invisible light camera modification for everyone!

[johnnyM1984]

Disclaimer: I am not employed by Aerodrums. This camera modification is
not made by them. To make use of it with Aerodrums, you must purchase a
copy of Aerodrums.


Hello guys!
If anyone is interested in purchasing a modded PS3 camera with infrared leds and special lens filter (that passes only infrared and cuts the visible light), please sent me a PM. I've tested and already sold in my town few such models, they work perfectly with Aerodrums software since their hardware part is essentially the same PS3 camera as the original one.

The lens filter that I install allows you to play even on the street (provided that it is a cloudy weather and no direct sunlight goes straight into the camera). The lens filter blocks efficiently light form normal LED lamps that we use at home or in the office, so I dont have any problems at any level of illuminations at home.

I use 3d-printed enclosure for modded camera and made a special mount hole so you can use regular camera stand for this.


I am posting some images of what was done just to give you an overall understanding.




I also made video for comparison of original vs infrared (modified) camera:


With this modified camera you can play in the outside, at the day light, with some limitations. Here is a short video playing with my friend.


Note that modified camera still catches the direct sunlight, so to play safely you need either dull and cluody weather (clouds reflect the IR light from sun) or make sure the background is not subject to direct sunlight (play in front of a wall or the shadow).

[Wolfgang]

Very nice experiment. And maybe the most advanced I’ve seen here the last 5 years. I had already seen your YouTube video, but I didn’t understand where to find the camera. Sure I would be interested in something like this, I’m using Aerodrums at a lot of different places and there are situations were I have to fight with the light. Just two things makes me worry. The first is that apparently you aren’t using the lens in the middle of Aerodrums’ light circle. I think Aerodrums’ algorithm is adapted to this lens to capture your sticks when they are far away from the center. Without you will get another experience.

The second is that it cannot be used with the new Aerodrums stand. I was using a normal camera stand before, but I don’t want to play with 3 axes any-more. The new stand fixes the camera at it’s optimal height and angle and comes with a new calibration mode more easy to use. If I would have to choose between the infrared camera and the stand, I take the stand.
If you want to adapt your camera to the new stand you need to take contact with Richard or Sipaliwini. But I think this is very promising judging your video.

[johnnyM1984]

Dear Wolfgang,

The original Aerodrums lens in the middle makes the image more wide-angle, around 110 degrees, which corresponds to 2.6mm lens for standard M12 optics. Also it slightly blurres the image. You can evidence that by using any software that captures and shows you picture from camera directly, without any image processing. In my third experiment I've used M12 custom lens which gives the same effect. Using M12 lens gives you ability to set the focus so you can achieve the same blurry effect (focus being lost).

Regarding camera stand, it fixes the height and tilt angle of camera. But it is not as much important as the drum placement calibration. Before you start playing I would highly recommend you to enter the menu and place individually each drum. This would make sure that 2d position (image from camera) of every drum you are goind to play would be perfectly interpolated into 3d position by aerodrums iternal math model.

This picture shows image from PS3 camera without Aerodrums lamp:



This image shows the same camera position but with Aerodrums lamp on:


I've made a small utility for everyone which shows unprocessed image from camera, you can download it from
https://drive.google.com/uc?id=12tJeN5- ... sIHPp9L3oK

This utility is quiet usefull if you struggle to determine what is interferring in your drumming, sometimes people wear clothes with light reflective elements and do not recognize this. Or your glasses may reflect the light under certain angle. Or there is something behind you that normally is masked by your body contour starts flickering when you move a lot. Or some elements of your interior are moving by wind and start reflecting the light.

I use this utility to notice all such "dynamic" sources of reflection.

[Wolfgang]

Hi johnnyM,

This is a good point that you have thought about the lens.

Regarding camera stand, it fixes the height and tilt angle of camera. But it is not as much important as the drum placement calibration. Before you start playing I would highly recommend you to enter the menu and place individually each drum. This would make sure that 2d position (image from camera) of every drum you are goind to play would be perfectly interpolated into 3d position by aerodrums iternal math model.

I really don’t want to denigrate your project. You have done some good work up to now. I’m just interfering as someone who uses Aerodrums at other places for gigs and rehearsals up to three times a week. The advantage of the new stand is that you will have your camera ALWAYS at the same height and tilt angle and don’t need to place your elements each time (and find out in the middle of a tune that you have made a mistake in placing). I have my fixed set and I don’t touch it beside sensitivity settings depending on VSTIs.

... sometimes people wear clothes with light reflective elements and do not recognize this. Or your glasses may reflect the light under certain angle. Or there is something behind you that normally is masked by your body contour starts flickering when you move a lot. Or some elements of your interior are moving by wind and start reflecting the light.

You made a good list of which can happen behind your back and harm your playing experience . But I would like to have such a testing screen inside the playing mode accessible with my sticks. Like this it could be usable in live situations, were you cannot always stand up and go to your computer for verifying things. In the setup mode there is already something like your tool. If you have something reflecting (one of your markers) in view of the camera and you come to the point in setup were Aerodrums offers to eliminate a light-source, just click on go back and you will have a camera view.

The camera light never really bothered me, but being able to filter external light sources would be a big step forward. I’m sure this can work well inside with artificial light emitting mostly in green spectral light. But outside it will be another thing. The sun is emitting a lot of infrared light and I never expected that any infrared solution could help against direct sunlight.

The lens filter that I install allows you to play even on the street (provided that it is a cloudy weather and no direct sunlight goes straight into the camera).

Sounds very nice. Have you tried this with blue sky in camera view (on the side not behind you) and sun covered completely by houses/trees? Actually just blue sky gives you big red stains on your setup screen.

[johnnyM1984]

Hi,

This is very important that you can have a stand for a camera that fixes your position in every place you play. This is really a very convenient thing, I just realised that you though I would agrue with this. Actually this is very convenient, I agree.

I also agree that tracking markers on blue sky background is a challenging task with existing Aerodrums algorythms, even with infrared-pass filter. It does not help since the blue sky in daylight is very "hot" in terms of emitting infrared light. But if the weather is cloudy or it is evening time, the filter is capable to reduce the sky light to normal (background) level.

I was just interesting if anyone is bothered with the LED bright lamp just like me. I am playing in my room and have gigs outside only in summer time. I played a lot in the evening time in the outside in summer, and the modded camera worked nice.

I noticed that the camera ability to filter the background light can be seriously improved, because the more narrower the light spektr is, the less background light is passed, and it is easier for camera to filter foreground from background (provided that the exposure time is fixed, in our case it is fixed).

Another advantage is that you do not see the infrared light and it does not bother you.
I am sure you agree that it is worth trying to improve such wonderfull thing as Aerodrums.

I can post few videos and pics how the filter works if anyone is interesting.

[condordontsurf]

I think it looks awesome. I am with WOLF , i love the stand and now can not play without it. I used Aerodrums for a year with the stand and now have had the stand about a couple of years.

[Wolfgang]

I am with WOLF

Thanks for your support . But for me it’s the same, I can not live without it!

I am sure you agree that it is worth trying to improve such wonderfull thing as Aerodrums.

Completely. I was always very open to DIY projects in the past and even promoted some here.
May I ask how much time you did spend on Aerodrums before using your camera solution and how many times after and did you felt any difference? You are here since quite a long time, I remember your post with the OpenGL wrapper some years ago.

Even if it’s not my case, but I’m sure you will find a lot of users being bothered by the light. For me it would be primary the gain of usability in different light situations.

I can post few videos and pics how the filter works if anyone is interesting.

Always interested.

[condordontsurf]

How much ? I would love to demo one and put it through the paces.

[frejatet]

Hey @johnnyM1984,

I am interested are you still selling those? I can't private message because I just registered but please contact me if you can!

thank you

[johnnyM1984]

Hi everyone!

Just an update for anyone who is interested in IR light camera. Please contact me directly if you have questions.

I've build three cameras: two with 1.8mm optics, one with 2.1mm CCTV lens. They work like a charm with original Aerodrums markers. I did live comparison between image captured from original PS3EYE camera with Aerodrums optics and this one and made many experiments with different CCTV optics, the best results achieved with 1.8mm lens. It has a wider angle so I could sit closer to the camera.

Watch my video playing one of them:

https://youtu.be/RQRDycR6Gnc

More detailed fotos are available on my google drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing