1

Hi there,

we have been playing around with Kinovea and a GoPro 3 black edition. Everything works out great!

We are now looking for a way how to connect Kinovea directly with the GoPro via USB cable. So that we can open files on the GoPro via Kinovea directly (live capturing).

Has anyone an idea? The only product we have found so fare is this: http://www.globe-flight.de/GoPro-3-LIVE … Kabel-30cm

Thanks!
Steffen

2

slim_n_trim wrote:

So that we can open files on the GoPro via Kinovea directly (live capturing).

Opening files is different from live capture. Opening files should be no problem, the SD card is seen as a storage device.

I have no direct experience with the cable you mention and haven't passed the page through translation, however note that a cable for FPV is bound to be analog (to limit latency) and will connect to a radio transmitter rather than a PC.

Other video out options that I know of on the GoPro are the small preview stream over WiFi (not supported in Kinovea) and the HDMI out which needs an additional dedicated capture hardware (of which I do not know if they are well supported in Kinovea or not).

3

Hi Joan,

Thank you for your comments.

Currently we are opening files via USB on the SD card. However, we always have to connect and disconnect the camera when we switch from recording to Kinovea. In addition, the camera always has to be turend on and off when we switch. This is a very time consuming process as we have to switch back and forth very often during our analysis.

Is there an other product you can recommend? All we need is a product with an easier handling and 60 fps. We are only 1-2 meters away when recording.

Thank you in advance
Steffen

4

Hi slim_n_trim, joan,
sorry to join your discussion here, but I was also quite interested in using GoPro live stream with Kinovea some time ago.
Since I did not find a way to get it running, was short on timie & had to meet the criteria:
a) USB connection
b) > 60Hz
c) rec distance 1.5 - 2.5 meters
d) at least 640x480 pixel resolution
I ended up using PlayStation Eye cams.
If you can live with this low resolution, why not using it?
Priced < 15,-€ it is the only cam I am aware of that can give you 75fps via USB2.0 and, depending on light conditions, nice records.
If there is a cam on the market with USB & higher resolution @ >60fps that I have failed to notice:
please, please give me a sign! ;-)
regards

- the repairman will never have seen a model quite like yours before -

5

One approach to streamline the workflow without live streaming would be to use a WiFi-enabled SD card. Ideally we would like to access the card as a network drive…

I haven't tried these in a while so I can't recommend a specific product. The original Eye-Fi had some workflow limitations that made it a bit frustrating to use. I don't know if they improved upon this.

I do not know if the camera can stay on while the WiFi-enabled part of the card is reading the files. There might be sharing issues at the filesystem level preventing this.

If someone has experimented with these please share.

The GoPro also has some WiFi options and an embedded HTTP server. I don't know if anyone ever found out how to access SD cards files through this way.

6

I have also yet to find a 60fps USB 2.0 camera with more than 640x480 resolution.
- The PS3Eye does 640x480 @ 75fps.
- The logitech C910 is apparently also capable of 640x480 @ 60 fps. The option was removed in the C920 for some reason.
- The C920-c (business version?) is reported by some sources as 960x720 @ 60 fps but I can't verify.
- I don't know about the C930 or C615.
- There is also a Chinese clone Gucee that claims 640x480 @ 60 fps.

1080p @ 60 fps is nowhere to be found…

It shouldn't be a bandwidth problem for the recent Logitech cameras like the C920 because unlike the PS3Eye and other cameras they have on-board MJPEG and H.264 compression. Maybe the compression chip is not fast enough to keep up, or they just didn't bother with it as it's less likely to interest their primary market.

The next options are USB 3.0 and GigE cameras, but the price jump is painful. Also the stream is raw so now it's the PC-side and the hard-drive that have to cope with compression and writing speed.

7

totally agree on your last point.
as I wrote in another topic, there is a way to record up to 4 PSeye cams simultaneously via 3rd party soft in raw format.
having 2 usb2.0 controllers on board or buying a usb3.0 expresscard let me cope with the incoming data, but HDD is the bottleneck now due to limitations in writing speed. SDD solves the problem but requires some additional investments.
when I imagine the amount of data in higher resolution coming from more than one cam @ say 100fps...whoooha.
found some USB3.0 cams with higher resolution here, but the price hurts indeed:
http://www.allsportsystems.com/store_im … 80camstore

- the repairman will never have seen a model quite like yours before -

8

This camera module is quite interesting : ELP-USBFHD01M from Ailipu Technology. (You may find it on your favorite Chinese reseller at about 35€ + shipping).

It is based on an Omnivision OV2710 sensor which does 1920x1080@30fps, 1280x720@60fps and 640x480@120fps.
They apparently implemented MJPEG compression on all of these sensor outputs and the camera is UVC compliant.
It comes with various M12 lenses options so the lens might be interchangeable.
It is not clear whether it has manual exposure or not. I just ordered some to find out if it delivers on the specs.

9

Hi Joan, hi getpa,

Thank's for your comments! What about visual distortion? Does the Playstation Eye Cam have problems with that? Our recording distance is onlty 1.5 to 2.5 meters.

kind regards,
steffen

10

Hi there,
Joan opened a topic on distortion & how to handle it here (just in case you haven't seen it yet):
http://www.kinovea.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?id=730
I checked my 4 PSeye cams, they had different distortion coefficients but I really had no time to prepare the calibration files as I intended to do. However, the distortion of their lenses is present rather only in the corners, not in the middle of the picture.
For the analysis of the angles i.e. during running, I place all the cams in the way that my object of interest is aligned with their center.
First, the record of an rectangular object of known height&length&width is always performed, which enables me to use the perspective grid & calibrate for all following records. And yes, my recording distance is also 1.5m to 2.5m.

@Joan:
thank you for the hint, looks indeed very promising. Very curious about your opinion on this cam!

best regards,

- the repairman will never have seen a model quite like yours before -

11

Hi there,

we have two PS3Eye cameras now. Kinovea works with one camara. However, we are not able to connect the second one to kinovea. What are we doing wrong?

Kind regards,
Steffen

12

Use 2 PS3 Eye Cams with Kinovea:
•    Start Kinovea & plug in1 PS3eye camera to a USB port
•    From the "View" tab, select "Two capture screens"
•    On the left capture screen, under Select Source, choose  "PS3Eye camera" (the cameras view becomes active)
•    Plug in the 2nd PS3Eye camera into another USB port (NOT on the same USB Controller)
•    On the right capture screen, under Select Source, choose "PS3Eye camera" again (the cameras view becomes active)
•    RECORD
You might have to figure out which port has to be connected first!

- the repairman will never have seen a model quite like yours before -

13

OR:
see here for how-to http://wiki.ipisoft.com/Cameras_and_accessories
this is an option to record with iPi-Recorder V2, up to 4 cams simultaneously. Then, use the export option in the software & analyse via Kinovea.
This way around you can avoid the trial&error with 2 cams on Kinovea, expand to 4 cams for recording (but 60Hz only).

- the repairman will never have seen a model quite like yours before -