1

Hi all,

This is Kinovea 0.9.4. This should be the last beta release before the next version finally replaces the main stable download link.
Please report any critical issues as soon as possible.

Plugins for machine vision cameras:

Many thanks to everyone reporting bugs and helping with the testing!
This post highlights the most important updates, the changelog has a more exhaustive list.

   

1. Project-level updates

Machine vision plugins
The modules for machine vision cameras (Basler, IDS, etc.) have been split into separate plugins.
If you have one of these cameras please download the corresponding plugin, unzip it and check the readme.txt for installation instruction (basically copying the plugin folder to Plugins/Camera).

Translation
The translation of the program is now officially handled via Weblate, an awesome open source platform dedicated to translating software. You can help with the localization effort by registering on Weblate and start translating Kinovea right away. Thank you for your help!

Documentation
Most of the effort since last version was actually spent on updating the documentation but this is a gigantic task and will only be fully complete later, at which point we can finally release a normal non-beta version.

   

2. General usability improvements

Workspaces
Workspaces are now fully supported. Use the menu Options > Workspace > Save as default workspace to save the current screen arrangement and what video or camera is loaded in each screen. This screen arrangement and content will be read back when the program starts.

Combined with multi-instances this can be used to create and load complex setups where each instance is dedicated to a specific camera or replay observer.

https://www.kinovea.org/screencaps/0.9.4/094-menuworkspace.png

Arm/disarm audio trigger
A small but important quality-of-life improvement, you can now disarm the audio trigger and also configure an "idle time" after each capture. This avoids spurious triggers while working on the computer between actual recordings.

https://www.kinovea.org/screencaps/0.9.4/094-disarmtrigger.png

Save vs Save as
The save command is now directly bound to saving the current KVA file so you no longer have to specify the target file every time.

Line calibration axis
When calibrating using a line, you can now specify if this line represents the horizontal or vertical axis of the coordinate system, (or if it should be ignored and the image axes used instead).

Folder observer
It's now easy to switch between normal video mode and folder observer by using the menu in the player infobar.

https://www.kinovea.org/screencaps/0.9.4/094-menuobserver.png

   

3. New Camera type: Baumer

Kinovea now supports a fourth type of machine vision cameras with the introduction of a module supporting Baumer cameras.

You can learn more about these cameras and check their specs at https://www.baumer.com

Many thanks to Baumer for providing cameras and technical support!

https://www.kinovea.org/screencaps/0.9.4/094-baumer.png

Thanks!

Don't hesitate to post feedback, questions, feature requests and bug reports! You can do this either in this thread or create new dedicated threads.

2 (edited by clarimilden 2021-05-25 03:08:49)

Hi,
i've got a question about the angle tool: when you have set up the perspective chart and you try to measure a rectangle angle, is there an algorithm that calculates the angles? I mean, it measures different as if you don't have set up the perspective chart. When it is suposed to be at 90º aproximately, it measures 80º ... 60º...  I've tried the tools angle, goniometer, angle with horizontal but I am not sure about those measures. Could you tell me?

I cant' attach an image
Thank you very much!

3

Did you calibrate the coordinate system with the grid? You need to right click the grid, go to Calibrate and enter the real-world dimensions of the grid.
When in doubt you can display the coordinate system from menu Tools > Coordinate system.

The angle is measured by using the coordinates in the calibrated system.

4 (edited by clarimilden 2021-05-27 02:02:04)

Ok! thank you very much
Yes I did calibrate but if you can have a look at this image, the rectangle angle of a corner is not showing 90º with the coordinate system. I draw many angles:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rcsBwk … sp=sharing

Am I doing something wrong? I've checked in previous versions but it's the same. Is the perspective chart only for x coordinates?
If I calibrate the coordinate system on y -vertical-, does it work for wide? or just height? Is there any way to consider both dimentions?
Appreciate your help. Regards,
Clarisa

5

So in this case as the grid is set on the ground, it's measuring angles on the ground. The end points of the angles are considered to be on the grid and the angles calculated from that.

Even if you place the angles above the horizon, it will still calculate the coordinates as if they were on that calibrated plane. You can add a marker object and right click > "Display measure > Position" and then move it around to see this in action. (It will give weird values when it goes too much above the horizon that it can't project it on the ground anymore).

In this coordinate system these right angles are not right angles, you will need to set up the grid vertically.

Maybe the name perspective grid is a bit misleading, what it gives is a way to materialize the plane of motion.

6

Perfectly understood.
Thank you very much for your time!!

7

Hi Joan,
is there a way to bring OpenPose 25-point body model in version 0.9.4 ? Would it be possible to import the model data present in version 0.9.1 ?

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If you want to have the OpenPose body model show up in the toolbar as a button you can go to the program files, then under DrawingTools > Toolbars > player.xml, open this file and at line 12 un-comment the line, then restart the program.  That is, make this line look like this:

<subentry name="OpenPoseBody25" />

This tool is rather specific to importing data from OpenPose json files that's why it's not visible in the interface by default, the other two body models should be suitable for most scenarios.

Data created in 0.9.1 should already be imported normally in 0.9.4 and the OpenPose model should show up, does this not work?

9

To all: I re-releaseed 0.9.4 with the fix for the crash when opening the tracking configuration.

10

I thought that with version 0.9.4 openpose 25 could work better, but nothing. Joan isn't there a pose estimation model to track all the joints?
I thought I'd try with the "Profile" template, but I don't know how to use it.
Some idea?

11

Hi Joan,
when i try to set the path edition y can't name it. It shows an error, i had to use 9.3 so i can have the graphs with name on it.

Another thing, when i use the angulus- gonimeter or angle to vertical and i try to customize settings, the fadding doesn't work. The tools are set on the video all the time (as I would have set always visible).

Thanks in advance for your help.
Clarisa

12

Hi,
I can't reproduce the problems at the moment.

For the first one make sure you re-download the version 0.9.4 as the original one had a bug in it related to opening the configuration dialog on tracks.

For the second problem when the object is tracked it will have solid opacity during the tracking period, it should only fade out at each end, maybe it's this?

13

Not sure this is a bug or user error. Compression of video captures to MP4 produces a mirrored image when using a replay folder observer. Uncompressed recordings do not have mirroring. I tried to just set the replay to mirror but it requires repeating the process for each replay video.

14

I just tried it without reproducing the problem. Some questions:

Do you have mirroring active on the camera side?
Image rotation?
Do you have a default playback KVA file that is loaded with every video that has mirroring maybe? (Preferences > Playback > General > Default annotation file).

Maybe the mirror flag was active at some point and it's stuck in the KVA file somehow.
Can you locate the last captured file and see if there is a .kva file of the same name, open it, and look in the first lines for <Mirror>true</Mirror>.

In any cases the capture side and the playback side should be the same, either mirrored or not.

The difference between compressed and uncompressed is puzzling. Is the camera streaming MJPEG or something else?

15 (edited by preludesam 2021-10-16 03:24:55)

Do you have mirroring active on the camera side?

No

Image rotation?

Yes 90 degrees counterclockwise on capture 1 and 90 degrees clockwise on capture 2.

Do you have a default playback KVA file that is loaded with every video that has mirroring maybe?

No, text box is blank

Can you locate the last captured file and see if there is a .kva file of the same name, open it, and look in the first lines for

It reads <Mirror>false</Mirror>

Is the camera streaming MJPEG or something else

Cameras are DAHENG MER2-160-227U3M. Great recommendation on the cameras and thanks for adding support. Great camera at a great price.


I just recorded a desktop capture to show you what I am experiencing. I forgot to show that if even if I select "mirror image" for the Replay Folder Observer instance it still produces a mirrored image vs the uncompressed captures. It made me think, should I choose mirror image for the capture instead? I would like it to work like uncompressed recordings but beggers should not be choosy. Another couple questions if you have a moment.

https://youtu.be/LW_KH-7Ky-U


1. Is there a way to get the Replay Folder Observer to sync and replay? On my captures, they have a mind of their own. One will start and play then end then nothing. It never pulls the other capture into playing and most of the time capture "-2" starts first otherwise 10% of the time "-1" starts first. 
2. How would setup changes to make it loop and change the loop speed after a full play or is that even possible?
3. Loved both user manuals, old and new and read them cover to cover.