Radar Touch (and more)

vvvv beta question
1

Hi vvvvorum,
I’m looking at the Radar Touch to track people on a surface of 20x13m.

I found 3 products:

The original: http://www.solutions4interactivity.com/products/radartouch/about/

The Coolux version called AirScan: http://www.coolux.de/products/airscan/

The manufacturer!?:
http://www.leuze.com/en/deutschland/produkte/schaltende_sensoren/flaechendeckende_sensoren_lichtschnittsensoren/laserscanner/rod_4/selector.php?supplier_aid=50106481&grp_id=1340277906162&lang=eng#{

Are there any differences between them?

Anyone have some experience with these devices?

Thanks!

2

I also found this kind of devices for optical tracking. Any experience?

http://www.coolux.de/products/real-time-tracking-id-tags/

3

I did an installation last week with the radarTouch from Lang and had no problems via TUIO. Everything just worked.

I contacted Leuze ahead of our project, but never got an answer, so I don’t know what’s the difference here. Also I don’t know what the pricing of the Leuze is.

The Lang radarTouch is pretty expensive, but I guess that Lang developed the custom calibration software, which they deploy with their dongle.

I don’t know anything about the coolux airscan, but if I remember correctly I contacted a reseller a few years ago and it was significantly cheaper than the radarTouch. But for some reasons we didn’t work with the airScan, so I have no experiences to share.

4

@@pechart: thanks! I want to use it on a floor to track 2/3 people. Are there any occlusion issues if someone is near to the radar?

5

Yes, you will run into issues like shadowing and occlusion.
Think of it as a light emitter. It sends out IR light through a rotating prisma in the form of a japanese fan and does a runtime measurement when some obstacle enters the user-defined scanning area (I think). So, of course someone (or something) right in front of the device will cast a big shadow.

Maybe you can combine 2 or more of them for a better coverage? Technically this shouldn’t be a big problem.

6

Using 2 RadarTouch there could be interference issues between the devices? And how can I merge the data from the devices?

I found also a thermal camera for this kind of purpose: http://www.thermitrack.com/index.html

Any experience?

7

You have to position the devices in a way that the don’t “spill” into each others sensor, of course.
I don’t know how to combine them, but they provide a combination in the setup software and also you could just fetch the tuio data from both devices and combine them in vvvv, no?
The thermal cam has only a resolution of 16x16 px… Not that much.

8

Any other thermal cameras to use with vvvv?

9

I found an example of multiple RadarTouch use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC8UTIvDtzg

Seems Lang provides “Radar Stitcher” (2nd page): http://www.solutions4interactivity.com/uploads/media/radarTRACK_radarSTICHER_datasheet.pdf

10

In terms of thermal cameras, there is FLIR, quite expensive though… I think there are some people who rent them as well…

Here’s a rather messy, but working vvvv plugin for Flir Ethernet Cameras ebus-gige-camera-plugins-(ex9.texture)
Pleora sdk is needed though (came with the camera in my case…)

11

Does anyone know where I can hire one of these?

I need one in the UK for a few days next week.