📷 flirmulticamera – v1.0.0

C++ Library to record synchronized videos and images using synchronizable Flir Cameras on Ubuntu. Also contains python bindings.

This module is part of my ROS/ROS2 real-time 3D tracker and its docker-implementation.

📑 Citation

If you use this software, please use the GitHub “Cite this repository” button at the top(-right) of this page.

🧪 Tested with

• Spinnaker-2.4.0.143-Ubuntu20.04-amd64-pkg.tar.gz
• 5x Flir Grasshopper GS3-U3-32S-4C
• cpp_utils v1.0.0
• pybind11-dev

Requirements

• USB Card to handle all the video input
• Synchronization cable that connects master cameras Trigger Pin to the Slave cameras input pins.
• We use Line2 on the Master and Line3 for the Slave cameras.
• cpp_utils v1.0.0
• fmt and ffmpeg

1. Download and install the Spinnaker SDK. Make sure that you can run Spinview and that you can get a stable video of each camera.
2. Edit the following environment variables in build_install.sh:

FLIR_MASTER_LINE #Cable line of Master Output i.e. "Line2"
FLIR_SLAVE_LINE #Cable line of Slave Input i.e. "Line3"
FLIR_CAMERA_SERIAL_NUMBERS #Comma separable list of serial numbers, i.e. "19037266,19246521,20174578,19338645,19421325"
FLIR_CAMERA_COUNT #Number of elements in the list above, i.e. 5
FLIR_MASTER_CAM_SERIAL #Serial number of the Master camera i.e. "20174578"
FLIR_TOP_CAM_SERIAL #Serial number of the setups top camera (used to set lower gain)

Installation

Execute the build & installation script:

./build_install.sh

To install the static library, enter your sudo password when asked.

Usage

Python example:

./src/apps/get_images.py

CMake generates the following executables.

./build/record_synchronized_frame - to save a synchronized image

./build/record_synchronized_videos - to record synchronized videos

You can specify the camera settings by passing a <your-settings>.json to each executable as first argument:

 ./build/record_synchronized_frame /home/docker/modules/FlirMultiCamera/cfg/1024x768.json

See the json scheme in ./cfg.

For the video executable you can further specify the number of frames by passing them as second argument:

./build/record_synchronized_videos /home/docker/workspace/build/dependencies/FlirMultiCamera/cfg/1024x768.json 40

Otherwise the executables will assume the default configuration 1024x768.json and a default frame number of 30.

You can specify the savepath of your images/videos in the the config. If save_dir is an empty string it will chose the ./outputs folder as default.

Notes

This software is an essential part of my docker-based pipeline for online 3D tracking, that I build during my PhD.