Tracking Control

Tracking Feature with Logitech Quickcam Sphere/Orbit

Motion can move the camera to a fixed position given in degrees pan (left-right) and tilt (down-up). Movement can be set with absolute coordinates or relative to current position. There is also an auto tracking feature for the Logitech Quickcam Sphere/Orbit but it is not very mature. It is fun to play with but not very useful yet. See this topic of how KennethLavrsen controls his Sphere: LogitechSphereControl.

For a detailed description of http remote control see the section Remote Control with http.

List of tracking options

track_auto

• Type: Boolean
• Range / Valid values: on, off
• Default: off
• Option Topic

Enable auto tracking

Requires a tracking camera type supported by Motion.

track_iomojo_id

• Type: Integer
• Range / Valid values: 0 - 65535
• Default: 0
• Option Topic

Use this option if you have an iomojo smilecam connected to the serial port instead of a general stepper motor controller.

Only used for iomojo camera.

track_maxx

• Type: Integer
• Range / Valid values: 0 - 65535
• Default: 0
• Option Topic

The maximum position for servo x.

Only used for stepper motor tracking.

track_maxy

• Type: Integer
• Range / Valid values: 0 - 65535
• Default: 0
• Option Topic

The maximum position for servo y.

Only used for stepper motor tracking.

track_motorx

• Type: Integer
• Range / Valid values: 0 - 65535
• Default: 0
• Option Topic

The motor number that is used for controlling the x-axis.

Only used for stepper motor tracking.

track_motory

• Type: Integer
• Range / Valid values: 0 - 65535
• Default: 0
• Option Topic

The motor number that is used for controlling the y-axis.

Only used for stepper motor tracking.

track_move_wait

• Type: Integer
• Range / Valid values: 0 - 65535
• Default: 10
• Option Topic

Delay during which tracking is disabled after auto tracking has moved the camera. Delay is defined as number of picture frames.

The actual delay is depending on the chosen framerate. If you want the camera to move maximum once every 2 seconds and the framerate is 10 then you need to set the track_move_wait value to 2 * 10 = 20.

track_port

• Type: String
• Range / Valid values: Max 4095 characters
• Default: Not defined
• Option Topic

This is the device name of the serial port to which the stepper motor interface is connected.

Only used for stepper motor tracking.

track_speed

• Type: Integer
• Range / Valid values: 0 - 255
• Default: 255
• Option Topic

Speed to set the motor to.

Only used for stepper motor tracking.

track_step_angle_x

• Type: Integer
• Range / Valid values: 0-90
• Default: 10
• Option Topic

Angle in degrees the camera moves per step on the X-axis with auto tracking. Currently only used with pwc type cameras.

Requires a tracking camera type pwc.

track_step_angle_y

• Type: Integer
• Range / Valid values: 0-40
• Default: 10
• Option Topic

Angle in degrees the camera moves per step on the Y-axis with auto tracking. Currently only used with pwc type cameras.

Requires a tracking camera type pwc.

track_stepsize

• Type: Integer
• Range / Valid values: 0 - 255
• Default: 40
• Option Topic

Number of steps to make.

Only used for stepper motor tracking.

track_type

• Type: Discrete Strings
• Range / Valid values: 0 (none), 1 (stepper), 2 (iomojo), 3 (pwc), 4 (generic), 5 (uvcvideo)
• Default: 0 (None)
• Option Topic

Type of tracker.

Motion has special tracking options which use either a serial stepper motor controller, an iomojo smile cam or a Philips WebCam driver compatible pan/tilt camera such as the Logitech Quickcam Sphere or Orbit.

To disable tracking, set this to 0 and the other track options are ignored.

Value 1 is for the special Motion Tracking project using a stepper motor and a home made controller.

Value 2 is for the iomojo smilecam

Value 3 is for pwc type USB tracking cameras such as the Logitech Quickcam Sphere/Orbit which is driven by the pwc (Philips WebCam) driver. To use this camera your version of pwc must be at least 8.12.

Value 4 is the generic track type. Currently it has no other function than enabling some of the internal Motion features related to tracking. Eventually more functionality will be implemented for this type.

Value 5 is for uvcvideo type USB tracking cameras such as the Logitech Quickcam Sphere/Orbit MP (new Model) which is driven by the uvcvideo driver. This option was added in Motion 3.2.8.

-- KennethLavrsen - 12 Apr 2005