About the Camera view

View raw 2D motion capture data from an individual Vicon camera.

The Camera view pane contains the following components:

Component	Description
View	Manage the way camera data is viewed in the active Camera view pane by selecting the following options on the View drop-down list:
	3D Overlay	Overlay multiple Camera view panes on top of each other, so all camera views are displayed in a single view pane. Each camera is rendered in a unique color.
	Rotated	Rotate the camera view, so it is corrected to the vertical axis defined in the system calibration (which corresponds to the earth's vertical axis). It also enables you to manually rotate the view by dragging the view left or right. Information from the camera calibration is required to present the rotated view.
	Combined	Correctly model lens distortions and display a corrected camera view with the 3D workspace rendered underneath the camera view.
	Zoom to Fit	Zoom the selected Camera view pane to fit the full workspace.
	Zoom to Window	Zoom to the displayed sensor window. For more information, seeNew sensor windowing display, in What's New in Vicon Tracker.
Masks	You can create a mask to hide any unwanted reflections and light sources visible to a Vicon camera (such as stray reflections from other objects or surfaces in the capture volume, opposing strobe units, and direct light sources) with the following buttons in the Camera view pane tool bar:
	Paint a mask onto the camera	Paint over any cells in the camera grid (displayed when the button is clicked) that contain unwanted reflections. When a cell is painted, its background color changes from black to blue. The camera mask consists of all blue cells obscuring unwanted reflections.
	Erase a mask from the camera	Erase a previously painted cell from a mask. When an individual cell is erased, its background color changes from blue to black, and any reflection that had previously been obscured is visible again.
	Clear the mask from the camera	Automatically remove a previously painted mask. When the mask is cleared, the background color of any previously painted cells changes from blue to black, and any reflections that had previously been obscured are visible again.
Toggle display of centroids/grayscale blobs	Display grayscale blobs	When selected, grayscale blobs are displayed in the Camera view.
	Display centroid circles	When selected, centroids are displayed in the Camera view.
	Display camera sensor window	When selected, the windowing of the sensor is represented by a rectangle in the Camera view. For more information, see New sensor windowing display, in What's New in Vicon Tracker.
Lock / Unlock Selection Set	Lock the current Camera view pane, so that it is effectively detached from the selection set and is not affected by any subsequent selections in other open view panes. This is useful for displaying views from different cameras in multiple Camera view panes.
Camera workspace	You view and manipulate 2D data in the workspace. You can manage the visualization of camera data, for example, you can orbit, truck, dolly, and zoom the displayed data.

Viewing optical data in Camera view

View 2D optical data from Vicon cameras in the Camera view pane.

To view data in a Camera view pane:

1. Stream live camera data.
2. On the System tab in the Resources pane, select one or more cameras.
3. Expand the Vicon Cameras node and then click on the sub-node for one or more specific Vicon cameras.
4. From the view pane tool bar, select Camera.

The 2D data from each camera selected on the System tab is displayed in a separate Camera view.

• Tip: To help you to determine the most effect threshold setting for grayscale blobs, you can set the background color of the Camera view to the value of the Threshold control in the Centroid Fitting section of the Properties pane.

  To do this, open the Options dialog box (F7), and in the General View Options, select Threshold.

Creating camera masks automatically

You can automatically create camera masks using controls on the Calibrate tab, in the Create Camera Masks section.

The automatic camera mask creation tool automatically creates masks to eliminate any reflections in the capture volume that are visible to the cameras. You can subsequently create masks manually to eliminate any remaining or additional reflections.

To automatically create camera masks:

1. Press F7 to open the Options dialog box and under General View Options, ensure that Threshold Map is selected.

   Any reflections are visible in the Camera view pane, typically as non-circular areas of grayscale or edge data. Note that reflections can severely affect the camera data rates, and you may find that the camera overloads. In this case, the camera automatically sends edge data instead of full grayscale data.

2. On the Calibrate tab, in the Create Camera Masks section, click Start.

   All Vicon cameras are selected and a separate Camera view pane is displayed for each one. The Start button changes to display Stop. Tracker starts recording the data visible to each of the Vicon cameras connected. Any camera masks that are created are displayed as blue cells in the Camera view panes for the affected cameras. If there is no data visible to a particular camera, Tracker does not create any masks for it. About 30 seconds of recording is generally sufficient to enable Tracker to collect the data visible to the cameras.

3. Click Stop.

Creating camera masks manually

You can manually create camera masks (a technique used to obscure selectively or hold back parts of an image while allowing other parts to show) with the Masks buttons in the Camera view pane tool bar, which eliminate any reflections in the capture volume that are visible to the cameras. If you have a large number of reflections in your capture volume, it is a good idea to initially create camera masks automatically.

To manually create camera masks:

1. On the System tab in the Resources pane, select all Vicon cameras.
2. On the view pane tool bar, select Camera to display the 2D data being captured by each selected Vicon camera in a separate Camera view pane.
3. From the View drop-down list in the Camera view pane tool bar, make sure that the 3D Overlay and Combined options are cleared.

4. Press F7 to open the Options dialog box and under General View Options, make sure that Threshold Map is selected.

   Tip: The Threshold Map default color is blue, but you can change the color in the Options dialog box.

5. Remove any unnecessary objects, such as calibration objects, from the capture volume. For best results, the capture volume should be entirely free from objects likely to cause unwanted reflections.

   Any reflections are visible in the Camera view pane, typically as non-circular areas of grayscale or edge data. Note that reflections can severely affect the camera data rates, and you may find that the camera overloads. In this case, the camera automatically sends edge data instead of full grayscale data.

6. From the Camera view pane tool bar, use the following buttons to hide any unwanted reflections that are visible from the selected camera. (When you click any of these buttons, a grid of small blue tiles is superimposed over the camera image in each Camera view pane.)

   See Camera view buttons table

   Tip: To zoom in on the view pane, right-click and drag the mouse pointer forward (to zoom in) or backward (to zoom out). To pan the image, click both mouse buttons and drag. The camera masks are applied in real time and are saved along with your camera calibration.

Save a configuration

To save a configuration:

In the configuration management section at the top of the System resources pane, click the Save button to save your system configuration settings to a .system file in one of the following systems configurations folders:

• If you select Shared the file will be saved in C:\Users\Public\Documents\Vicon\Tracker3.x\Configurations\Systems
• If you select Private it will be saved in C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Vicon\Tracker3.x\Configurations\Systems

Camera view buttons table