Volumetric Capture Rig

In the past couple of weeks, many of us have been working on different aspects of what will become a volumetric capture camera rig we will use here at the lab. At this point in time, we have a rough prototype of what one wall of this rig will look like. This can be seen in the image below.

Now we have to deal with out next set of challenges. One of these is to find the optimal placement of Realsense Cameras on the rig that would provide the most whole point cloud of a person. Additionally, we need to find a way to synchronize cameras so that when we start recording every video produced from these cameras has the same start and end timestamp. Lastly, reasonably priced computer boards must be fixed to the camera rig so that the camera data can be saved, while maintaining a movable camera rig.

I have been working on finding such a computer board. First off, the Raspberry Pi was not sufficient because of its lack of a USB3 port. A USB2 port lacks the bandwidth necessary to save quality Realsense videos at framerates higher than 15fps. As a result I have been working with some different computer boards like the following:

This board successfully takes depth + color videos at 30fps, and we are trying to see if this can be even higher. Looking forward to what the whole structure of the camera rig will look like in the long term. Keep up with our blog here to see how this progresses! : )