Motion Capture with D435

[POCon]

I've been in contact with IPI soft and they have done some extstensive testing of various cameras for thier Mocap tools inc the D435. They are saying this...

• 'Very low quality of depth map (high noise, many artifacts)
• Multiple sensor configuration is not practical with this sensors because of accuracy and quality of depth map (cannot be calibrated)
• RGB camera has significantly lower FOV

I know its still early days for this camera but is anything being done to fix this? Is it a SDK software fix or is there something inherently wrong with the hardware?

I tried to use it recently with the Dot 3D pro app and got terrible results. they are currently testing the D435 (They were using the D415 originally)

If I can't use this camera for my line of work (VFX motion capture, 3D scanning of sets/locations and facial capture) I quite frankly want my money back!

Cheers

P

[MartyG]

I'm sorry that you have not had an ideal experience with your D435 camera. I will try to address each of your points in turn:

• Depth noise can be influenced by a variety of factors. The primary cause on the D435 when scanning from a distance is likely to be 'RMS error' - as the subject being scanned gets further away from the camera, the amount of depth noise increases. It can start to become noticeable after a distance of around 3 meters.

The camera may also be affected by florescent lighting such as ceiling strip lighting in the location where the scan is taking place, as the gas inside the light flickers at a rate hard to see with the human eye.

In regard to motion artifacts, if you are scanning in strong light, you may be able to reduce artifacts by reducing the camera's exposure value to near 1 ms.

Intel have published an illustrated guide to camera tuning that has helped some people to improve their camera's image quality.

https://realsense.intel.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/63/BKM-For-Tuning-D435-and-D415-Cameras-Webinar_Rev3.pdf?language=en_US

There is also a video webinar by the author of that document.

https://realsense.intel.com/webinar_tune/

• It is possible to calibrate multiple 400 Series cameras. The free of charge way of doing it requires a little labor with software called Vicalib, which Intel themselves use.

https://github.com/arpg/vicalib?language=en_US

Intel also sell a professional multi-camera calibration tool in their online Click store for $1500 USD (the price reflects the cost of manufacturing it). It is currently out of stock but does come back into stock again, though I do not have a date prediction for when this will be.

https://click.intel.com/realsense-d400-camera-oem-calibration.html

• In multiple camera setups, the field of view can be widened by placing cameras so that their individual FOVs overlap.

Intel also recently released a video seminar on body tracking with RealSense cameras.

https://realsense.intel.com/deep-learning-for-vr-ar/