPs including shiping to Egypt from the US (they only ship with Fedex and i would have paid the same cost if i shipped to my Aramex Box) but it’s comming in 3 days max till my door, which is tomm with GOD’s will – this is one part of the mad idea i mentioned before-
W88 for the second part of the mad idea after the period am spending at the Millitary Facility. Bye for Now
Testing Results
Posted by: mtpsycho on: January 9, 2009
Well,
i’ve been telling that i’ll post pictures of my FTIR based MT Table that am creating here in Egypt. but unfortantely that i dnt have a camera curerntly to do so .
for the past week, i’ve been testing my setup and trying to make it better, it’s like this now:
———– Finger
———– Acrylic Sheet
———— Tracing Paper to be Used as a Projection Screen
– Camera (Used couple of Film Negatives to make it IR Camera)
am using tbeta as a tracker for my setup, tbeta is gr88 but still needs massive development and enhancments since it make the processor skyrockets for like continously other than TouchLib tracker.
my FTIR setup consists of this now:
1) 4 X 8 IR Leds on 12V / Line (8 on each side)
2) 10 mm Thick Acrylic
3) Tracing Paper
4) Modded Camera
i can say that the Acrylic is good and is polished well, the 8 leds on each side needs to be massively increased i can make them like 32 on each sideso that the acrylic shines more and the blobs can be detected easier than now.
i need to cut the Tracing Paper and replace it with new one to be streched out not like the current one, i’d even think about creating a compliant surface – which is because normally paper and acrylic wouldnt couple well so if you pressed over the tracing paper, there will be no blobs, that’s y am using it the other way for now – a compliant surface would be optimally Crystal Clear Silicone Rubber of thickness 1mm that couples well with Paper and since it’s Crystal then the IR light would be passing through it so, blobs will be easier.
So as mentioned the normal setup should be like this
——– Finger
——— Tracing Paper
———- 1mm Silicone Rubber
———– Acrylic Sheet
– IR Camera
YEss we should be playing and touching over the paper, that’s y there’re some things called Rosco Grey films which are the materials where the rear projection screen are made, this gives a better feeling and more clear projection of pictures.
but according to the missing of Crystal Clear Silicone Rubber and Rosco Grey films here in Egypt, i flipped the ingredients and it’s working well, but the issue resembles now in the Acrylic it self, Why? because the touch of the acrylic with bare hands aint very well like touching the Rosco Grey – u can think of the sheet comes with the eye glasses to clean it with as the rosco grey sense- so dragging and resizing aint very well like it should be.
am working with 18fps 20 at most now, and it’s pretty well i have to say, these frames are good for work, but not for really playing, because shatters will appear by time.
w88 for the next post, am thinking of something MAAAAAAAAAAAD
Update
Posted by: mtpsycho on: January 4, 2009
Well let’s Start by saying Windows Vista Sucks
el mohem – the important- as i mentioned am using Trust 1.3M Webcamera and i had troubles with it, well wt am going to say is going to be really wiered but i guess this is because of the freaking nature of the Vista OS.
at first i used my desktop machine that is a working machine for our Graduation project and it’s 512 ram and 2.0 Core2Duo processor, i used to use the front USB ports which turned out to be REALLY SLOW and i might say that they are 1.1 USBs not 2.0.
so i used the rear ports, and it gave a little bit more performance than the usual or actually more fps than the 10 i was stuck with, i got a range of 15 ~ 17 fps.
i thought of testing it on my laptop and check what’s going on, my laptop is Acer Aspire 5930G with nVidia GT 9600 512MBs and 3GB Ram and 2.0 core2Duo 3M L2 Cache. and yess it gave the same performance the first time.
i closed tbeta using the escape button and re-opened it once again, Voila , i got a range of 20fps and 24 fps on a different resolution that is 480 X 280 which is a middle port from 640X 480 and 320X240 this performance tweak is tremendously better for capturing and tbeta doesnt halt with quick changes.
Am going to remove vista as soon as my drivers finish downloading for the XP so that i have no problem with it. and then test the results once more with even more resolution.
however am thinking to get the SPC900NC and ship it to Cairo, but i think it would arrive while am gone to military, who cares still will ship it.
w88 for me 2day night i’ll be posting some pics of the assembled Surface and some of the Blobs, Also S/W screen Shots that shows my finger tracking, it’s 95% Done isA.
MayBe i’ll be even playing with some apps.
Trial Beta 0.1
Posted by: mtpsycho on: December 30, 2008
Well this is my first trial of the whole MT thing and this is what i have done so far:
1) cut and polished the Acrylic
2) Framed it with Aluminum and holed it
3) Placed the IRs into the holes and conencted them all to the Power Correctly
4) Modded the webcamera to be able to detect IR better and only IR light
5) Downloaded the MT Library and installed it
6) Configured it to the Thresholds and Amplifications
i thought it’s time to test and i started to test, it was really nice and cool, but the problem was the Blobs where a Lot from outer light in the room and if i increased the threshold i wouldnt have any blobs, i used multiple IR filters but not professional ones still, the performance aint well.
i also noticed that the camera is making reflections over the Acrylic sheet and am thinking of something to test, just in the next post, keep tuned!
First Assembly
Posted by: mtpsycho on: December 30, 2008
I wanted to make my MT Screen like 50 X 50 cm, so i went to the workshop and cut the Acrylic sheet i bought and made them polish it Clean not like what you’ve seen before in earlier post (what you’ve seen was raw Acrylic un treated and un Polished) the new Acrylic should let you be able to look from the 10mm side and see the other side (means it’s 100% Clear). it costed like 20 EGPs to get it cut and polished with this size and like an hour of waiting .
i’ve cut the Aluminum of size 50 cms for four pieces to be the frame of the Acrylic sheet and only two of them as the holder of the IR Leds.
hmm, i’ve made some holes in the U Shaped Aluminum rods of mine actually 5mm diameter (that’s the size of the IR leds i had) and the i placed my IR Leds in the holes i made. well the question got to my head was, How Many Holes should i do?! well, it’s a really tight question but i thought i’d only put 8 IR Leds on each side and shift them by a hole so that what’s from upside is next to the one from downside. however, the choice of 8 leds was also driven by another thing, which is Voltage Design for making all of them Light.
This issue of IR leds and Voltage took me a while to realize, because the IR leds had no data sheet and no1 knew howmany voltages it needed to operate correctly, so i had to test the range of voltages an IR can operate with, and i realized that it could operate from 1.5 ~ 2.0 Volts without damage. so now i had to think about my power source! i bought a 12V DC adapter and said it would be enough. Why it would?! because 8 Leds by 1.5V for each led gives 12V the output of my adapter. then the Choice of 8 Leds on each side was a wise thing to do .
I placed the leds and i connected them in Series connection so that Only Voltage gets distributed over the 8 leds.
now i’ve the Acrylic Sheet Lit by IR and it’s glowing infront the Camera that i’ve been able to remove the IR Block Filter from.
Which is a good thing to mention, i’ve mentioned before that All cameras can see IR yess, this is true, but not as they should be, because there’s a small Filter that makes them block IR light from Bulbs and Sun rays, and other reflections from ur clothes when they are subject to light.
Our Project is actually based over IR detection and reflection, so we’d need this filter out and this is something different for every camera, because this filter could be a piece of glass or could be the lens itself or even be just a paint over the lens. for each case u’d need to find a solution, for the:
1) Piece of Glass: you’d need to locate it at first, then u’d need to get it off, this is my Scenarios with my 3 Cameras i bought
a) Sweex WC001 camera: the lens structure is split over two halves one as the posterior part for having most of the dust and then the interior part as the lens itself, in between the piece of square glass that is the IR ban filter, the bad part is you cant get the lens apart because it’s all fused in one body plastic cylinder that u cant get out except by cutting a TS in the cylinder, and it took me two cameras to actually get through the plastic without cutting the lens it self – how silly i am-
b) Trust 1.3 Web camera: that was pretty simple the square glass filter was just appearing to the eye at the end of the cylinder and you can get it out by a pin.
c) Shark 300K webcamera: well this one i broke nearly everything in it and still couldnt find the Glass filter so dnt use it at all
2) The lens itself is just wt happened in the Shark 300K camera
3) painted over the lens : you’d have to figure a way out, but most people are saying to scratch it with ur finger nail (i dnt have any so good luck then )
