iPi Recorder User's Guide
Contents
General UI Layout
iPi Recorder's user interface consists of several views which are used to perform different activities. The most important views include:
- Home. Starting screen which provides access to all functions of the program.
- Setup. Adjust device settings before recording.
- Background. Evaluate background before recording.
- Record. Set recording options and start recording.
- Recording. Displays recording statistics.
- Play. Playback of iPiVideo files.
- Edit. Editing of iPiVideo files and export to AVI format.
You can switch between views by executing specific commands, like opening recent video from the Home view, or using the tabs at the top (2) when there are several related views like Setup, Background and Record. Most of the views allow you to return to the starting screen by pressing the Home button (1) at the top-left.
Below tabs there is a ribbon, or a big toolbar (3) that contains commands and settings relevant to the current view. The ribbon can be collapsed to make more room for view contents.
Many views contain a grid of screens, each displaying data from an individual device. For instance, video frames from a camera or 3D orientation of motion controller. When you hover over a device screen with a mouse, some controls and information specific to this device are displayed in an overlay (4). For example, a button to display this device screen in a full screen mode.
Home View
You start on the Home view each time you run iPi Recorder.
Most part of the view is occupied by a list of devices available for recording. This includes color cameras, depth sensors, motion controllers and microphones (audio sources). Each device has status string below its model name, and normally it is Ready. If there is a problem with specific device, its status contains error description and has red background.
DEVICES group in the ribbon contains commands related to this list:
- Refresh allows the program to discover newly connected devices without restarting.
- Add Controller makes a connection between motion controllers and PC.
- Camera Types shows whether specific camera types are supported on this system, and what should be done to add this support.
To begin with recording, select devices to use by clicking on items in the list. Selected items are highlighted with the orange background. When selected all needed devices, press Record Video button. It doesn't start recording immediately, but brings you to views serving the recording workflow.
On the right there is a list of recently recorded or played videos. Just click on an item to open this video for playback and/or editing. You can also press the Browse button to select a file to open with the file dialog.
Recording Workflow
Setup
Setup view allows to adjust general and individual camera settings before recording. You can:
- Select working video mode
- Select microphone and audio mode
- Adjust number of cameras displayed in a grid row to optimize screen space usage
- Reorder devices within a grid.
- To place a device to a specific position, drag it's screen to this position. You can also throw away unneeded device if it has been selected by mistake, simply by dragging away it's screen.
- Tip: For convenience, it is recommended to place cameras in the same order they go around the capture area – either clockwise, or counter-clockwise. However, you're free to use any order you like.
- Select display layout for depth sensors screens when both depth and color are present.
- Set global properties for a group of similar devices, if there are any.
- Example of such property is Darkening for Calibration for PS Eye cameras. Global properties are found in corresponding group in the ribbon.
- Set properties of individual cameras.
- Examples of such properties include brightness and contrast for color cameras, and elevation angle for Kinects. To access individual device properties, press the PROPERTIES button in the device's screen overlay.
- Tip: Program remembers settings values and restores them on the next run automatically.
Background
Before you start to record any videos, you'll need to evaluate a scene's background. Background is a picture of static (not moving) objects in the capture area. Evaluated background is embedded inside videos and is used later to detect moving objects easily. Also, background is employed for compressing videos with the background subtraction method.
Usually, background should be evaluated only once during a recording session. However, any time the environment gets significant changes, you need to re-evaluate the background. Examples of such changes include differences in lighting conditions, introducing new or moving existing static objects within the cameras' field of view.
Before starting evaluation, you can set its duration. In general, the longer duration, the better evaluated background. Default duration of 5 seconds is sufficient for most situations. Less values can be set for testing purposes, when you trying out different settings for cameras.
PC running iPi Recorder may be located in some camera's field of view. Thus, to evaluate background, you need to go away from computer. But being away, you cannot start the evaluation process. In that case, you can set a delay for evaluation to start. So you'll have enough time to leave capture area after pressing the Evaluate Background button.
After background has been evaluated it is displayed automatically so you can check its quality. You can turn back to live video stream by toggling the Show Background button.
Now you can proceed to Record view.