Update FaceTrackNoIR

[dunnobe 10]

Yes, I was notified on enabling Freetrack in the options via another forum and that solved my problem. Great piece of technology, are u still working/improving it?

[fusionofp 0]

@ Pathetic Beserker, Win7 64bit will recognise the mic in the eyetoy but no program will see the camera part, what drivers did you use ?

[v4friend 10]

Hello to you all,

I have worked on a few improvements since the holidays and just released the result of that: update 3 of FaceTrackNoIR

Actually there are 2 versions: an update for people who already have FaceTrackNoIR and a new installer-version for new users. You can find both here: http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/information_links/download.htm

The new release (and the update) contain the following:

• Auto-minimize feature
  
• Configurable short-keys
  
• Fix for R6030-error
  
• Use of v3.2 faceAPI
  

I hope you will try it and let me know how it works...

[dunnobe 10]

Tracking seems to be a bit better?

And that shortcut (I chose ALT+End) to center is pure gold.

[Rough Knight 9]

Thanks V4Friend...It works very well, thanks for your efforts. Love the customisable keys...that is a big big plus.

Anyone tried to reduce he CPU loading of FaceAPI? It is quite demanding?

Frosty

[flashleitz 11]

Awesome thanks mate

Edited September 12, 2010 by flashleitz

[v4friend 10]

Thanks V4Friend...It works very well, thanks for your efforts. Love the customisable keys...that is a big big plus.

Anyone tried to reduce he CPU loading of FaceAPI? It is quite demanding?

Frosty

First, I'm glad you like it :)

About the CPU-load: indeed faceAPI is quite demanding. That's why SeeingMachines recommends 2-cores minimal. On my Core 2 Duo, load is between 10 and 20% and I think that's quite acceptable. It seems that the CPU-load can be badly influenced by the type of web-cam used (specially older ones).

[vohk 10]

Picked up a webcam today and thought I'd give this a shot. I still need to tweak my settings quite a bit before I'll be able to use it in game, but for a free program this is very impressive!

edit: using a Logitech C600 btw.

Edited September 12, 2010 by vohk

[GoldenNugget 0]

I had this working in an earlier version and I thought I'd give it another go on my new computer. The thing is, it won't work. I'm getting a "No DLLs were found in the Waterfall Procedure" and then a press ok to terminate prompt.

I installed using the full 1.3 installation and installed the IP5.4.3 thing and this problem keeps coming up. I also installed the faceapi thing. I'm also running windows 7 64-bit.

What should I do?

Edited September 14, 2010 by GoldenNugget

[v4friend 10]

I had this working in an earlier version and I thought I'd give it another go on my new computer. The thing is, it won't work. I'm getting a "No DLLs were found in the Waterfall Procedure" and then a press ok to terminate prompt.

I installed using the full 1.3 installation and installed the IP5.4.3 thing and this problem keeps coming up. I also installed the faceapi thing. I'm also running windows 7 64-bit.

What should I do?

Hi GoldenNugget,

On another forum someone mentioned the same 'Waterfall-error'. Seems like the IPP DLL's are not installed exactly right (yet) for Windows 7. The solution he presented was to install the faceAPI demo, which can be downloaded here: http://www.seeingmachines.com/product/faceapi/downloads/. It's a bit of a poor patch, but seems to work...

I'll see what I can do about it :cool:

[GoldenNugget 0]

Hi GoldenNugget,

On another forum someone mentioned the same 'Waterfall-error'. Seems like the IPP DLL's are not installed exactly right (yet) for Windows 7. The solution he presented was to install the faceAPI demo, which can be downloaded here: http://www.seeingmachines.com/product/faceapi/downloads/. It's a bit of a poor patch, but seems to work...

I'll see what I can do about it :cool:

I uninstalled everything and installed the demo, api, and facetracknoir 1.3 with the patch. Same error. :/

[PhillyB 10]

I uninstalled everything and installed the demo, api, and facetracknoir 1.3 with the patch. Same error. :/

Yeah me too, I'm getting the same error =(

http://i52.tinypic.com/19w8lx.png

http://i51.tinypic.com/2agp2er.png

[Woodpeckersam 18]

Hiya there, i was looking around for something like this... thank god i found it :D

I am using an IMAC with Windows 7 Bootcamped. The game works fine... The built in i-sight works fine too.

However i have no idea why this is not working...

I open the program, cool! My face is being tracked! So i enable tracking then start up the game. Once i get in game i enable FakeTrackIR in the options (leaving FreeTrack disabled) and testing it out... nothing is happen at all.. strange so then i try it with FreeTrack (making sure it's enabled in FreeTrackNoir too) and it still doesnt pick up any movement. Does anyone know why?

I've just gone ahead and deleted my username config files (all of them) to see if that could be a problem. I'll post back.

---------- Post added at 18:04 ---------- Previous post was at 17:55 ----------

Nope nothing works.. why doesnt it pick it up.. *groan* :(

---------- Post added at 18:26 ---------- Previous post was at 18:04 ----------

Um on the software you see a preview of your face tracking...

across the middle of the webcam i think it says COMMERCIAL USE

then it says in red text:

FPS: 14hz

and in green text it says:

CPU This Process: 0%

Mem: 0mb

Is there something wrong?

Oh and i forgot to mention im using 64-bit Windows 7.

---------- Post added at 18:39 ---------- Previous post was at 18:26 ----------

I've also just tried it with Microsoft Xbox 360 Cam it picks it up and tracks my face but does not control my ingame character (Arma2)

[Woodpeckersam 18]

I got it to work somehow... i used FreeTrack instead of FakeTrackIR (it doesnt work strangely) however i am having heavy jittering like many of you have. At one point i got it to work smooothly and it was amazing (i turned off the zoom) however since i restarted it it dont work brilliant :( This has a lot of promise hope it improves :D

---------- Post added at 22:14 ---------- Previous post was at 22:00 ----------

ps.. it works with Xbox Live Vision and Imac Built in I-Sight

[PhillyB 10]

I uninstalled everything and installed the demo, api, and facetracknoir 1.3 with the patch. Same error. :/

found a fix to this, uninstall the ipp included in the setup folder by rightclicking the installer and clicking uninstall. Then install api demo which includes the correct ipp installer and will install automatically.

[GoldenNugget 0]

found a fix to this, uninstall the ipp included in the setup folder by rightclicking the installer and clicking uninstall. Then install api demo which includes the correct ipp installer and will install automatically.

Alright going to try this out.

neato it worked. Now I gotta get this thing to find my face and track it :).

Well my camera likes to flash a lot. I have a vx-3000 and the exposure is going nuts trying to find my face. It finds it occasionally but it keeps changing the exposure nonstop. :/

nvm it works now.

Edited September 21, 2010 by GoldenNugget

[v4friend 10]

found a fix to this, uninstall the ipp included in the setup folder by rightclicking the installer and clicking uninstall. Then install api demo which includes the correct ipp installer and will install automatically.

Hi PhillyB,

That's what I meant: un-install IPP and then install faceAPI demo. Seems that you can safely un-install the demo after that: it should leave the IPP intact.

Unfortunately I don't know exactly how the faceAPI-demo-installer does the installing, so I have some digging to do.

@WoodyUK: Good that you got it working by yourself:bounce3: ArmA2 indeed only works with the FreeTrack-protocol (they have used the encrypted version of TrackIR, so that doesn't work...for us).

@GoldenNugget: I guess you've also got it working now? Try turning OFF auto-exposure (that's recommended for all cams). Make sure you have proper lighting (you can play in the dark later ;) )

[GoldenNugget 0]

@GoldenNugget: I guess you've also got it working now? Try turning OFF auto-exposure (that's recommended for all cams). Make sure you have proper lighting (you can play in the dark later ;) )

Yeah I got it working but it keeps losing and finding the tracking and I have a light directly in my face a little to the right. I don't know what to do to maintain the track.

I figured out the flickering issue which was due to having low exposure so that I would have 30fps.

[vohk 10]

Couple questions:

-Is anyone having a problem with 'phantom' input (ie: where you get in-game head movement without actual head movement)? I get a pretty much constant wobble in pitch and I can't figure out why. Yaw doesn't have the problem. It's almost like pitch is ignoring the neutral zone, although the wobble seems proportional to the sensitivity.

-Is X/Y input configured by defualt to do anything? I know pitch/yaw is free look, Z is zoom and roll is lean.

[v4friend 10]

Hi Vohk,

Sorry I didn't respond earlier...

I'm working on a new update for FaceTrackNoIR: I'm making curves to give users more influence on how the view changes in-game. While testing and playing with ArmA, I must admit that I do experience some of the 'wobble' you describe. I hope to iron that out too :)

[TheHarvesteR 11]

Hi,

This is really cool... I've played around with FaceAPI at work and had always thought of creating a TrackIR alternative with it. I never had the time though... (and good thing I didn't because your implementation would have overrun mine, since it's a lot more complete than what I had planned) Good job there!

The PPJoy/GlovePIE deal is indeed awesome! that's any-game support right there! (even games without trackIR support if you do some GlovePIE scripting)

The wobbliness is probably due to FaceAPI not picking up your face in the correct orientation... that may be due to bad camera settings, low capture resolution, or poor lighting conditions...

Try going into your camera settings and disabling any automatic modes.... set the parameters so that you have as good a contrast and image quality as possible (with as little noise (grains) as possible). If possible, crank up the camera resolution to 640x480 (but mind that it will eat away some performance)

On a side note: Have you thought about implementing face tracking using Haar-cascades feature tracking? they only work in 2D, but detection is a lot faster (although less reliable). Could work as an alternative mode to those with less powerful rigs.

Again, Great job there!

Cheers

Edited October 12, 2010 by TheHarvesteR

[v4friend 10]

Hi,

This is really cool... I've played around with FaceAPI at work and had always thought of creating a TrackIR alternative with it. I never had the time though... (and good thing I didn't because your implementation would have overrun mine, since it's a lot more complete than what I had planned) Good job there!

The PPJoy/GlovePIE deal is indeed awesome! that's any-game support right there! (even games without trackIR support if you do some GlovePIE scripting)

The wobbliness is probably due to FaceAPI not picking up your face in the correct orientation... that may be due to bad camera settings, low capture resolution, or poor lighting conditions...

Try going into your camera settings and disabling any automatic modes.... set the parameters so that you have as good a contrast and image quality as possible (with as little noise (grains) as possible). If possible, crank up the camera resolution to 640x480 (but mind that it will eat away some performance)

On a side note: Have you thought about implementing face tracking using Haar-cascades feature tracking? they only work in 2D, but detection is a lot faster (although less reliable). Could work as an alternative mode to those with less powerful rigs.

Again, Great job there!

Cheers

Hi Harvester,

Thanks! I know you say it's more complete than you anticipated, but feel free to share your ideas about new features (if you have them).

I recently bought a PS3 Eye and there are some examples in the SDK that use OpenCV. Maybe you have experience with that? I intend to try and make some kind of face-tracker with OpenCV too, if I can find the time...

Any help would be appreciated :cool:

[vohk 10]

The wobbliness is probably due to FaceAPI not picking up your face in the correct orientation... that may be due to bad camera settings, low capture resolution, or poor lighting conditions...

Try going into your camera settings and disabling any automatic modes.... set the parameters so that you have as good a contrast and image quality as possible (with as little noise (grains) as possible). If possible, crank up the camera resolution to 640x480 (but mind that it will eat away some performance)

I don't believe that's the problem, at least according to the information that FaceTrackIR is putting out. I've paid really close attention to the coordinates being reported (X/Y/Z, rotX/rotY/rotZ) and when I hold still, looking straight ahead, they don't vary more than +-1 at most. There is just as much variation in yaw as pitch, and yet I only get the wobble in pitch.

I've also done all of the above with my camera. Very solid picture at a steady 30fps. I get the same result in a dark room as a well lit one. It's actually fairly easy to deal with though: crank sensitivity down and redfactor up for axis in question (pitch for me). I find ArmA requires much more L/R scanning than U/D, so it more or less solves the problem for me.

[TheHarvesteR 11]

Hi Harvester,

Thanks! I know you say it's more complete than you anticipated, but feel free to share your ideas about new features (if you have them).

I recently bought a PS3 Eye and there are some examples in the SDK that use OpenCV. Maybe you have experience with that? I intend to try and make some kind of face-tracker with OpenCV too, if I can find the time...

Any help would be appreciated :cool:

I can't say I have a lot of experience with OpenCv, but in my work we do use a good deal of computer-vision based technologies, like AR, fids, face and blob tracking, optical flow and whatnot... Most of those we can do through openCv.

I did implement a Haar-face tracker not too long ago.. it got cut short and is now parked aside as just one more prototype, but it does pick up your face relatively well, and keeps your face framed in a box (that was for something completely unrelated to head tracking)

It is a little bouncy right now too.... but I suspect that with some good axis independent smoothing and filtering, it could work quite well.

When I get to work today I'll try to dig it up again... openCv is really not that hard... (all the dificult bits are already done :) ) maybe we can add the Haar feature-tracking as a... erm.. feature :D

Cheers

[Rough Knight 9]

Yo guys,

That is great news that there is a possibilty of an alternative to FaceAPI. If the CPU performance of FaceTtackNoIR could be improved then as far as I see it, it's only flaw has been resolved.

My problem is as TheHarVesteR was saying...a less powerfull rig that struggles running both ARMA2 and FaceTracknoIR.

Thanks for your efforts guys, much appreciated.

Frosty