ENGINEERING BEYOND MOTION

VICON TRACKER
USER GUIDE

WHAT'S INSIDE

About this guide 3

About Vicon Tracker documentation 4

Regulatory information 5

Introducing Vicon Tracker 6

Finding information about Tracker 7
Tracker system components 8
Connecting cameras 11
Setting up a mixed Vicon camera system 12
Vicon file types used in Tracker 13
About the Tracker user interface 14
Customizing the Tracker user interface 16
Setting properties in Tracker 18
Mouse and keyboard shortcuts 21

© Copyright 2016–2023 Vicon Motion Systems Limited. All rights reserved.

Revision 1. For use with Tracker 3.10
Vicon Motion Systems Limited reserves the right to make changes to information or specifications in this document without notice.
Companies, names, and data used in examples are fictitious unless otherwise noted. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, by photocopying or recording, or otherwise without
the prior written permission of Vicon Motion Systems Ltd.
Vicon® is a registered trademark of Oxford Metrics plc. Vicon Lock Lab™, Vicon Lock Studio™, T-Series™, Vicon Tracker™,
Vicon Valkyrie™, Vicon Vantage™, Vicon Vero™, Vicon Viper™, Vicon ViperX™, and Vicon Vue™ are trademarks of Oxford Metrics plc.
VESA® is a registered trademark owned by VESA (www.vesa.org/about-vesa/). Other product and company names herein may be the
trademarks of their respective owners. For full and up-to-date copyright and trademark acknowledgements, visit https://www.vicon.com/
vicon/copyright-information.
Vicon Motion Systems is an Oxford Metrics plc company.
Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.vicon.com
 ENGINEERING BEYOND MOTION

Managing resources with Tracker 24

About the Resources pane 25
About the System tab 29
About the Calibrate tab 91
About the Objects tab 114
About the Recording tab 134

Monitoring system activity 148

About the Communications pane 149
Working in the Communications pane 150

Viewing camera data 152

About the view pane 153
About the 3D Perspective view 157
About the 3D Orthogonal view 159
About the Camera view 162
About the Graph view 170

Using Vicon Tracker menus and options 176

About the menu bar 177
Options dialog box 179

Extending your use of Vicon Tracker 181

Working with VRPN 182
Using the Vicon Control app with Tracker 186
Accessing Vicon Tracker data from Simulink 189

Contact Vicon 205

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About this guide

About this guide

The Vicon Tracker User Guide provides product information, user assistance, and
operational expertise to help you capture and analyze motion data. It will help
you confirm your basic understanding of any steps; investigate a process, step,
or option in more detail; try more advanced features; or pick up best practice
tips.

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About Vicon Tracker documentation

About Vicon Tracker documentation

The following documentation is available for the current Tracker release:

Document Description
What's new in Describes the latest release of Tracker, including details of
Vicon Tracker how to use the new features.
PDF available from the Vicon documentation website1 and as
online help.
Vicon Tracker User Guide Explains how to use Tracker with Vicon camera systems.
PDF installed with Tracker and available as online help.
Installing and licensing Step-by-step instructions for installing and licensing Tracker.
Vicon Tracker PDF available from the Vicon documentation website and as
online help.
Vicon Tracker Python API Introductory information to help you to start using the Vicon
Quick Start Guide Tracker Application Programming Interface (API).

The User Guide PDF is installed as part of your Tracker software installation.

1 https://docs.vicon.com

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About Vicon Tracker documentation

\ Regulatory information \

Regulatory information
For Vicon Tracker regulatory details, see Vicon Tracker regulatory information in
the Tracker documentation area of the Vicon website2.

2 https://docs.vicon.com

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Introducing Vicon Tracker

Introducing Vicon Tracker

Vicon Tracker is a powerful object-tracking solution, providing unrivaled data
accuracy for integration into 3D applications. It enables you to use Vicon camera
hardware for tracking rigid bodies, accurately streaming 6 Degrees of Freedom
data in real time with very low latency.

To get started with Vicon Tracker, you set up your Vicon system and then
prepare the objects for motion tracking.

The user interface guides you through the various tasks. When you are familiar
with the basics, you can customize Tracker to look and behave as you want.

For more information, see the following topics:

• Tracker system components on page 8

• Connecting cameras on page 11

• Setting up a mixed Vicon camera system on page 12

• Vicon file types used in Tracker on page 13

• About the Tracker user interface on page 14

• Customizing the Tracker user interface on page 16

• Setting properties in Tracker on page 18

• Mouse and keyboard shortcuts on page 21

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Introducing Vicon Tracker

\ Finding information about Tracker \

Finding information about Tracker

You can find information about your Tracker installation by using the relevant
options on the Help menu.

Check your licensed Tracker options

To check your currently licensed Tracker options:

1. From the Help menu, click About Vicon Tracker.

2. In the window, click the Feature Details button.

The currently licensed options are listed in the Licensed features dialog box.

3. When you have checked the options, click Close.

Find Tracker version information

To check the version number of Tracker, from the menu bar, select Help > About
Vicon Tracker.

The version number is displayed in the bottom left of the window that is
displayed. This information may be requested if you contact Vicon Support with
questions about Vicon Tracker.

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Introducing Vicon Tracker

\ Tracker system components \

Tracker system components

Tracker is part of the fully integrated and expandable Vicon system that lets you
build an architecture best suited to your motion capture application.

In the following architecture diagrams, Tracker is installed on the host PC.

For further information on how to set up a Vicon system, see Vicon system
configuration and connection examples3 on the Vicon documentation website.

Vicon Valkyrie system architecture

Vicon Vantage system architecture

3 https://docs.vicon.com/display/Connect/Vicon+system+configuration+and+connection+examples

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Introducing Vicon Tracker

\ Tracker system components \

About Tracker system components

 Note
Except where noted, references to Vicon Lock, Lock units, and Lock
apply to all current models of the Vicon Lock unit (at the time of
publication, this includes Vicon Lock Studio and Vicon Lock Lab).

You can include the following components in a Vicon Tracker system

architecture:

Component Description
Vicon Valkyrie VK26 and VK16 variants of the Valkyrie camera can be used with
cameras Tracker 3.10.
You can use Valkyrie cameras with Vero, Vantage, Viper (including
ViperX) and Bonita cameras in systems running Tracker 3.10 and later.
Caution: If you add Valkyrie cameras to a system that includes T-Series
cameras, the T-Series cameras will not work.
Vicon Viper and Viper cameras and ViperX cameras can be used with Tracker.
ViperX cameras You can use Viper and ViperX cameras in systems running Tracker 3.8
and later.
You can use Viper and ViperX cameras with Valkyrie cameras in
systems running Tracker 3.10 and later.
Vicon Vero Vicon Vero cameras (v1.3 and v2.2) can be used with Tracker.
cameras You can use Vicon Vero cameras in systems consisting of Vantage
cameras and, with Tracker 3.10 and later, in systems of Valkyrie
cameras.
Vicon Vantage Vantage cameras (V16, V8, and V5) can be used with Tracker.
cameras With Tracker 3.10 and later, you can integrate existing systems
consisting of Vantage and Vero cameras into a Valkyrie system.
See also What's New in Vicon Tracker, Vicon Vantage Quick Start
Guide and the Vicon Vantage Reference.
Caution: The use of mixed systems that include Vicon MX T-Series or
older Vicon cameras is not tested or supported and is at your own risk.
Vicon Bonita Vicon Bonita cameras can be used with Tracker.
cameras

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Introducing Vicon Tracker

\ Tracker system components \

Component Description
Vicon Vicon Lock (Lab and Studio): Facilitates the integration of synchronous
Connectivity third-party equipment with Vicon Vantage and Vicon Valkyrie cameras
units by providing or receiving synchronization and/or timecode. Lock Lab
also provides connectivity for third-party analog capture sources, such
as force plates and EMG equipment. Connects to an Ethernet switch
to which Vicon cameras and the host PC are connected.
Vicon Lock Lab and Vicon Lock Studio hardware units are RoHS-
compliant.
See also About Vicon connectivity units on page 68.
Vicon-supplied Switches obtained from Vicon that may provide PoE+, UPoE, and SFP+
switches connectivity.
Host PC The main PC in the Vicon system, with at least one dedicated Ethernet
port to enable Vicon system communications (in addition to any other
network ports on the PC). Vicon Tracker application software is
installed on this PC. Remote PCs may be used for other Vicon
application software or third-party applications connected to the host
PC via Ethernet.
Vicon cables Proprietary Vicon cables and commercially available cables connect
Vicon system components, providing a combination of power,
Ethernet communication, synchronization signals, video signals, and
data.
Vicon calibration Specialized device used to accurately calibrate the Vicon system.
device
Vicon Supplies for the Vicon system, including markers, tape, and Velcro.
accessories
Vicon Vicon Tracker software, DataStream SDK and Vicon Virtual System.
engineering
software
Additional Depending on your licensing options, your Vicon system may also
analog devices include one or more additional devices, such as LVDTs,
accelerometers, and load cells.
See also Set up analog devices on page 74.

For further details of these components, see the Vicon Vantage Reference Guide
and/or the Vicon Valkyrie Reference Guide (available from the Vicon website4).

4 https://docs.vicon.com

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Introducing Vicon Tracker

\ Connecting cameras \

Connecting cameras
To connect cameras into your Vicon system, you must specify the correct IP
address for the network card that is connected to the PoE switch.

To watch how to set up Vicon Vero cameras with Vicon Tracker software, see the
Tracker Installation and Training Guide5 on YouTube.
To connect the cameras:

1. Connect the PoE switch to the PC.

2. Access the Windows network connections:

• Open the Control Panel, then click Network and Internet and on the right
side of the panel, under Network and Sharing Center, click View Network
Status and Tasks; or

• Click the Network and Sharing Center icon on the right of the Windows
toolbar and then click Open Network and Sharing Center.

3. Right-click on the network card connected to PoE and then click Properties.

4. In the Properties window, select TCP/IP.

5. Click the Properties button.

6. In the Properties window, click the Use the Following IP Address radio
button.

7. Enter the following IP address: – 192.168.10.1.

8. Enter the following Subnet Mask – 255.255.255.0.

9. Click OK.

5 http://youtube.com/watch?v=2QRl2zzwhRk

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Introducing Vicon Tracker

\ Setting up a mixed Vicon camera system \

Setting up a mixed Vicon camera system

Tracker enables you to capture with mixed Vicon camera systems consisting of
Vicon Valkyrie cameras, Vicon Vero cameras (v1.3 and v2.2), Vicon Vantage
cameras and Vicon Bonita cameras.

For systems involving only Valkyrie, Vero, Vantage and Bonita cameras, the
shutter period characteristics for all cameras match exactly. Irrespective of
individual cameras' strobe (shutter) settings, the center alignment of these
periods in any Valkyrie/Vantage/Vero/Bonita camera in the same system align
exactly. You do not need to make any adjustments to ensure that this alignment
occurs.

For systems that include Vicon MX T-Series cameras, you may need to make
some manual adjustment. (Note that you cannot use MX T-Series in mixed
systems with Vicon Valkyrie cameras. Although you can use T-Series cameras with
Tracker 3.10, this is not supported or tested. For information on using these
cameras, see Setting up a mixed Vicon camera system in the Tracker User Guide
for versions of Tracker earlier than 3.10.)

You can find diagrams that show examples of mixed systems in Vicon system
configuration and connection examples6.

6 https://docs.vicon.com/display/Connect/Vicon+system+configuration+and+connection+examples

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Introducing Vicon Tracker

\ Vicon file types used in Tracker \

Vicon file types used in Tracker

During the motion capture workflow, you create and edit a number of
configuration files, Vicon Tracker generates a number of data files, and you can
import files from and export files to other Vicon applications or supported third-
party software.

You create and edit the following Vicon configuration file types during motion
capture and analysis:

File type Saved in Description

.options Options dialog box Data view options
.system Resources pane, System System settings
tab
.ViewType View pane View options and layouts
.vsk Resources pane, Objects Vicon skeleton file
tab
.xcp Resources pane, Calibration parameters file. You can create,
Calibrate tab reset, and load an .xcp file but the .xcp file
cannot be edited. You can export an .xcp
created in Tracker to other Vicon
application software and supported third-
party software.

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Introducing Vicon Tracker

\ About the Tracker user interface \

About the Tracker user interface

The Tracker user interface is laid out so you can locate buttons, menus, and
controls where you expect to find them.

• Resources pane: Enables you to manage the different components of your

Vicon system architecture and the objects whose motion is to be captured.
See About the Resources pane on page 25.

• View pane: Enables you to set up the way you want to visualize the capture
data from one or more cameras. See Viewing camera data on page 152.

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\ About the Tracker user interface \

• Communications pane: Enables you to view log information. See About the
Communications pane on page 149.

• Menu bar: Enables you to exit Tracker, undo/redo, open close panels, view
help, software version, and licensing information. See About the menu bar on
page 177.

In the Resources pane and view pane, you use the tabs and buttons to access the
tools and options for a specific workflow.

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Introducing Vicon Tracker

\ Customizing the Tracker user interface \

Customizing the Tracker user interface

You can customize the appearance of the Tracker window to suit your
preferences, using any of the following procedures. The Tracker window
maintains these settings until you adjust them again.

Undock and dock Resources or Communications panes

To undock Resources or Communications panes:

• Click the Dock Pane button on the right side of the pane title bar.
To dock Resources or Communication panes:

• Double-click the pane title bar. The pane is docked in its last fixed position.

Move the Resources or Communications panes

1. Click and hold the pane title bar and drag the pane to the desired location in
the Tracker window.

2. Drop the pane anywhere in the window to change it into a floating pane.

Resize the Resources or Communications panes

1. Hover the mouse pointer over the inside edge of the pane or the top edge of
a section so that the pointer becomes a double-headed arrow and drag to
resize as needed.

2. Click and drag the arrow to move the split line left or right to resize the pane
width, or up and down to resize the section height.

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\ Customizing the Tracker user interface \

Hide or display the Resources or Communications panes

1. Click the Close Pane button on the right side of the pane title bar.
2. From the Window menu, clear the required option to hide the Resources or
Communications pane and select the appropriate option to display the
required pane.

Hide or display sections within the Resources panes

• Click the Hide Section arrow or the Display Section arrow to the
right of the section heading.

Tip
The view pane cannot be undocked or repositioned in the Tracker window.
You can open a separate floating view pane by selecting the New floating
workspace option from the Window menu. This floating workspace can be
repositioned and resized.

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Introducing Vicon Tracker

\ Setting properties in Tracker \

Setting properties in Tracker

You can configure the way certain areas of Tracker look and behave by
configuring settings in the Properties pane. The properties you can configure
depend on what is selected in the Resources pane or the Options dialog box.

Some properties settings are automatically saved, so Tracker remembers them in

subsequent sessions. You must explicitly save other settings using the
configuration management controls for the relevant area of the Tracker window.

To configure Properties settings:

1. In the Tracker window, click on the relevant tab or open the dialog box
containing the properties you want to configure:

• For system components, in the Resources pane, click the System tab.

• For motion capture objects, in the Resources pane, click the Objects tab.

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\ Setting properties in Tracker \

• For view options, press F7 to open the Options dialog box.

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\ Setting properties in Tracker \

• In the Properties pane, click the Show Advanced link to view all of the
available properties.

• Click the Hide Advanced link to show just the basic properties.

• In the Properties pane, view or change the setting for the required property
using its entry field or control:

• Select or clear a check box to switch the property on or off.

• Click the current color in the entry field to display the Select color dialog
box. In the Basic colors area, click the square for the required color, or in
the Custom colors area, define a new color.

• Click the drop-down arrow and select an entry from the list.

• Move the slider to the left to decrease the value or to the right to increase
the value displayed in the entry field.

• Overtype the existing value.

• If you are working in the following areas of the Tracker window, save your
settings to the appropriate configuration file using the configuration
management controls:

• System tab

• View pane

• Options dialog box

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Introducing Vicon Tracker

\ Mouse and keyboard shortcuts \

Mouse and keyboard shortcuts

You control Tracker using the mouse and keyboard.

Tip
To see a list of all current hot keys, on the Help menu, click Hotkeys.

Controlling Tracker's appearance and behavior

Use the following keys to control the way Tracker looks and behaves.

Task Keys
Display the installed Vicon Tracker User Guide (PDF) F1
Display full screen view for the selected view pane F5
Display/Close Sounds dialog box F6
Display/Close Options dialog box F7
Create named object from selected reconstructions CTRL+E
Reboot Core Processor CTRL+R
Resynchronize the system CTRL+SHIFT+R
Save All CTRL+S
Pause Live/Play Offline Space
Redo CTRL+Y
Undo CTRL+Z
Select previous camera [
Select next camera ]
Unset all cameras' Bumped status CTRL+SHIFT+B
Translate object T
Rotate object R

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\ Mouse and keyboard shortcuts \

Moving between frames

Task Keys
Go to frame CTRL+G
Move to next frame Right arrow
Move to last frame Left arrow
Move to first frame Home
Move to last frame End
Move forward 10 frames PgUp
Move backward 10 frames PgDown

Moving the camera viewpoint

Use the mouse and keyboard to move the camera viewpoint in 3D Perspective,
3D Orthogonal, and Camera view panes.

Action Description Mouse/Keyboard

Dolly/Zoom Move camera viewpoint closer Right-click + drag forward or
to or further away from the focal backward
point
Orbit Move camera viewpoint around Left-click + drag left, right,
the focal point forward, or backward
Truck/Translate Move camera viewpoint along a Click wheel button + drag left,
horizontal or vertical axes right, forward, or backward
Zoom to sensor Zoom the camera viewpoint to CTRL+SHIFT+Z
window the sensor window

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Introducing Vicon Tracker

\ Mouse and keyboard shortcuts \

Viewing the X- and Y-Axis

Use the mouse to view the x- and y-axis in a Graph view pane.

Action Keys and mouse

Slide x-axis left Click wheel button + drag left
Slide x-axis right Click wheel button + drag right
Slide y-axis up Click wheel button + drag forward
Slide y-axis down Click wheel button + drag backward
Zoom x-axis in Right-click + drag left
Zoom x-axis out Right-click + drag right
Zoom y-axis in Right-click + drag backward
Zoom y-axis out Right-click + drag forward

Zooming an axis (x or y)
All graph components in a single workspace maintain the same scale for both
the x-and y-axes. The x-axis is shared across all components, but each
component has its own y-axis. The y-axis may show different ranges, but
represent the same number of values.

On the x-axis, the workspace is centered around zero, keeping the zero on the
right edge of the workspace and changing the values displayed on the left.

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Managing resources with Tracker

Managing resources with Tracker

You manage the system components, calibration, objects, and recordings/
playback of your Vicon Tracker system in the Resources pane.

After you have prepared your Vicon system and selected the objects for motion
capture in the Resources pane, you use the view pane to view the data.

For more information, see the following topics:

• About the Resources pane on page 25

• About the System tab on page 29

• About the Calibrate tab on page 91

• About the Objects tab on page 114

• About the Recording tab on page 134

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Managing resources with Tracker

\ About the Resources pane \

About the Resources pane

The Resources pane enables you to manage the system components, calibration,
objects, and recordings/playback of your Vicon Tracker system.

The Resources pane contains the following components:

• System tab: Enables you to configure the components of your Vicon system.
See About the System tab on page 29.

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\ About the Resources pane \

• Calibrate tab: Enables you to calibrate your Vicon cameras. See About the
Calibrate tab on page 91.

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\ About the Resources pane \

• Objects tab: Enables you to manage object files for the objects whose motion
data you want to track. See About the Objects tab on page 114.

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\ About the Resources pane \

• Recording tab: Enables you to save and play back recordings of trial data. See
About the Recording tab on page 134.

• Resources lists: Enables you to select the nodes and any sub-nodes to be
configured. The components of this list depend on whether you are using the
System or Objects tabs.

• Properties pane: Enables you to view and change settings for the item
selected in the Resources list. See Setting properties in Tracker on page 18. The
contents of this pane depend on the node selected in the Resources list.

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Managing resources with Tracker

\ About the System tab \

About the System tab

You manage the components of your Vicon system on the System tab. The
System tab may contain the following components:

Component Description
System You create, save, and manage configurations for the settings in the
configuration System Resources pane using the configuration management controls
management at the top of the pane.
System list You select the node for the system component you want to configure
in the System list:
• Local Vicon System The Vicon system capture rate and the
Tracker memory buffer size; real-time processing settings; and
the identification and connection settings for the Tracker host
PC.
• Vicon Cameras The identification and configuration settings for
each Vicon camera connected to your Vicon system.
• Vicon Connectivity The identification and configuration
settings for each Vicon Lock attached to your Tracker system.
• Devices The identification and configuration settings for any
analog or digital devices integrated into your Vicon system.

You can perform commands specific to a type of system component node or

sub-node by right-clicking on a node in the System list and selecting a command
from the displayed context menu.

You view or modify system components in the Properties pane. The properties
displayed depend upon the node selected in the System list.

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\ About the System tab \

Reorder Devices dialog box

To use the Reorder Devices dialog box to change the order in which Vicon
devices are displayed:

• On the System tab, right-click the Vicon Cameras node or Devices node and
then click Reorder.

In the Reorder Devices dialog box, choose from the following options:

Option Description
Move Up Moves the selected item up one position in the list
Move Down Moves the selected item down one position in the list
Sort Sorts the list of devices according to name and type.
Remembered devices are at the bottom of the list.
Clean Removes the entries for the devices that are not used or
referred to (Remembered devices) in the current session.
Revert Undoes all the changes you have made in this dialog box
since you last clicked OK.

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\ About the System tab \

About the Local Vicon System node

The Local Vicon System node enables you to configure the Vicon system capture
rate and the amount of memory allocated to Tracker for motion capture, manage
the way Tracker is to produce real-time 3D representations of the objects whose
motion is being captured, and specify the identification and connection settings
for the Tracker host PC.

The Local Vicon System node is the top-level node that is displayed for the
Tracker host PC. This node contains sub-nodes for each device connected to
your Vicon system under the following nodes:

• Vicon Cameras

• Vicon Connectivity

• Devices

The node for the device designated as the Vicon system synchronization source
is highlighted in bold on the System tab in the Resources pane.

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\ About the System tab \

Set up Local Vicon System properties

To configure the Local Vicon System:

1. On the System tab, click the Local Vicon System node.

2. In the Properties pane, view or change settings for the desired properties to
suit the needs of your motion capture application.

When you first set up your Vicon system, you must configure at least the
Requested Frame Rate (Hz) property.

3. In the configuration management section at the top of the tab, enter a name

and click the Save current configuration button to save your system
configuration settings.

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Properties pane for Local Vicon System

The Properties pane for Local Vicon System contains the following sections.

• System section on page 33

• Genlock and Timecode section on page 35

• Object Tracking section on page 37

• Reconstruction section on page 38

• UDP Object Stream section on page 39

• VRPN Stream section on page 40

• OSC Stream section on page 41

You can also access related options from the Local Vicon System context
menu on page 45.

 Note
Some settings are available only when advanced properties are
displayed (at the top right of the Properties pane, click Show
Advanced).

System section

On the System tab, when you click the Local Vicon System node, you can access
the following system-wide settings in the System section of the Properties pane.
These settings affect all the connected cameras and devices:

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Setting Description
Requested The rate (in Hz) at which to synchronize the Vicon cameras and the
Frame Rate external video signal. Select from displayed values (multiples of the base
frame rate of the PAL, NTSC, or Film video standard specified in
Standard) up to a maximum of 2,000. The configured Vicon system
capture rate is displayed in square brackets beside the Local Vicon
System node. For example, if the Vicon system frame rate is set to 100
Hz, the node title is displayed as Local Vicon System [100Hz].
Actual Frame Displays the frame rate (in Hz) currently used by the system, as
Rate constrained by the limits of the camera frame rate.
Preferred Sync If multiple connectivity devices are present in the system, enables you to
Source select the connectivity device that is your preferred source for
synchronization. (If your system contains a Vicon Lock connectivity
device, this is automatically selected as the sync source.)
Reboot All Resets all the Vicon hardware devices in the Vicon system. Click this
button if a camera has failed to boot, or if you need to reset the whole
system. Alternatively, select Reboot Hardware from the context menu.
Real Time The number of frames (between 1 and 100) that make up the buffer
Buffer Size between the Vicon hardware and the processing engine. If set to 1,
(frames) latency is minimized. If set to a higher value, throughput is improved, but
latency is higher.
Low Jitter When selected, sets the Grayscale Mode for all cameras to Only, which
applies advanced centroid fitting and jitter reduction algorithms to
reduce data noise. Note that running in this mode increases sensitivity to
bandwidth limitations and its effectiveness is related to system size. For
more information, contact Vicon Support7.

7 mailto:[email protected]

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Genlock and Timecode section

On the System tab, when you click the Local Vicon System node, you can access
the following settings in the Genlock and Timecode section of the Properties
pane.

Setting Description
Genlock Standard The type of video standard supported by the connected video
source: None, PAL, NTSC, Film, 30Hz and VESA (for a complete list,
click the Genlock Standard list in Tracker).
The icon to the left of each option provides additional information
about the availability of that standard.
Note: The 30Hz option enables you to run the Vicon system at
multiples of 30 frames per second (above 50 fps), with timecode and
genlock capability at true 30 fps, and works with Vicon Locks.
However, note that for 30 fps support to work with Tracker, you must
upgrade the Vicon firmware to Bundle 500 or later.
Enable Genlock Select to enable synchronization.
Auto Genlock When selected, Tracker automatically selects a genlock standard and
enables synchronization based on currently detected signals.
Genlock Offset Specify the system offset relative to the genlock signal (expressed as
a fraction of the genlock frame period). Values are in the range 0–1
Note: For VESA modes, use VESA Offset (see below).
VESA Offset Specify the system offset relative to the VESA signal (expressed as a
fraction of the VESA frame period). The camera timing can be offset
by up to one VESA frame.
Note: Only applies when you have selected one of the VESA
standards from the Genlock Standard list.

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Setting Description
Timecode Source Enables you to select the required timecode source. The Internal
Drop option determines whether the internal timecode source
generates a drop-frame timecode when the Genlock Standard is
NTSC.
Note: VITC and LTC always display a flat line if the system is not
genlocked. This is because these signal types can only be detected
by a sync source that is genlocked.
The icon to the left of each option provides additional information
about the availability of that standard:
Icon Meaning

Cross The standard is not supported by the hardware (that

is, no connected device supports locking to a signal
of that type). If you select an unsupported standard,
it restricts the available frame rates as it does in the
previous version of Tracker.
No device in the system is detecting that standard.
Flat line

Blue The sync source is detecting that signal and can

square wave genlock to it.

Green If you select a mode with the blue wave icon and
square wave then select the Enable Genlock check box, the icon
turns green.

Red A device in the system is detecting the mode but a

square wave problem prevents it from being used, for example, if
the signal is being detected by a device that is not
the sync source in the system.
Enable Timecode Select to enable timecode to be displayed in the Title bar when a live
system is connected.
Detected Displays the currently detected timecode standard as the number of
Timecode timecode frames per second.

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Object Tracking section

On the System tab, when you click on the Local Vicon System node, the
following settings are available in the Object Tracking section of the Properties
pane.

Setting Description
Max Boot Iterations The maximum number of iterations allowed for the booting
algorithm. Increasing this parameter improves booting
quality, but has a (small) performance cost.
Entrance Threshold Minimum proportion of markers that must be visible to the
cameras before the object is booted. If it is less than this
value, the object is not booted.
Minimum Object Marker The minimum distance allowed between marker positions in
Separation order for them to be tracked separately.

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Reconstruction section

On the System tab, when you click on the Local Vicon System node, the
following settings are available in the Reconstruction section of the Properties
pane.

Settings Description
Minimum Cameras to Start Controls how many cameras (rays) must see the same
Trajectory marker (centroid) to create a new reconstruction and
potentially form a new trajectory. The minimum value
that can create a reconstruction is two cameras. The
maximum value of this parameter is 50 camera rays. If
there are a large number of unlikely reconstructions
being created, increase this value.
Tip: In Tracker 3, the default value for this property is 3
(ie three cameras), so if you are using a two-camera
system, ensure you change the value to two before
starting to work with Tracker.
Environmental Drift Tolerance An uncertainty applied (in mm) to camera calibration to
take into account environmental factors such as
temperature change, that may cause drift in the
calibration. For larger volumes, increase this value; for
smaller volumes, decrease this value.
For advice about reducing the effect of environmental
factors, see Prepare the capture environment.
Reconstruction Minimum The minimum distance, specified as a value in the range
Separation 0–100 mm, allowed between 3D marker positions in
order for them to be considered for reconstruction. If
two candidate reconstructions are closer than this
minimum separation, only the most likely reconstruction
(in terms of the number of cameras contributing) will be
reported. The other will be discarded. A higher value
decreases the likelihood of creating spurious
reconstructions, but increases the possibility that some
genuine markers will not be reconstructed.
To disable this feature, set the value to 0.0.

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UDP Object Stream section

On the System tab, when you click on the Local Vicon System node, the
following settings are available in the UDP Object Stream section of the
Properties pane.

Setting Description
Enabled If selected, starts the UDP streaming of data. Unlike the
data stream, the UDP stream does not maintain client
connection information. If selected, data is output whether
or not there are any connected clients.
Data Block Size The size of the UDP datagrams (data blocks). Ensure the
value selected matches the expected value for the
datagram size in the client program.
Options are 256, 512, and 1024.
Object Per Port If cleared, all objects are output on the same port.
If selected, each object is output on its own UDP port. Port
assignments are made whether or not the object is active.
The following image shows how port numbers are
assigned:

IP Address The network address used to broadcast the data.

Port The starting port for UDP streaming. If Object Per Port is
selected, this is the starting port number. If Object Per
Port is cleared, this is the output port for all objects.

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VRPN Stream section

On the System tab, when you click on the Local Vicon System node, the
following settings are available in the VRPN Stream section of the Properties
pane:

Settings Description
Add Filtered Tracker If selected, adds a tracker (named <object>_2), with
One Euro filtering applied, to each object.
Translation Min Cut-Off Enables you to specify the frequency (Hz) below which
noise (translation motion) will not be filtered.
Translation Beta To avoid lag, you can set a value between 1 and 0 to
reduce filtration applied to the position of the object
where there is greater motion. 0 = filtering on all
translation motion; 1 = filtering on very slow translation
motion only.
Rotatation Min Cut-Off Enables you to specify the frequency (Hz) below which
noise (rotation motion) will not be filtered.
Rotation Beta To avoid lag, you can set a value between 1 and 0 to
reduce filtration applied to the rotation of the object
where there is greater motion. 0 = filtering on all
rotation motion; 1 = filtering on very slow rotation
motion only.

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OSC Stream section

To access the OSC data streaming options:

• On the System Resources tab, select Local Vicon System and in the Properties
pane, ensure the Advanced properties are displayed.
The data available for output is a subset of the data available using the
DSSDK.

 Important:
To stream device data, you must give the device a name.

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OSC Stream properties

This table lists the OSC Stream properties.

Property Description
Enabled Turns streaming on/off
IP Address Address used to create the outbound socket
Port Port number used to create the outbound socket
Buffer Size Size of the buffer to allocate to store a frame's worth of data
Subject Name If a single subject is loaded, this option enables you turn on/off
the subject name in the message address (see Packet contents on
page 43).
If multiple subjects are loaded, the subject name is always
included as part of the message address.
Enable Segments, Turn on/off specific data types
Markers, …

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Packet contents
Each packet consists of a bundle containing one or more messages. Each
message has an address associated with it to identify its contents. The /vicon/
frame message is always generated; other messages may or may not be present,
depending on the output data types selected.

Full address Tracker DSSDK type Data values Description

(Base in bold) property
/vicon/frame NA Output_GetFrameNumb long - Frame Number Always present in the
er float - Frame Rate bundle. Timecode values
Output_GetFrameRate int32 - are only present if the
Output_GetTimecode Timecode Hours application has timecode
int32 - Timecode enabled.
Minutes
int32 - Timecode
Seconds
int32 - Timecode
Frames
int32 - Timecode
Subframes
int32 - Timecode Field
Flag
int32 - Timecode
Standard
int32 - Timecode
SubframesPerFrame
int32 - Timecode
UserBits
/vicon/seg/ Enable Output_GetSegmentGlo float(3) - Translation SUBJECT: Subject Name
SUBJECT/ Segments balTranslation float(9) - Rotation SEG_NAME: Name of the
SEG_NAME Output_GetSegmentGlo matrix segment
/vicon/seg/ balRotationMatrix If the Subject Name
SEG_NAME property is cleared and a
single subject is loaded, the
SUBJECT portion of the
address is omitted. In all
other cases it is present.

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Full address Tracker DSSDK type Data values Description

(Base in bold) property
/vicon/marker/ Enable Output_GetMarkerGlob float(3) - Translation SUBJECT: Subject Name
SUBJECT/ Markers alTranslation MARKER_NAME: Name of
MARKER_NAME the marker
/vicon/marker/ If the Subject Name
MARKER_NAME property is cleared and a
single subject is loaded, the
SUBJECT portion of the
address is omitted. In all
other cases it is present.
/vicon/unlabeled/ Enable Output_GetUnlabeledM float(3) - Translation N: A number starting at 0
N Unlabeled arkerGlobalTranslation Unlabeled marker numbers
Markers are arbitrary so you can't
assume that the same
unlabeled marker will be
given the same number
frame-to-frame.
/vicon/2D/ Enable Output_GetCentroidPos int32 - Number of
CameraID Centroids ition centroids
For each centroid:
float(2) - Position
float - Radius
/vicon/fp/N Enable Output_GetGlobalForce int32 - Number of N: Force plate index
Force Plate Vector samples number
Output_GetGlobalMom For each sample:
entVector float(3) - Force
Output_GetGlobalCentr float(3) - Moment
eOfPressure float(3) - CoP
/vicon/device/ Enable Output_GetDeviceOutp int32 - Number of NAME: Device name
NAME/OUTPUT/ Devices utValue samples OUTPUT: Device output
COMPONENT For each sample: name
float - Device output COMPONENT: Device
value output component name
/vicon/gaze/N Enable Output_GetEyeTrackerG float(3) - Gaze vector N: Eye tracker index
Gaze Vector lobalGazeVector float(3) - segment
Output_GetEyeTrackerG position
lobalPosition

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Local Vicon System context menu

On the System tab, when you right-click on the Local Vicon System node, you
can select the following options from the context menu:

Option Description
Reboot Hardware Reset all of the Vicon hardware devices in the Vicon
system. Use this command if a camera has failed to
boot, or if you need to reset the whole system for other
reasons.
Alternatively, use the Reboot All button in the System
section of the Properties pane.
Reboot Core Processor Restarts the Core Processor and resets the labeler.
Alternatively, press CTRL+R.
Resynchronize Forces the Vicon system synchronization source to
resynchronize the frame rate for all connected cameras
and third-party devices.

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About the Vicon Cameras node

You manage the identification and configuration settings for each Vicon camera
connected to your Vicon system with the Vicon Cameras node.

Configuring Vicon cameras ensures that all the camera settings are correct and
appropriate for your motion capture application. You can configure the settings
for an individual camera, several cameras, or all cameras at once.

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This node is displayed under the Local Vicon System node. The Vicon Cameras
node lists each Vicon camera connected to your system. For each camera, the
node name includes:

• The device position number

• Any display name specified in the Identification property

• The camera type listed in parentheses, for example, #1 Over Door (Vantage 8)

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Set up Vicon cameras

To configure Vicon cameras for optical data capture:

1. From the view pane tool bar, select Camera. The 2D data being captured by
each Vicon camera selected in the Resources pane in the System list is shown
in a separate Camera view pane.

2. View your capture volume in either of the following ways:

• In the Options dialog box, under the General View Options section, select
the Target Volume option. In the Camera view pane tool bar, from the View
drop-down list, select 3D Overlay. A virtual representation of your target
volume is overlaid on the 2D data from the camera image.

• In the capture volume, place a selection of static markers on the floor to

roughly outline your target capture volume.

3. In the System list in the Resources pane, select the Vicon camera node whose
properties you want to configure.

4. In the Properties pane, view or change settings for the relevant properties.
When you first set up your Vicon system, you must configure at least the
following properties in the order shown.

 Important
These properties affect the quality of the motion capture data.
Therefore, it is important to optimize them before you collect data
intended for later analysis. In subsequent sessions, you may want to
configure additional properties to suit the needs of your motion
capture application.

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Section Property Notes

Identification Name Only needed if you want to distinguish it
from the others
Settings Strobe Intensity If adjusting these two settings does not
easily enable you to eliminate reflections,
Centroid Fitting Threshold
create camera masks to eliminate
reflections and other unwanted light
sources that occur in parts of the capture
volume.
Settings Gain Normally, leave at the default x1 setting,
but if the markers seem faint or if the
cameras have trouble distinguishing them,
adjust this setting as required.
Grayscale Mode Normally, leave at the default Auto
setting. However, during focusing, it can
be helpful to change this setting to All,
then change it back to Auto as soon as the
camera is focused.

6. When you have finished adjusting the Vicon Camera properties, in the
Settings area, ensure that Grayscale Mode is set to Auto.

7. At the top of the System tab, click the Save current configuration button

to save your system configuration settings to a .system file in one of the

following folders:

• If you select Shared the file will be saved in C:

\Users\Public\Documents\Vicon\Tracker3.x\Configurations\Systems

• If you select Private it will be saved in C:

\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Vicon\Tracker3.x\Configurations\Syst
ems

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Check camera lens focus

You can check the image of the markers from the camera you are focusing in real
time.

To check camera focus:

1. In the View pane, select the Camera view type.

2. In the Resources pane, ensure Live mode is activated (ie that Go Offline is
displayed).

3. On the System tab, expand the Vicon Cameras node and select the required
camera.

4. In the Properties pane at the bottom of the System Resources tab, go to the
Settings section and set Grayscale Mode to All.

5. Right-click and drag in the Camera view pane to zoom in on the target marker
pair.

6. If the image of the markers is not bright enough to allow confidence in the
level of focus achieved, increase the intensity of the grayscale from the
camera. To do this, in the Properties pane, ensure Advanced properties are
displayed and in the Settings section, increase the value for Gain to a level
above x1.

7. In the Camera view pane, observe the sharpness of the image of the markers.

8. After focusing the lens, return Tracker to its default capture settings. In the
Properties pane at the bottom of the System Resources tab, set Grayscale
Mode to Auto.

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Check camera aim and field of view

You can check the aim and field of view of a camera in real time by switching the
camera into Preview mode. This mode displays a video image from the optical
sensor of Vicon cameras that offer this option.

 Note
Preview mode is for system setup purposes only. You cannot use
Preview mode when you are calibrating, auto masking, capturing, or
reviewing data.

To use Preview mode:

1. In the View pane, select the Camera view type (see Step 1 in Check camera
lens focus on page 50).

2. On the System tab, right-click on Vicon Cameras and select Enable Preview
Mode.

3. Select any camera from the list.

If you select multiple cameras, only the first camera in the selection displays a
preview.

If the preview image is dark:

• In the Camera properties, make sure that Enable Strobe is selected.

• Use external lights to illuminate your volume.

• Open the aperture. When you have finished checking the camera aim and
field of view, be sure to set the aperture back to its original value.

All supported cameras can use Preview mode but their performance is
dependent on frame rate.

• Valkyrie cameras support Preview mode from 30–900Hz. At frame rates above
a Valkyrie camera's full frame rate (see Tracker 3.10 new features and
functions), Preview mode uses windowing to display the same field of view as
optical mode.
• Vantage and Vero cameras support Preview mode from 30–60Hz. At frame
rates above this, an image may be displayed but this has not been tested.
Vantage and Vero do not use windowing.

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Properties pane for a Vicon Cameras node

The Properties pane for a Vicon Cameras node or an individual camera node
contains the following sections.

• Camera Identification section on page 53

• Camera Settings section on page 54

• Centroid Fitting section on page 59

• Centroid Tracking section on page 61

• Camera Status section on page 61

• Camera Hardware section on page 63

• Camera Firmware section on page 65

• Camera Calibration section on page 65

• Camera Commands section on page 66

You can also access related options from the Vicon Cameras context menu on
page 67.

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Camera Identification section

On the System tab, when you click on a Vicon Cameras node or an individual
camera node, the following controls are available in the Identification section of
the Properties pane:

Control Description
Name A user-defined display name for the entire set of Vicon
cameras or for each individual Vicon camera. For example, if
a camera is placed over a door, you could name it Over Door.
Device ID The unique identification number Vicon assigns to each Vicon
camera during manufacture. The top-level entry for all Vicon
cameras is read-only.

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Camera Settings section

 Note
The above illustration shows the Settings section for a Vicon Vantage
camera. The Settings section for other Vicon cameras displays slightly
different options.

On the System tab, when you click on a Vicon Cameras node or an individual
camera node, the following controls are available in the Settings section of the
Properties pane.

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Control Description
Enabled Whether or not the Vicon camera is currently enabled for use. Default is
selected.
Enable Whether or not the strobes on the camera are used (does not affect the
Strobe shutter period). Default is selected.
Strobe The amount of light emitted by camera strobe units. This value can be set
Intensity between 0-1 to minimize reflections and obtain clear marker images. The
higher the setting, the brighter the markers appear, but this may cause
blobs to be produced from reflections from other strobes. Lower settings
make the markers themselves less visible to the cameras.
In almost all circumstances, you will want to keep the intensity at its
maximum level because the system works by recording light from the
strobes that is reflected from the markers, thus the more light the strobes
send out the more light the markers reflect. However, if you are capturing a
very fast moving object you may achieve better results by reducing the
strobe intensity. The strobe intensity affects the time the strobe is on for
each camera frame. The full strobe intensity corresponds to 1ms for normal
frame rates. Lower strobe intensities mean that the markers are captured
with the strobes on for less time and, therefore, have less time to move
during the frame.
Tip: It is advisable to use full strobe intensity and deal with reflection
problems by closing the camera lens aperture. Adjust this setting and the
Threshold setting until reflections are minimized or gone.
For further tips on setting Strobe Intensity, see Setting up a mixed Vicon
camera system on page 12.
Sensor Tracker 3.9 and later supports the use of the Vantage+ firmware
Mode upgrade, enabling you to use High Speed mode on your Vantage cameras
without having to change the field of view (FOV) or lens. When you capture
optical data, subsampling (selectively reducing the pixel count) enables you
to run at high camera frame rates without reducing the FOV (frame size).
In High Speed mode, you can run your Vantage cameras at higher frames
rates while maintaining the FOV. You can change frame rates during
capture and you do not need to set up your cameras again when you
increase the frame rate, as the FOV is unchanged.Because the higher
speeds are achieved through subsampling (removing some pixels from the
frames), some reduction in resolution is incurred.
For details, see High-speed mode in the Vicon Vantage Reference Guide.
Note: Valkyrie cameras do not support the use of High Speed mode.

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Control Description
Gain The amplification of the pixel value. Select a displayed value to determine
the intensity of the grayscale from the Vicon cameras: x1, x2, x4, or x8.
(Note that the available values are those supported by the camera.)
This setting is applied to the camera to change the dynamic range of the
recorded image. Increasing the Gain means that the marker has less
variation in grayscale intensity between its center and its edge, but in
certain circumstances, using a higher gain yields markers that are easier for
the camera to distinguish.
Adjust this setting if the markers appear too faint or if the cameras have
trouble distinguishing them; otherwise, leave the this property at the
default x1 setting.
Grayscale The type of data for processed grayscale blobs that the Vicon cameras
Mode send to Vicon Tracker. (Note that this mode is disabled if Low Jitter mode
is selected.) The Vicon cameras perform data processing to create 2D data
for Vicon markers. They generate grayscale blobs for reflections from
objects in the capture volume and then use centroid-fitting algorithms to
determine which of these are likely to be markers by comparing the shape
of the grayscale blobs to the Minimum Circularity Ratio and Maximum Blob
Height settings. During this processing, Vicon cameras can produce the
following types of data for grayscale blobs: centroids data (x, y coordinates
and the radius of the centroid calculated), grayscale data (pixel and line
information), or coordinates data (line information, that is, grayscale data
without pixel values).
You can specify which type of processed data Vicon cameras send to
Tracker:
Auto Send grayscale data only of the grayscale blobs for which
centroids were not generated, that is, those below the threshold
specified for Minimum Circularity Ratio.
Send coordinates data of grayscale blobs for which one or more
line segments, or the total number of lines in the blob, exceeds
the value set for Maximum Blob Height.
If a marker can be centroid fitted by the camera, the centroid is
passed to the capture PC. If it cannot, the full grayscale of the
image is sent, allowing the data to be post-processed on the PC.
This is the default and recommended mode.
Tip: If any optical camera does not capture wand data during a
wand wave, select the relevant camera on the System tab and
look in the Settings section of the Properties pane to ensure you
have set the Grayscale Mode to Auto.
None Send no grayscale data; send only centroid data (i.e, x, y, and
radius data).
Any ambiguous grayscale data will be discarded.

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Control Description
All Send grayscale data both of grayscale blobs for which centroids
were generated and of those for which centroids were not
generated, that is those below the threshold specified for
Minimum Circularity Ratio.
Send coordinates data of grayscale blobs for which one or more
line segments, or the total number of lines in the blob, exceeds
the value set for Maximum Blob Height.
Select this setting if you need to see exactly where the camera
calculates the centroid with respect to the grayscale marker
image, for example when adjusting parameters. This setting
results in much larger data rates and files; it may be useful for
diagnostic purposes, but do not use it in normal capture
situations.
Only Send all grayscale and coordinates data; send no centroid data.
This setting is useful when focusing or making other adjustments
to the cameras themselves as you see exactly the image
recorded on the sensor.
Edges Send only edge coordinates data; send no centroid or grayscale
data.
If data rates are very high, for example when there are too many
reflections, the camera automatically enters this mode. Use this
setting to manually force the camera into this mode.
No Send grayscale data both of grayscale blobs for which centroids
Edges were generated and of those for which centroids were not
generated; send no coordinates data.
Use this setting to prevent the Vicon camera from sending edge
coordinates.
Caution: Even if you have not specified a Grayscale Mode
setting that would have coordinates data sent to Tracker, a
Vicon camera automatically sends coordinates data – either
temporarily or permanently – if it is overloaded with data (e.g.,
too many markers, too many reflections, hand or reflective
objects immediately in front of the camera, too low a threshold
or too high a gain). If a camera automatically starts to present
coordinates data, identify the source of the overload and
attempt to remedy it.
Enable When selected, the status lights on the Vicon camera strobe unit provide
LEDs feedback on the status of the camera. For more information, see the
documentation that was supplied with your Vicon camera.
Enable (Vicon Valkyrie and Vantage only) When selected, the display on the
Display camera provides feedback on the status of the camera. For more
information, see the documentation available on the Vicon documentation
website8.

8 https://docs.vicon.com

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Control Description
Enable Tap (Vicon Valkyrie and Vantage only) When selected, you can lightly tap the
to Select camera in the volume to select it (and deselect the other cameras).
Note that when Enable Accelerometry is selected (see below), if you tap a
calibrated camera too hard, its status LEDs and display (if enabled) indicate
that it has been 'bumped'.
You can remove the camera's bumped status in Tracker. If this is a frequent
occurrence, you can change its sensitivity to being tapped by reducing the
Bump Detection Sensitivity.
For information on removing a camera's bumped status and changing
Bump Detection Sensitivity, see Camera Status section on page 61.
Enable (Vicon Valkyrie and Vantage only) When selected, the display on calibrated
Accelerome cameras changes to alert you when they have moved from their calibrated
try positions, eg, if a camera has been knocked.
In Tracker, the camera's Bumped check box (in its Status properties)
displays a check mark.
For information on removing a camera's bumped status and changing
Bump Detection Sensitivity, see Camera Status section on page 61.
(This setting also turns on or off the auto-rotation of the display on the
cameras.)
For more information on Vicon camera accelerometers, see the
documentation for your Vicon camera, which is available on the Vicon
documentation website9.

9 https://docs.vicon.com

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Centroid Fitting section

On the System tab, when you click on a Vicon Cameras node or an individual
camera node, the following controls are available in the Centroid Fitting section
of the Properties pane:

Control Description
Threshold The minimum brightness (intensity) for markers; pixels of an intensity
lower than this threshold are ignored. This value can be set between
0-1 to determine the pixels to be considered for centroid fitting
onboard the Vicon cameras. Lower settings enable the camera to
detect lower light levels, thus making the markers appear larger, but
may pick up unwanted reflections and other light sources. Higher
settings reduce the noise, but make the markers themselves less
visible.
This setting differentiates between markers and ambient light. A Vicon
camera records 10-bit grayscale data, which for each sensor pixel is a
measure of how much light fell on that pixel during a given amount of
time. However, the cameras will almost always pick up some ambient
light in the volume. To enable the cameras to distinguish between light
that comes from markers and light that does not, a threshold is
applied. Anything above this threshold is deemed to be a marker,
anything below is deemed to be ambient light. A value in the region of
0.2 to 0.5 is usually appropriate, but Vicon strongly recommends that
you use static markers in the volume in order to establish an
appropriate setting. If cameras are evenly spaced around the volume,
the same threshold value is usually sufficient for all cameras.
Adjust this setting, the Strobe Intensity, and the camera's aperture
until reflections are minimized or gone.
Tip: To help you to determine the most effect threshold setting for
grayscale blobs, you can set the background color of the Camera view
pane to the value of the Threshold control in the Centroid Fitting
section of the Properties pane. To do this, open the Options dialog
box (F7), and in the General View Options, select Threshold.

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Control Description
Minimum The circularity threshold used by the centroid-fitting algorithms in a
Circularity Ratio Vicon camera. (Note that this mode is disabled if Low Jitter mode is
selected.)
This value can be set between 0-1 to determine how similar a grayscale
blob must be to the internal model of a marker – that is a radially
symmetric object that has smooth, sharp edges and whose pixel
intensity is brightest at the center and gradually fades towards the
edges. The Vicon cameras consider grayscale blobs with circularity
equal to or greater than this threshold to be well-formed, circular
marker images. The higher the value, the more stringent the centroid
fitter is; the lower the value, the less stringent the centroid fitter is. You
may want to apply higher settings for camera calibration to ensure that
Tracker selects the best markers and thus provides the best possible
calibration. A lower value may be appropriate for data capture.
Maximum Blob The maximum number of pixels per line that a grayscale blob can
Height contain in a horizontal line. If the number of pixels exceeds this value,
the Vicon camera determines that the grayscale blob is not a marker,
stops processing it, and discards the pixel values (it preserves just the
coordinates data, which can be sent to Vicon Tracker, depending on
the Grayscale Mode setting).
Set this value between 0–77500 to determine how large a grayscale
blob can be for a Vicon camera to consider it a candidate marker. The
Vicon cameras consider grayscale blobs with horizontal lines
containing this number or fewer pixels to be good-sized, circular
marker images. The higher the value, the larger a grayscale blob can
be; the lower the value, the smaller a grayscale blob must be.

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Centroid Tracking section

On the System tab, when you click on a Vicon Cameras node or an individual
camera node, the following controls are available in the Centroid Tracking
section of the Properties pane:

Control Description
Enable Centroid When selected, enables the camera's onboard centroid tracking
Tracking algorithm.
Note: Applies only to Vicon cameras that have the ability to process
this information on board the camera.
Default: Off
Marker Velocity Maximum velocity at which a marker is tracked, expressed as the
percentage of image width per second.
Default: 5

Camera Status section

 Note
The above illustration shows the Status section for a Vicon Vantage
camera. The Status section for other Vicon cameras may display
different options.

On the System tab, when you click on a Vicon Cameras node or an individual
camera node, the following controls are available in the Status section of the
Properties pane.

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Control Description
Connected Whether or not the Vicon camera is currently connected to the Vicon
system.
Sync Source Whether or not the Vicon camera is designated as the synchronization
source for the Vicon system. (Not relevant for systems containing a
Vicon Lock)
Contributing Whether or not the Vicon camera is contributing centroid data during
Centroids the current motion capture.
Contributing Whether or not there is a socket open to the Vicon camera capable of
Grayscale receiving grayscale. This socket may be dropped when the system is
under heavy load, therefore this property is useful as a system status
monitor. It is not related to Grayscale property in Settings.
Contributing Whether or not the Vicon camera is contributing tracks (that is, labeling
Tracks centroids between frames) during the current session.
Bumped Indicates the whether the Vicon Valkyrie or Vantage camera has moved
from its calibrated position.
You can remove the Bumped status for:
• A selected camera: Clear the Bumped check box.
• All cameras: Press Ctrl+Shift+B

Bump Detection Enables you to change the sensitivity of the Vicon Valkyrie or Vantage
Sensitivity camera's accelerometer (also see Enable Accelerometry in Camera
Settings section on page 54).

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Camera Hardware section

 Note
The above illustration shows the Hardware section for a Vicon Vantage
camera. The Hardware section for other Vicon cameras may display
different options.

On the System tab, when you click on a Vicon Cameras node or an individual
camera node, the following controls are available in the Hardware section of the
Properties pane.

Setting Description
Type The type of Vicon camera. For a Vicon Cameras node, this setting is
read-only.
Strobe Type The type of strobe unit attached to the front of the Vicon camera:
Visible Red (VR), Near Infrared (NIR), or Infrared (IR).
For a Vicon Cameras node, this setting is read-only.
Strobe Temp Displays data from Vicon Vantage strobe onboard sensor both as a
numeric indicator (in degrees Celsius) and a colored temperature
indicator. The color of the indicator changes to reflect a change in
temperature: yellow (warming up to the temperature specified by the
lower bounds), green (between the specified upper and lower bounds)
or red (overheated above the upper bounds).
To set values that are representative of your laboratory environment,
you can change the upper and lower bounds of the temperature
range. To do this, select the Camera Temperature Range option in the
Options dialog box (F7).

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Setting Description
Camera Body Displays data from Vicon Vantage camera body onboard sensor. See
Temp 1 Strobe Temp above.
Camera Body Displays data from Vicon Vantage camera body onboard sensor. See
Temp 2 Strobe Temp above.
Sensor Width The width (in pixels) of the Vicon camera sensor.
Sensor Height The height (in pixels) of the Vicon camera sensor.
Revision Camera revision number.
MAC Address The Media Access Control (MAC) address assigned to the Vicon
camera during manufacture. This is a hexadecimal value in the format
##.##.##.##.##.##.
For a Vicon Cameras node, this setting is read-only.
Serial Number Vicon Vantage camera's serial number (if set)
IP Address The Internet Protocol (IP) address assigned to the Vicon camera on the
Vicon Ethernet network.
For a Vicon Cameras node, this setting is read-only.
Destination IP The network adapter IP address to which data from this camera will be
Address sent.

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Camera Firmware section

On the System tab, when you click on a Vicon Cameras node or an individual
camera node, these controls are available in the Firmware section of the
Properties pane:

Control Description
Firmware The version number of the Vicon firmware currently installed on the
Version Vicon camera.
Firmware Whether or not the currently installed Vicon firmware is complete. If
Complete not, you can reprogram the firmware.

Camera Calibration section

On the System tab, when you click on a Vicon Cameras node or an individual
camera node, the following controls are available in the Calibration section of
the Properties pane:

Control Description
Reset Reset calibration of selected camera(s)
Calibration
Focal Length The camera lens focal length value of the selected camera(s) in mm.
(mm)

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Camera Commands section

On the System tab, when you click on a Vicon Cameras node or an individual
camera node, the following command is available in the Commands section of
the Properties pane:

Command Description
Reboot Stop and restart all cameras or the selected Vicon camera.

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Vicon Cameras context menu

When you right-click on the Vicon Cameras node on the System tab, you can
select from the following options on the context menu:

Option Description
Reorder Display the Reorder Devices dialog box. This enables you to change
the order in which Vicon cameras are displayed in the System
Resources list.
Reboot All Stop and restart all the Vicon cameras in the system.
Cameras
Remove Vicon Displays a choice of Disconnected or Missing:
Cameras
• Disconnected - removes cameras that are currently unplugged.
• Missing - removes cameras that are unplugged, but were
previously used in a calibration.

Enable Preview Displays a video image from the optical sensor of Vicon cameras that
Mode offer this option. This enables you to aim cameras more quickly and
easily and to check volume coverage by the cameras during setup.
Note: The preview feature is for system setup purposes only. You
cannot use Preview mode when you are calibrating, auto masking,
capturing, or reviewing data.
For information on how to use Preview mode, see Check camera aim
and field of view on page 51.

When you right-click on a node for a specific Vicon camera, you can select the
following option from the context menu:

Option Description
Reset Resets the camera calibration
Calibration
Reboot Stop and restart the selected Vicon camera.

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About Vicon connectivity units

You configure Vicon connectivity units — smart boxes that can be combined to
create a distributed architecture, enabling you to customize the number of Vicon
cameras and supported third-party devices in your Tracker system — with the
Vicon Connectivity node on the System tab.

The Vicon Connectivity node is displayed under the Local Vicon System node
when Vicon Tracker is connected to the Vicon system. The Vicon Connectivity
node lists each Vicon connectivity unit connected to your Vicon system.

Depending on the type of Vicon system under which you are running Vicon
Tracker, your Vicon system architecture will contain one or more of the following
Vicon connectivity units:

• Vicon Lock – connectivity unit that facilitates the integration of synchronous

third-party equipment with Vicon cameras by providing or receiving
synchronization (Lock Lab) or timecode (Lock Studio). Lock Lab also provides
connectivity for third-party analog capture sources, such as force plates, EMG
equipment, and generic devices.

 Note
Except where noted, references to Vicon Lock, Lock units, and Lock
apply to all current models of the Vicon Lock unit (at the time of
publication, this includes Vicon Lock Studio and Vicon Lock Lab).

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About Vicon Lock units

Vicon Lock provides synchronization (Lock Lab) and timecode (Lock Studio) to
current Vicon cameras. Lock Lab also provides connectivity for third-party analog
capture sources, such as force plates, EMG equipment, and generic devices.

The use of Vicon Lock is supported for current Vicon camera systems.

This node is displayed under the Local Vicon System node when Vicon Tracker is
connected to a Vicon system with at least one Vicon Lock unit. The Vicon
Connectivity node lists each Vicon Lock unit connected to your Vicon system.

For more information about Vicon Lock units, see:

• Properties pane for Vicon Lock units on page 70

• Vicon Lock context menu on page 72

• Vicon Lock Lab Quick Start Guide (PDF) or Vicon Lock Studio Quick Start
Guide (PDF), available from the Vicon documentation website10.

 Note
Except where noted, references to Vicon Lock, Lock units, and Lock
apply to all current models of the Vicon Lock unit (at the time of
publication, this includes Vicon Lock Studio and Vicon Lock Lab).

10 https://docs.vicon.com

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Properties pane for Vicon Lock units

The Properties pane for Vicon Lock nodes contains the following sections.

• Vicon Lock Identification section on page 70

• Vicon Lock Status section on page 70

• Vicon Lock Sync Out section on page 71

You can also access related options from the Vicon Lock context menu on page 72.

 Note
Except where noted, references to Vicon Lock, Lock units, and Lock
apply to all current models of the Vicon Lock unit (at the time of
publication, this includes Vicon Lock Studio and Vicon Lock Lab).

Vicon Lock Identification section

If a Vicon Lock is connected to your Vicon system, when you click on the relevant
Vicon Connectivity node on the System tab, the following controls are available
in the Identification section of the Properties pane:

Setting Description
Name A user-defined display name for the Vicon Lock.
Type The Lock type is read-only.
Device ID The Device ID is read-only.

Vicon Lock Status section

On the System tab, when you click on a Lock node, the following controls are
available in the Status section of the Properties pane:

Setting Description
Enabled Whether or not the Vicon Lock is currently enabled for
use.
Sync Source The Vicon Lock automatically becomes the
synchronization source for the Vicon system.

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Vicon Lock Sync Out section

General Purpose Outputs (GPO) enable you to configure your system to trigger
external equipment on or around each camera frame sync pulse. Other GPO
functionality, available with other Vicon software, is not implemented with Vicon
Tracker.

For further information, see the relevant Vicon Lock Quick Start Guide (PDF). For
up-to-date information about the types of GPO triggers that are supported,
contact your local Vicon Support office (for Vicon contact details, see Contact
Vicon on page 205).

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Vicon Lock context menu

 Note
Except where noted, references to Vicon Lock, Lock units, and Lock
apply to all current models of the Vicon Lock unit (at the time of
publication, this includes Vicon Lock Studio and Vicon Lock Lab).

If a Vicon Lock is connected to your Vicon system, when you right-click on the
Vicon Connectivity node on the System tab, you can select the following options
from the context menu:

Option Description
Reorder Display the Reorder Devices dialog box in which you
can change the order in which Vicon Lock units are
displayed on the System tab.
Reboot All Vicon Locks Stop and restart all of the Vicon Lock units in the
Vicon system.

When you right-click on a node for a specific Vicon Lock, you can select the
following options from the context menu:

Option Description
Reboot Stop and restart the selected Vicon Lock.
Reset Timecode Reset the Timecode to 00:00:00:00.

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About the Devices node

The Devices node is displayed under the Local Vicon System node when
licensed additional devices (that is, connected devices that are not cameras or
connectivity devices) are connected to the Vicon system. The Devices node lists
each additional type of device that is connected to your Vicon system.

You can only use an additional device if you have the required license. To check
your current licensing options, from the Help menu, click About Vicon Tracker
and in the window, click the Feature Details button. After a few seconds, the
currently licensed options are listed. To change your licensing options, contact
Vicon Support11.
Depending on the type of additional licenses you are using with Tracker and
your Vicon system, it may contain one or more of the following additional
devices:

• Analog device such as accelerometers (see Set up analog devices on page 74)

• Eye tracking devices (see About eye tracking on page 75)

11 mailto:[email protected]

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Set up analog devices

The Devices node is displayed on the System tab under the Local Vicon System
node when Vicon Tracker is connected to a Vicon system with at least one
additional device (a device that is not a camera or a connectivity unit).

Analog devices such as accelerometers are connected to the Vicon system via a
Lock Lab. You add analog devices to the Vicon system by right-clicking on the
Devices node and selecting Add Generic Analog.

The Generic Analog node lets you select the options for your device.

You can only use an analog device with Tracker if you have the required license.
For more information, contact Vicon Support12.
To use an analog device with Tracker:

1. Ensure that the analog device is connected to your Vicon system through a
Lock Lab.

2. In Tracker, on the System tab, right-click Devices, point to Add Analog

Device, and then click Add Generic Analog. A Generic Analog device
appears beneath Devices.

3. Right-click Generic Analog and from the list, select your analog device.

4. To add outputs for the device, on the System tab, right-click the device and
click the number of components to add.
5. To change the properties of the output, edit the appropriate property in the
Properties pane, for example:
• Name

• A scaling factor from the voltage input to desired output

• Analog input pin

• Channel gain

6. To change the options for viewing data in the Graph view, in the view pane,
select Graph and then choose the appropriate option from the menu.

 Tip
You can receive the raw analog data and relevant device information
through the DataStream SDK.

12 mailto:[email protected]

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About eye tracking

These eye tracking solutions are available with Vicon Tracker:

• Use Tobii Eye Tracker with Vicon Tracker on page 76

• Use Dikablis Eye Tracker with Vicon Tracker on page 86

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Use Tobii Eye Tracker with Vicon Tracker

You can include a Tobii Eye Tracker in your Vicon Tracker system, enabling you
to output eye tracker position and gaze direction.

 Restrictions:
• Tobii integration is for only Tobii Pro Glasses 2 and Tobii Pro Glasses
3.

• For Tobii Pro Glasses 2, the use of only one pair of glasses at a time is
supported.

• For Tobii Pro Glasses 3, the use of multiple devices is supported, but
has received limited testing. For details on how to integrate multiple
devices, please contact Vicon Support13.
• For a combination of Tobii Pro Glasses 2 and 3, you can use one pair
of Tobii Pro Glasses 2 with multiple pairs of Tobii Pro Glasses 3.

To include Tobii Pro Glasses in your Vicon Tracker system, complete these
procedures:

• Set up Tobii Pro Glasses on page 77

• Integrate Tobii Pro Glasses into Vicon Tracker on page 78

For details of Tobii Pro Glasses properties, see Tobii Pro Glasses node.

Before you begin, ensure your Vicon Tracker system is calibrated and that you
placed markers on the glasses and can track the glasses as an object.

 Terminology
For Tobii Pro Glasses 2, the controller software is called 'Tobii Pro
Glasses Controller software'. For Tobii Pro Glasses 3, the equivalent
software is called 'Glasses 3'. In the following instructions, the term
'Tobii Glasses software' is used to refer to both versions.

13 mailto:[email protected]

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Set up Tobii Pro Glasses

To set up your Tobii Pro Glasses for use with Tracker:

1. Follow the instructions provided by Tobii. The quick start guide provided in
the Tobii Pro Glasses box provides instructions on preparing and connecting
the glasses to the recording unit.

2. To use Tobii Glasses software, connect the Tobii Pro Glasses, either through
Ethernet or WiFi, by following the instructions provided by Tobii.
When setting up networking connection properties for an Ethernet port,
ensure that you select the required option:

• For Tobii Pro Glasses 2, select Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6).

• For Tobii Pro Glasses 3, you can select Internet Protocol Version 4 or
Internet Protocol Version 6

3. Calibrate the glasses in the Tobii Glasses software.

This enables you to check the fit of the glasses before connecting to Vicon
Tracker.

4. After calibration is complete, close the Tobii Glasses software.

 Note
Note that the recording unit requires batteries. Ensure you allow
sufficient charging time, using the supplied battery charger. The
recording unit requires only one battery, but takes 5+ hours charging
time for a full charge.

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Integrate Tobii Pro Glasses into Vicon Tracker

 Important
Before attempting to connect Tobii Pro Glasses 3, ensure that you
installed Bonjour, which is an option (selected by default) when you
install Tracker, and that the Bonjour service is running (Task Manager >
Services > Bonjour Service).
Connection may take up to 20 seconds, as Bonjour broadcasts the
available services at intervals.
If you need to start the Bonjour service after you've added the Tobii Pro
Glasses in Tracker, either remove and add the device again or restart
Tracker after the service has been restarted.

For information on integrating Tobii Pro Glasses into Vicon Tracker, see these
topics:

• Connect a Tobii Pro Glasses 3 recording unit to the Tracker PC on page 79

• Add the Tobii glasses into Tracker on page 81

• Possible calibration issues on page 85

• Understand data output on page 85

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Connect a Tobii Pro Glasses 3 recording unit to the Tracker PC

To connect the Tobii recording unit to the Vicon Tracker computer, it must be
able to obtain a valid IP address (IPv4 or IPv6).

To enable this, we recommend the following workflow, starting with connecting

via Ethernet. Note that this method requires a valid DHCP router. (If you don't
have access to a router, see Other connection methods on page 80.)

Connect via Ethernet

From the router (such as a D-Link), connect via Ethernet to:

• An Ethernet network port on the Vicon Tracker computer

• The RJ45 port on the Tobii recording unit

If you don't need to connect the Tobii Pro Glasses 3 via WiFi , you can now add
the Tobii glasses into Tracker on page 81.

Connect via WiFi

1. Ensure you have successfully connected the Tobii recording unit via Ethernet,
as described above.

2. Browse to http://<recording unit serial number>.local/network.html.

3. Either create a new WiFi configuration or select an existing one. To create a

new configuration:
a. Under WiFi, click Create.

b. Set the SSID, network security type, and password, if required.

c. Click Apply.

4. Disconnect the Ethernet cable.

 Important
With this method, whenever the Tobii is powered down, it resets to the
default WiFi configuration. You must reconnect to the device (via
direct WiFi or an Ethernet connection) and choose the correct WiFi
configuration each time the recording unit is powered on.

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Other connection methods

If you want to use an alternative way to connect the Tobii Pro (for example, if you
don't have access to a router), you may find the following additional information
helpful.

• Connect to the Tobii 3 directly via WiFi on page 80

• Connect to the Tobii 3 using a direct Ethernet link on page 80

Connect to the Tobii 3 directly via WiFi

If you use this connection method, the Tobii Pro Glasses 3 recording unit acts as
an Access Point so any device with a spare WiFi card can connect.

• SSID = <recording unit serial number> (eg, TG03B-080200013621)

• Default password = TobiiGlasses

 Important
This option, while allowing connection to the recording unit for
configuration purposes, does not provide the neccessary Zeroconf
services, which are used by Tobii Pro 3 Glasses to advertise their
availability on the network. Do not use this method to add the device
into Vicon Tracker as it will not be found.

Connect to the Tobii 3 using a direct Ethernet link

This connection method requires some configuration on the device first:

1. Connect to the Tobii via one of the methods described previously.

• If connection is via the direct Wifi connection, go to http://192.168.75.51/

network.html (assuming no other configuration has been done to change
the default IP address).

• If connection is via Ethernet, go to http://<recording unit serial

number>.local

2. Do one of the following:

• Under the wired network settings at the bottom of the page, change the
profile to default-link-local and click Apply; or
• Configure the Tobii to be a DHCP server.

3. Connect the Tobii 3 directly to the PC via Ethernet.

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Add the Tobii glasses into Tracker

To add the Tobii Pro Glasses device into Vicon Tracker:

1. Ensure the Tobii recording unit is connected to the Vicon Tracker computer
via Ethernet or WiFi (see Connect a Tobii recording unit to the Vicon Tracker
computer on page 79).

2. Ensure that the Tobii glasses are being worn by a subject in the volume.
(Tobii glasses connect to Vicon Tracker only when the glasses are worn: if no
eye is detected, the device is gray in the System Resources tree.)

3. In the System Resources tree, right-click Devices, point to Add Digital Device
and then select Add Tobii Pro Glasses 2 or Add Tobii Pro Glasses 3.

With Tracker 3.9 and later, when you first create a Tobii Pro 3 or Tobii Pro 2
device, a dialog box is displayed.

To continue, select from the displayed options:

• Accept – No further dialog boxes are displayed until Tracker is restarted.

• Accept, do not show again – No further dialog boxes are displayed until a
later version of Tracker is used.

• Cancel – No device is created and the dialog box is displayed again if you
try to create a new Tobii device.

If you select either of the Accept options, Vicon Tracker searches for the
glasses on the network. When the glasses are discovered, data begins
streaming in Tracker.
This process may take some time.

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4. With the Tobii Pro Glasses device selected in the System tree, in the
Properties pane, ensure that in the Sampling Rate field, the required sample
rate is selected.

5. Before capturing data, for each object, perform a calibration on each set of
glasses in the same way as in the Tobii Glasses software.
a. Instruct the subject to look at the calibration card, with the card held
between 0.5 m and 1.5 m from the subject (for correct placement of the
card, see the Tobii documentation).

b. In the System Resources tree, ensure the required Tobii Pro Glasses
device is selected and in the Properties pane, go to the Calibration
section and click Start Calibration.

Ensure the subject continues to look at the calibration card.

After approximately three seconds, status information is displayed, with a
success or fail status at the end of the process.

• If calibration is successful, the Calibration Status changes to

calibrated.

• If calibration fails, see Possible calibration issues on page 85 for a list

of likely issues, and correct any issues that you identify.

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Note that, for Tobii Pro Glasses 2, data that is needed for
calibration is created on the SD card and is deleted when the
device is deleted. If the connection is lost, projects and participants
may be left on the SD card.
If no data is received for approximately one second, it is assumed
that the connection has been lost and the device reverts to
'discovery' mode to try to re-connect to the device when it
becomes available again.

6. The Tobii Pro Glasses 3 mocap integration kit is provided as two marker tree
attachments.
Attach the mocap integration kit by screwing it into the fittings on the frame
of the glasses.
The Vicon Tracker installer provides two VSKs for the two variants of these
marker trees. If you require more objects, you can interchange the left/right
trees from each of these two sets. For additional VSKs, contact Vicon
Support14.

14 mailto:[email protected]

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7. Load the appropriate VSK. The relevant VSKs for the version of the integration
kit provided in your Tobii Pro Glasses box are found in:
C:\Program Files\Vicon\Tracker3.#\ModelTemplates

8. To visualize the gaze data in the Tracker workspace, with the Tobii Pro
Glasses device selected in the System tree, go to the General section of the
Properties pane and set the Glasses Object (left image) to the name of the
object that was assigned to the glasses (right image).

Note that specification of the Glasses object is not a requirement for

receiving the data from the glasses: it is used for visualization in the Tracker
3D workspace only. Also note that if multiple Tobii Pro Glasses are in use,
ensure that the objects have unique names. To do this, for each eye tracker,
in the Glasses Object field, specify the subject name followed by a colon and
the segment name, for example, SubjectAGlasses:TobiiGlasses and
SubjectBGlasses:TobiiGlasses.

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9. After you've completed these steps, notice that:

• The eyes are displayed relative to the glasses segment at positions

specified by the Left/Right Eye X,Y,Z components, and gaze direction is
shown as a line from each eye to the Gaze position.

• The eye itself also rotates to match the Left/Right Gaze value, though this
may be difficult to observe.

For details of the resulting data that is reported by Tracker, see Understand
output data on page 85.

Possible calibration issues

If calibration was not successful, check for these possible issues:

• Calibration card is too close (<0.5 m).

• Calibration card is too far away (>1.5 m).

• The subject is not looking at the calibration card.

• There are multiple possible calibration targets (multiple cards or objects that
look like cards, or the card is visible in the displayed video that is also in view).

• The eye tracker or card moves too much during calibration.

Understand data output

Tobii Pro Glasses outputs are available for:

• Left(Right) Eye X, Y, Z position of the eye with respect to the origin of the
glasses segment/scene camera and the diameter of the pupil

• Left(Right) Gaze A three-component vector specifying the direction of the

gaze for the eye
• Gaze position The calculated point of focus for the combined gaze with
respect to the origin of the glasses segment/scene camera

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Use Dikablis Eye Tracker with Vicon Tracker

With Tracker, you can use the Dikablis Eye Tracking System to track movement
of the eye's pupil to calculate the gaze vector.

The Dikablis Eye Tracking System is compatible with both T-Series and Bonita
cameras. A minimum of two cameras are required for use with the system.

For more information, see:

• Calibrating and integrating Dikablis eye tracking on page 87

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Calibrating and integrating Dikablis eye tracking

To calibrate your system and use Tracker with Dikablis to track eye movement,
complete the following procedures:

• Calibrate the Dikablis system and connect it to your Vicon system on page 87

• Calibrate your Vicon system and add in your Dikablis device on page 88

• Specify the eye offsets on page 89

• Calibrate the Dikablis eye tracker with Vicon Tracker on page 90

• Save your settings on page 90

Calibrate the Dikablis system and connect it to your Vicon system

1. Connect up the headset, transmitters and receivers that comprise the Dikablis
eye tracking system.

2. Ensure the subject is wearing the Dikablis headset and some markers for head
tracking.

3. Start the Dikablis Recorder software on the Dikablis system and run the
calibration wizard.

4. Connect the Dikablis laptop directly to your Vicon system PC with an Ethernet
cable.

5. Set the IP addresses of the Network Interface Cards to an appropriate value.

These instructions use 10.0.0.1 on the Dikablis laptop and 10.0.0.2 on the
Vicon system PC. (For instructions on how to set IP addresses, see the online
help for Windows.)

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Calibrate your Vicon system and add in your Dikablis device

1. Aim your Vicon cameras to capture the required volume.

2. Calibrate the cameras in Tracker (see Calibrate Vicon cameras on page 93).

3. Set your origin pointing forwards by positioning the T of the wand with the
flat part (the top of the T) facing towards the front of the capture volume.

4. When you have a calibrated system, create an object in Tracker from the
wand markers. To do this:
a. In the Resources pane, click the Objects tab and ensure that in the Object
Tracking Mode section at the bottom of the tab, Track mode is not
selected. This enables you to see unlabeled reconstructions in the 3D
Perspective view pane.

 Tip
Viewing unlabeled reconstructions requires additional processing,
so for lowest output latency, when you have finished creating
objects, click the Track button to change to Track mode. When
Track mode is selected, the Track button is green.

b. In the 3D Perspective view pane, ALT+click and drag to select the

markers.

c. In the Resources pane, click the Objects tab and in the Create Object box,
type Wand and then click Create .

5. Adjust the wand's origin so it is on the center marker on the cross of the T.

6. With your subject looking straight ahead, create an object from the head
markers and give it a suitable name, such as Head. (You can give it any
suitable name, but ensure you use the same name in the following steps.)

7. On the System tab, right-click Devices, point to Add Digital Device, and then
click Add Dikablis Eye Tracker.
8. Select Dikablis Eye Tracker and in the Properties pane, enter the values:

• Name: Eye

• Head Object: Head

• IP Address: 10.0.0.1 (or the address of the PC running the Dikabilis software
if different from 10.0.0.1)
• Calibration Object: Wand

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9. Make sure the Eye Tracker remains selected on the System tab, change the
view pane to Graph view and in the Components list, select Components.
Two graphs are shown: X and Y, representing the 2D coordinates for the eye's
gaze. The values are pixel values from the eye camera.

10. Check that the eye's gaze is accurately represented by the X and Y values. To
do this:
a. Get your subject to look left. The X value decreases.

 Tip
To see all the data, you may need to click the Scale the graph to

fit the horizontal and vertical ranges of data button at the

top of the Graph view pane.

b. Get your subject to look right. The X value increases.

c. Get your subject to look up. The Y value increases.

d. Get your subject to look down. The Y value decreases.

 Tip
The X values should not go above 640 or below 0. The Y values
should not go above 480 or below 0.

11. Specify the eye offsets.

Specify the eye offsets

1. With the Eye Tracker selected on the System tab, in the Properties pane,
enter appropriate values. The following offsets are normally suitable:

• X (mm): -20

• Y (mm): -40

• Z (mm): -25

2. Change the view pane to 3D Perspective and look at the Head object.
The eyeball should be approximately where the eye is, relative to the Head
markers.

3. Calibrate the Dikablis eye tracker with Vicon Tracker.

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Calibrate the Dikablis eye tracker with Vicon Tracker

1. Get the subject to stand with the wand in their hand so the Head and Wand
objects are clearly and consistently visible in the 3D Perspective view.

2. Get the subject to look at the marker at the center of the T on the wand.

3. In the Calibration area of the Eye Tracker Properties pane, click Add.
The Samples box displays 1.

 Tip
If an error is made during calibration, you can remove the last sample
you added by clicking the Remove button.

4. Get the subject to move the wand and repeat step 3.

The number of samples goes up to 2.

5. Repeat step 4.

The number of samples goes up to 3 and an eye with an eye vector coming
from it appears in the 3D Perspective view pane.
In the Calibration area of the Properties pane, a Residual value is displayed.

6. Get your subject to keep their head still and move the wand around,
following the marker at the center of the T with their eyes.

In the 3D Perspective view pane, the eye vector now follows the wand.

7. On the System tab, select the Eye Tracker. Change the view pane to Graph.

Ray X, Ray Y and Ray Z values are displayed, as well as X and Y values.

8. Save your settings.

Save your settings

1. On the System Resources pane, click the Configuration menu button

and select Save As.

2. Enter the name DikablisTest.

3. When prompted, select Shared or Private.

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About the Calibrate tab

Calibration is a two-stage process by which Vicon Tracker calibrates the cameras

based on specialized calibration objects (whose dimensions and relative marker
positions are known):

1. Calibrating cameras During the first stage, the Tracker camera calibration
process calculates the physical position and orientation of each Vicon camera
in the capture volume based on the movement of the calibration object.
Tracker uses this information to determine each camera's physical position
and orientation in the capture volume and correct for any lens distortion.

2. Setting volume origin During the second stage, you set the volume origin in
Tracker. Tracker measures the position of the calibration object and uses this
information to identify the origin of the world and its horizontal and vertical
axes. These volume origin and axes are referred to as the global coordinate
system. The global axes coordinates are given in the form (x, y, z), where x is a
horizontal axis, y is the horizontal axis perpendicular to x, and z is the vertical
axis.

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The Calibrate tab contains the following sections:

Section Description
Create Camera Masks Automatically create cameras masks to obscure all
reflections visible to the Vicon cameras. For more
information, see Creating camera masks
automatically on page 166 and Creating camera masks
manually on page 167.
Calibrate Cameras Calibrate the Vicon cameras to determine their
positions, orientations, and lens properties, which
enables Tracker to produce accurate 3D data from
motion data captured throughout the capture volume.
For more information, see Calibrate Vicon cameras on
page 93.

Set Volume Origin Define the global origin and the axes of the world (in
the context of the capture volume). For more
information, see Calibrate Vicon cameras on page 93.
Manage Camera Calibration Reset, load, or save camera calibration defining
settings for the Vicon cameras in your Tracker system.
For more information, see Calibrate Vicon cameras on
page 93.

Camera Calibration Feedback View system calibration processing progress and

status information. For more information, see
Calibrate Vicon cameras on page 93.

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Calibrate Vicon cameras

You specify settings for the calibration of Vicon cameras on the Calibrate tab, in
the Calibrate Cameras section.

The Vicon camera calibration process describes the capture volume to the
system, enabling Tracker to determine the positions, orientations, and lens
properties of all the Vicon cameras. Tracker uses this information to produce
accurate 3D data. During the camera calibration process, Vicon Tracker creates a
calibration parameters (.xcp) file. This file contains the calibration settings and
threshold data specified for the Vicon cameras in your Tracker system and is
used when data from these cameras is processed. An .x2d file containing the
latest calibration data, of the format LatestCalibration yyyymmddnnnnnn.x2d, is
also saved in the same location as the .x2d containing the recorded trial data.

 Important
As part of the first stage of the daily Tracker motion capture workflow,
Vicon recommends that you calibrate your Vicon cameras each day
before you capture any data. This ensures that any unexpected changes
in your setup that may have occurred when the system was unsupervised
will not influence the quality of your data. You can perform the level of
camera calibration that suits your requirements: a full camera calibration
or a calibration refinement (for more information, see Understanding
calibration types on page 97).

To perform a Vicon camera calibration, you need a dynamic calibration object,

which is supplied with your Vicon system.

To calibrate Vicon cameras in Tracker:

1. Do one of the following:

• If you want to calibrate only some of the cameras, on the System tab in the
Resources pane, expand the Vicon Cameras node and select the Vicon
cameras that you want to calibrate;

or

• If you want to calibrate all cameras, go straight to the next step.

2. On the Calibrate tab, expand the Calibrate Cameras section and from the
Wand drop-down list select the type of dynamic calibration object you are
using.

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3. View or change the settings for the required parameters (if required, click
Show Advanced to reveal additional settings), ensuring that you select the
appropriate option from the Calibration Type list: Full Calibration or
Calibration Refinement.

 Tip
If you have already performed a full calibration, Calibration
Refinement is selected by default, as this will normally be the most
appropriate option. (For more information, see Understanding
calibration types on page 97.)

4. In the Calibrate Cameras section, click Start.

All Vicon cameras are selected and a separate Camera view pane is displayed
for each one. The camera calibration process starts, and the Start button
switches to its Stop setting.

5. In the capture volume, wave the calibration wand throughout the area where
you intend to capture 3D data, ensuring that the markers on the calibration
object are visible to the cameras. Vicon Tracker begins to capture wand wave
data.

6. In each Camera view pane, check the display of colored lines identifying wand
frames, ensuring that a good number of wand frames are spread across the
intended 3D capture volume.

 Tip
If no cameras are visible in the Camera view pane, make sure they
are selected on the System tab in the Resources pane.
If any optical camera does not capture wand data during a wand
wave, select the relevant camera on the System tab, look in the
Settings section of the Properties pane, and ensure you have set the
Grayscale Mode to Auto.

7. On the Calibrate tab, in the Camera Calibration Feedback section, check the
Wand Count values returned for each Vicon camera.

8. In the Calibrate Vicon Cameras section, click Stop. Vicon Tracker

automatically starts processing the camera calibration data.

(If you selected the Auto Stop option in the Parameters section, Tracker
automatically stops the calibration process when sufficient calibration
information has been acquired.)

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9. In the Camera Calibration Feedback section, monitor the progress bar until
the camera calibration process is complete and review the Wand Count and
Image Error data. As a general guideline, Tracker typically takes 15-60
seconds to complete its calculations for a typical Vicon system setup. When
the Vicon camera calibration has successfully completed, it is automatically
saved to an .xcp file.

 Tip
Because calibration feedback values are based on factors such as the
size of the capture volume and the camera lens type, it is not
possible to provide general guidelines on typical or acceptable
ranges. Therefore, to determine the optimal values for your Vicon
system, shortly after the system is installed establish a baseline
against which you can compare future daily calibration values.

For more information, see:

• Camera calibration parameters on page 96

• Camera calibration feedback on page 98

• Setting the volume origin on page 99

• Changing the volume origin on page 102

• Managing camera calibrations on page 103

• Improve volume scaling and set a fixed origin on page 104

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Camera calibration parameters

On the Calibrate tab, in the Calibrate Cameras section, you can change the
following settings:

Control Description
Wand Calibration object to be used during the camera calibration process.
Calibration The level of camera calibration to be performed when the camera
Type calibration process is started:
• Full Calibration A full camera calibration process enables the
Vicon system to determine each camera's physical position and
orientation in the capture volume and to correct for any lens
distortions, and to set internal camera parameters. You must
perform a full camera calibration when the system is first installed
and set up or if your camera setup has changed significantly.
• Calibration Refinement A camera calibration refinement process
enables you to correct a simple problem with a camera
calibration. The Vicon system recalculates the previous
calibration data based on the current location of the cameras.
You can refine an existing calibration only if the camera positions
have not changed significantly.
For more information about calibration types, see Understanding
calibration types on page 97 below.
Cameras To A list of cameras to be included in the camera calibration process.
Calibrate Cameras not included in this list are not calibrated. If this field is blank,
all cameras are calibrated. The selection of cameras is applied when you
click the Stop button in the Calibrate Cameras section.
Refinement With auto stop selected, the minimum coverage (in number of frames)
Frames required per camera in the final phase of refining a camera calibration.
Wand Ratio Tolerance of the distance between the markers on the wand (expressed
Tolerance as a ratio), to enable it to be labeled in 2D. Default is 0.2.
Wand Tolerance in alignment of wand markers (relating to the maximum angle
Straightness allowed between markers) to enable it to be labeled in 2D.
Tolerance
Auto Stop Whether or not Tracker is to automatically stop the camera calibration
process when sufficient data has been collected.

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Understanding calibration types

Full Calibration consists of an initialization phase, followed by a multi-pass
process to optimize the camera positions.

Calibration Refinement uses exactly the same process as full calibration, but
without the initialization phase. It provides a reliable way to refine existing
calibration data to produce a calibration that is as good as a full calibration of
the same system, but is much faster.

Because Calibration Refinement operates on existing data, you must have

loaded a full calibration into Tracker before running the refinement calibration.

To save time while maintaining accuracy, you can perform both full and
refinement calibration on any selected camera(s), as well as on all cameras.

Note that the value specified for Refinement Frames affects the number of
frames used:

• By Auto Stop

• In the refinement phase of a Full Calibration

• When running a Calibration Refinement

The following table gives examples of using each type of calibration:

Scenario Type of calibration

A full calibration of all cameras has recently Full Calibration on just the moved
been performed, but since then, several cameras, with a short wand wave that
cameras have been repositioned to another concentrates on the moved cameras,
part of the volume.
A full calibration of all cameras has recently Full Calibration on the bumped camera,
been performed, but during capture, one with a short wand wave that
camera was accidentally slightly bumped. concentrates on the bumped camera.
Since yesterday's full calibration, environmental Calibration Refinement of all cameras,
factors may have caused small changes in the with a normal length wand wave that
camera positions and it is necessary to re- includes all cameras.
calibrate them accurately and quickly.

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Camera calibration feedback

On the Calibrate tab in the Camera Calibration Feedback section, you can view
the camera calibration processing and status information. Camera Calibration
Feedback contains the following components:

Component Description
Progress bar This bar displays a percentage indicating the progress of the overall
camera calibration process.
Camera This column contains the device ID for each Vicon camera being
calibrated.
Wand Count For each Vicon camera, this value identifies the number of frames it has
captured containing the calibration object. Initially, the entry for the
number of wand frames is displayed in red; the entry turns green when
Vicon Tracker has acquired enough wand data to calibrate that camera
(by default 1000 frames). Because Auto Stop is not selected by default,
the calibration process only stops when you click the Stop button. If
you have selected Auto Stop, the calibration process stops when the
Vicon camera with the lowest frame count reaches the number of
frames specified in the Refinement Frames field in the Calibrate
Cameras section.
World Error Displays the calibration error in millimeters. World error is calculated
per camera from the Image Error in pixels and the distance of the
camera to the center of the volume. Cameras further away, with the
same image error, display a larger world error.
Image Error This value (in RMS distance in camera pixels) indicates the accuracy of
the 3D reconstruction of the markers. This value represents the
difference between the 2D image of each marker on the camera
sensor and the 3D reconstructions of those markers projected back to
the camera's sensor. Acceptable values depend on factors such as
camera type. the size of the capture volume, and the camera lens type.

To sort the columns, click the required column heading.

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Setting the volume origin

Setting the volume origin tells the Vicon system where the center of your capture
volume is and what its orientation is (x, y, and z axes), so that subjects are
displayed the right way up in the Tracker workspace and so that you can change
the way data is visualized in the workspace. You set the global coordinate system
immediately after you calibrate your Vicon cameras.

 Important
Before starting the set volume origin process, remove from the capture
volume all markers and the sources of any unwanted reflections that
have not been accounted for by camera masks previously created. To
set the volume origin, you need a calibration object, which is supplied
with your Vicon system.

To set the global coordinate system:

1. Display a 3D Perspective view.

2. On the Calibrate tab, in the Wand drop-down list, ensure that the calibration
object that you used when you calibrated the cameras is selected.

 Tip
Tracker determines the unit of length for calculating the volume
based on the length of the calibration wand. If you specify a wand
that is a different length from the one you used during the Vicon
camera calibration, the volume will have the wrong unit of length, so
Tracker will be unable to locate the L-frame calibration object.

3. In the Set Volume Origin section, from the L-Frame drop-down list, select the
type of static calibration object you are using to set the volume origin.

4. In the capture volume, place the calibration object flat on the floor in the
position and orientation that you would like to be the origin of the global
coordinate system.

5. In the Set Volume Origin section, click Start.

The calibration object tracking process starts, Tracker identifies the
calibration object in the capture volume, displays a 3D representation of it in
the 3D Perspective view, and switches the Start button to its Set Origin
setting.

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6. Click Set Origin to complete the calibration object tracking process.

Tracker sets the global origin and axes to correspond to the position and
orientation of the calibration object in the capture volume. In the 3D
Perspective view pane, the floor grid is displayed aligned with the capture
volume floor and the representations of the cameras are distributed in the
position and orientation in which the physical cameras are located around the
capture volume. When the global coordinate system has been successfully
set, it is automatically saved to an .xcp file.

7. Verify that the global coordinate system was set successfully by checking that
the system tracks the static calibration object.
If it does not, check the following:

• Was the correct dynamic calibration object selected from the Wand drop-
down list at the top of the tools pane?
If not, repeat this procedure from Step 2, ensuring that you select the
correct entry for the calibration wand you used for calibrating the Vicon
cameras.

• Was the correct static calibration object selected from the L-Frame drop-
down list at the top of the Calibrate tab?
If not, repeat this procedure from Step 3, ensuring that you select the
correct entry for the L-frame you are using.

After you have set the global coordinate system, you can display the volume axis
marker in the lower-left corner of the 3D Perspective view pane.

You turn the display on or off in the Options dialog box by selecting or
deselecting Volume Axis under General View Options.

From Tracker 3.2 and later, you can also ensure that your coordinate system is
accurately aligned with the floor of the capture volume by automatically
detecting the floor plane, using markers in the volume to define it. For more
information, see Refine the position of the floor plane on page 101.

From Tracker 3.7 and later, after you have set the volume origin (see Setting the
volume origin on page 99), to improve calibration stability and consistency over
time (particularly in large volumes), you can create a large custom calibration
object from markers permanently placed across the volume. You can then use
this object, coupled with using the Auto Scale option, for subsequent setting of
the system origin. For more information, see Improve volume scaling and set a
fixed origin on page 104.

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 Important
To ensure the highest levels of accuracy, particularly for applications
involving ground truth, we strongly advise that you use volume scaling
regardless of the size of your capture volume.

Refine the position of the floor plane

To ensure that your coordinate system is accurately aligned with the floor of the
capture volume, you can adjust the position of the floor plane, using markers in
the volume to automatically define it.

To calibrate the floor plane:

1. Scatter a quantity of the same size Vicon markers across the floor of your
capture volume. If you want Tracker to automatically recognize these markers
as floor plane markers, ensure that they outnumber any other groups of
markers (e.g, markers on a wand or markers that were used to focus cameras,
etc).

2. Complete the usual system calibration procedure to set the volume origin.

3. On the Calibrate tab, expand Set Volume Origin and display the Advanced
properties.

4. Next to Set Floor Plane, ensure that the options are as required:

• Auto detect: Markers are automatically detected, based on the marker

group that defines the plane with the most markers. If, when you click Start,
the wrong markers are selected in the 3D Perspective view, you can add or
remove markers in the volume until selection is as required. To ensure that
the tolerance setting (in mm), which specifies the height of the group of
markers that define the floor plane, is as required, click the drop-down
arrow next to Auto Detect.
• Offset: Set the amount (in mm) by which to adjust the floor plane (default is
zero) in X Y and Z planes. The offset is applied after you have set the origin
using the Set Floor Plane setting.
5. Click the Start button in the Set Floor Plane line.
The button toggles to its Stop setting.
6. After a few seconds, click the Stop button.
In the 3D Perspective view the cameras shift as a group slightly along one or
more rotation axes to better reflect an average of the markers scattered
across the floor.
Your Vicon cameras are now calibrated and ready to capture data.

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Changing the volume origin

You can edit an existing calibration object to change the position of the volume
origin.

To change the volume origin:

1. After you have completed the usual calibration and setting volume origin
procedures, load the calibration object that you used for calibration. To do

this, on the Objects tab, click the Load an Object button and locate the
relevant calibration object. The default location is:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\Vicon\Tracker3.x\Objects

2. On the Objects tab, click the Pause button .

3. Move the calibration object in either of the following ways:

• On the System tab, click the object and in the Properties pane ensure
Show Advanced is selected, then edit the Global Position fields and Global
Rotation fields as necessary; or

• Drag the object in the view pane.

4. When you are happy with the position of the calibration object, right-click it
and click Save Object As. Enter a suitable name, and click Save.

5. Click the Calibrate tab, and in the Set Volume Origin section, select your
calibration object from the L-frame list.

6. In the Set Volume Origin section, click Start.

In the view pane, the cameras move to reflect the new position of the origin.

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Managing camera calibrations

On the Calibrate tab, in the Manage Camera Calibration section, you can reset,
load, or save camera calibrations that define settings for the Vicon cameras in
your Tracker system.

During the Vicon camera calibration process, Vicon Tracker creates a calibration
parameters (.xcp) file. The changes in the .xcp file are automatically written to the
calibration file, which overwrites the current file. If you want to be able to load
the previous calibration in later, you must save it.

Changing a camera calibration can be useful in the following circumstances:

• To undo a poor calibration change.

• To compare calibration changes.

To manage camera calibration files in Tracker:

• On the Calibrate tab, go to the Manage Camera Calibration section and click
the required button:

Button Description
Auto Number Enables you to quickly number the currently connected Vicon
Cameras cameras in ascending order, according to their position in the
capture volume. To obtain useful autonumbering, you normally
auto-number the cameras at some point after you have aimed (and
calibrated) the cameras.
Automatic numbering starts with the camera that is furthest from the
volume origin. The cameras are then numbered in a clockwise
direction around the volume. If your cameras are positioned at
different levels, the cameras in the level that contains the most
cameras are numbered first.
Reset Removes all non-existing cameras, clears the calibrated position for
existing cameras, and reverts all calibration parameters to their
default settings. This enables you to recalibrate the system from a
clean starting point.
Load Displays the Choose a file dialog box, from which you can navigate
to and select the required .xcp file and click Open.
Save Saves the current calibration.

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Improve volume scaling and set a fixed origin

After you’ve calibrated the system on page 93 in the usual way, including Setting
the volume origin on page 99, for maximum real-world accuracy (particularly in
large volumes), you can create a large custom calibration object from markers
permanently placed across the volume. You can then use this object, coupled
with using the Auto Scale option, for subsequent setting of the system origin.
This improves calibration stability and consistency over time.

 Note
If it is impractical to use permanently fixed markers in your volume, you
can still benefit from following this procedure, but when you come to
recalibrate, substitute a scaled wand object in place of the custom
calibration object. Your results will not be as accurate as they would with
the custom calibration object, but you will still benefit from the scaling
involved. For details, see Step 2 of Recalibrate with the scaled wand
and custom calibration object on page 112.

These topics explain how to do this:

• Choose LEDs or markers for your custom calibration object on page 105

• Set up the custom calibration object on page 106

• Scale the Active Wand and the custom calibration object on page 106

• Recalibrate with the scaled wand and custom calibration object on page 112

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Choose LEDs or markers for your custom calibration object

To create your custom calibration object, you can use either of the following:

• An asymmetrical pattern of LEDs (emitting 850 nm wavelength light)

If you use LEDs to create your custom calibration object, ensure the LEDs are
turned on only during setting the origin, and that they are turned off during
the calibration wand wave and while the volume is in use.
or

• Reflective markers
If you use reflective markers to create your custom calibration object,
remember that as passive markers are continually visible, you may need to
cover them while the volume is in use.

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Set up the custom calibration object

To initially set up the custom calibration object:

1. In the volume, place permanently static LEDs or markers to create a custom

calibration object. Note the following points:

• For best performance, fix the LEDs or markers to the floor (provides both
stability and the ability to spread across the volume).
If this is not possible, position them on a wall or truss.

• To guarantee a good measurement, locate the custom calibration object in

an area of good camera coverage.

• For best scaling performance, position the custom calibration object across
the central two-thirds of the volume (to avoid variability introduced by
gaps in coverage at the volume edges). If this is unfeasible, try to make the
custom calibration object as large as possible, and position it towards the
center of the volume.

2. As accurately as possible, measure the distances between points at two

furthest edges of the object, and record the results. This can be a single
measurement (eg, if the object’s sides are equal), or two measurements
across two different axes (eg, if the volume is not square).

Scale the Active Wand and the custom calibration object

Each time you change the custom calibration object:

1. Calibrate using the normal process and standard .vsk files (see Calibrate
Vicon cameras on page 93).
2. Set the origin using a standard calibration object (see Setting the volume
origin on page 99).
3. In Tracker, create an object for the markers of the custom calibration object
(for details, see Creating an object on page 117).

 Important
When you create the object:

• Do not save this object. It is important that the object that is used for
this scaling is created from the current marker observations.

• If you plan to use this object for setting the origin (see Working with
object properties on page 132), under the object's Advanced
properties, set the Global Position to (0,0,0).

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4. On the Objects tab, ensure the custom calibration object is selected, right-
click and then click Use for Camera Calibration .

5. In the Calibration Scaling dialog box:

a. In the Current Settings section, check that the Selected Wand is the
correct wand for your calibration, and that the Selected Object is correct.

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b. Ensure the custom calibration object is enabled, then select a pair of

markers that correspond to a measurement that you took earlier, and click
Add Measurement .

A line is added to the table containing the Model Distance, which is the
distance between the markers as measured by the current Vicon
calibration.

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c. In the Measured Distance column, enter the distance that you measured in
millimeters.

d. For each set of measurements you have taken from the object, repeat
steps b and c.
In the New Settings section, the scale factor that will be applied is
displayed, together with the output names for the scaled wand and
calibration objects.

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e. If you are happy with this measurement, click Save to exit the dialog box.
A scaled wand and a calibration object file are saved by default to C:
\Users\Public\Documents\Vicon\Tracker3.x\CalibrationObjects and are
displayed in the Wand and L-Frame lists on the Calibrate tab.

The current calibration is also scaled by the same factor, so you do not
need to recalibrate after this operation.

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6. In future, to obtain an accurately scaled volume, use the new scaled wand and
calibration object when performing the calibration and set object operations
(see Recalibrate with the scaled wand and custom calibration object on page
112).

If you do not add measurements, the object is saved as a calibration object with
no scaling modification, and no scaled wand is saved. You can still use the new
calibration object for set origin operations, including auto-scale. This will provide
consistency of scale across set origin operations, but the volume will not be
scaled to external measurements.

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Recalibrate with the scaled wand and custom calibration object

1. Calibrate using the normal process, but in the Wand field, select the new
scaled Active Wand .vsk file.

2. For the best results, set the origin using the normal process, but:

• In the L-Frame field, select the scaled custom calibration object.

• Ensure Auto Scale is selected.

This ensures both a correctly scaled volume according to the measurements

that you recorded of the custom calibration object; and also a permanently
fixed origin, based on the static markers.

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 Tip
If you can't use permanently fixed markers in your volume, in Step 2
above, substitute the scaled wand object in place of the custom
calibration object. Your results will not be as accurate as they would
with the custom calibration object, but you will still benefit from the
scaling of the wand.

3. Validate the new calibration by repeating the measurements from Step 5 of

Scale the Active Wand and the custom calibration object on page 106.
The measurements in Tracker should now closely align to the real world
measurements of the fixed markers, as recorded in Step 2 of Set up the
custom calibration object on page 106.

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About the Objects tab

Prepare and manage the objects whose motion data you want to track in Vicon
Tracker on the Objects tab. Objects are a rigid, asymmetrical arrangement of at
least three markers. Multiple objects can be defined to track many rigid bodies
at the same time and different smoothing filtration presets can be applied to
each one.

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The Objects tab contains these components:

Component Description
Objects list Lets you enable an object for motion capture and data recording. If a
working .vsk file exists for the object, the object symbol is orange and
the object name is gray. If the name is red, the .vsk file is not suitable
for tracking (this may be due to symmetry in the arrangement of
markers, or similarity to another enabled object). To display a tool tip
identifying the problem, hover the mouse pointer over the object.
To display or hide the model markers defined in the .vsk file, expand
( + ) or collapse ( - ) the Markers list.
Tips To manage specific objects, in the Objects list, right-click on the
relevant node and from the context menu select a command. The
Open Folder option, at the bottom of the context menu, provides a
quick way to locate a relevant file. The color-coded symbols displayed
for entries in the Markers list correspond to the colors defined for each
model marker in the .vsk file.
Object Type Enables you to view and manage the type of smoothing applied to a
Preset section selected object. Smoothing is achieved using a One Euro, low-pass
smoothing filter. You can choose from one of the following supplied
filters:
• HMD: Used for head-mounted devices
• InteractionDevice: Used for legacy devices, such as Apex
• General: Used as a general purpose starting point
If none of the supplied filter types is suitable for your
application, you can also create and save your own custom
filter presets, so that you can quickly and accurately apply them
to other objects (for more information, see Creating an
object on page 117).

Properties pane Enables you to view or edit object properties.

Object Tracking To view unlabeled reconstructions in the view pane (to enable you to
Mode control create new objects), ensure Track is not selected.
Viewing unlabeled reconstructions requires additional processing, so
for lowest output latency, when you have finished creating objects,
click the Track button to change to Track mode.
Create Object To create a new object, ensure Track mode is selected (see above),
controls select at least three trajectories in the view pane, enter a name in the
Create Object box, and click Create or press CTRL+E. For more
information, see Creating an object on page 117.

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Component Description
Add Marker to To add marker(s) to the selected trajectory of a selected object, click
Object controls the Add button.
If a calibrated object becomes distorted due to a marker having been
been lost and replaced in a slightly different position from its original
location, to update the marker position, select the affected marker and
click the Recalibrate button.

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Creating an object
For motion capture and data streaming recording to take place, you must create
objects. Objects are a rigid, asymmetrical arrangement of at least three markers
whose motion data you want to track. Multiple objects can be defined to track
many rigid bodies at the same time. If necessary, you can apply different levels of
filtration to each object to obtain the required smoothing.

To create an object:

1. If you are streaming live, on the Objects tab in the Resources pane, click

Pause .
2. Ensure that in the Object Tracking Mode section at the bottom of the tab,
Track mode is not selected. This enables you to see unlabeled
reconstructions in the 3D Perspective view pane.

3. In the view pane, zoom in (right-click + drag forward or backward) on the

markers to be defined as an object.

4. Select the (three or more) markers you want to include by doing one of the
following:

• To select markers individually, press and hold the CTRL key while you left-
click on each marker.

• To select a group of markers, press and hold the ALT key while you drag
around the markers to form a box around them.

5. With the markers selected, enter a name in the Create Object box and then
click Create.

 Tip
In the Create Object text box, the name is automatically incremented
by 1 each time you click Create, so that, to create another object with
the default name of ObjectName_n, you can just select the required
markers and click Create.

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6. If required, apply object-specific smoothing (using One Euro filtration) to the

selected object. To do this:

a. Ensure that the newly created object is still selected.

b. Depending on whether you want to use an existing filtration type for this
object, do one of the following:

• If you want to use an existing filtration type, in the Object Type

Preset section, select it from the dropdown list and save the object
as described in step 9.

or

• If the required filtration type does not exist, in the Object Type
Preset section, click Manage Presets and in the Object Presets
dialog box, enter a name in the Create New Preset box and then
click Add.

c. In the Presets section, ensure the new preset is selected, then in the
Smoothing section, change the Translation and Rotation properties as
required.

d. With Translation Beta set to zero, change the value of Translation Min
Cut-Off to eliminate jitter during very slow movements.
Note that decreasing the value of Translation Min Cut-Off reduces jitter
but increases lag.
e. When you have finished adjusting the Translation Min Cut-Off value,
increase the value of Translation Beta by very small increments to
eliminate lag during faster movement.
Note that 0 = filtering on all translation motion; 1 = filtering on very slow
translation motion only.
f. Follow the same procedure for adjusting the Rotation Min Cut-Off and
Rotation Beta.
For detailed information on the One Euro filter and how to adjust these
settings, visit www.lifl.fr/~casiez/1euro/.15
g. If you want Tracker to detect the object as static, select the Motion Model
check box.
h. When you have finished adjusting the properties, click Close.

7. On the Objects tab, make sure that in the Object Type Preset section, the
required filter is displayed for the selected object.

15 http://www.lifl.fr/~casiez/1euro/

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8. As required, make the following optional changes:

a. Left-click and drag the red, green, or blue axis lines emanating from the
center of the object (translation manipulator) to translate the origin of the
object to the desired position.

b. Left-click the translation manipulator to toggle to a rotation manipulator.

c. Drag the manipulator axes to orient the object to the desired pose.

d. Modify the object's properties in the Properties pane. For more

information, see Working with object properties on page 132.

9. Save the object by right-clicking it the Objects list and selecting Save Object
from the context menu.

Tracker saves the contents of the object in a .vsk file in the Objects folder.

 Important
Viewing unlabeled reconstructions requires additional processing, so for
lowest output latency, when you have finished creating objects, ensure
Track mode is selected. When Track mode is selected, the Track button
is green.

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Loading an existing object

You can open or load an existing .vsk file (object) in Tracker.

To load a .vsk file:

1. On the Objects tab tool bar, click the Load an Object button.

2. In the Choose an Object File dialog box, navigate to an existing .vsk file,
select it and then click Open.

 Caution
If the selected .vsk file has the same name as an object currently
loaded in Tracker, the contents of the selected .vsk file replace those
in the currently loaded object.

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Snapping the rotation of an object to a marker

You can change the orientation of an object in real time by snapping the rotation
to a marker.

To snap the rotation to a marker:

1. In the view pane, click a marker within an object.

2. Click any axis. Three circles associated with the axes are displayed.

3. Click on a circle and rotate it until you see a gray rectangular shape snap into
place.

To snap the position of an object to a marker:

1. In the view pane, click a marker within an object.

2. Click any axis and drag towards the marker until it snaps into place.

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Snapping a midpoint between markers

You can snap two markers together to measure the distance between the
markers.

To snap a midpoint between markers:

1. In the view pane, select two markers by pressing CTRL while left-clicking each
marker.
A gray, projected marker is displayed at the midpoint between the two
markers.

2. Left-click on the desired axis and move it towards the gray projected marker
until it snaps into the midpoint.

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Adding and detaching markers

You can easily add an existing marker to an object or detach a marker from an
object.

To add a marker to an object:

1. In the view pane, to select the marker that you want to add to the object, click
the marker.

2. At the bottom of the Objects tab, click the Add button.

The mouse pointer now displays Select Object.

3. Click in the view pane.

The marker is now part of the object and is displayed in the Object list.

To detach a marker from an object:

1. In the view pane, right-click the marker to detach.

2. Select Detach Marker from the context menu.

The marker becomes disabled and is deleted from the object in the Object
list.

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Managing objects
After you have loaded an existing .vsk file or created a new object, you can save
or delete the object, or move its centroid as described in the following steps.

See also:

• Positioning an object in the global coordinate system on page 130

• Working with grouped objects on page 125

To save an object as .vsk file:

1. On the Objects tab in the Resources pane, right-click the object.

2. Select Save Object from the context menu.

Tracker saves the contents of the object in a .vsk file in the Objects folder.

To delete an object:

1. On the Objects tab, right-click the object and select Delete Object from the
context menu.

2. In the Warning confirmation message, click Yes to proceed.

Tracker deletes the object from the Objects tab, unloads the .vsk, removes
the labels from the trajectories associated with that object, and permanently
deletes it from the Objects folder.

To move the centroid of an object:

• In the view pane, click an axis and move along that axis until you reach the
location you want. Repeat for the other axis until the required location is
reached.

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Working with grouped objects

Location: Resources pane > Objects tab

The ability to act on multiple objects simultaneously is useful when you are
working with similar objects, such as the collection of rigid bodies that make up a
single subject.

You can group objects and then select the group, so that activation, selection,
and deletion applies to all objects in the selected group.

For more information, see:

• Create a group on page 126

• Add objects to a group on page 126

• Activate and deactivate grouped objects on page 127

• Select grouped objects on page 127

• Ungroup or delete grouped objects on page 127

• Change the color of grouped objects on page 128

• Save grouped objects on page 128

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Create a group
To create a group of objects:

1. On the Objects tab, click to select the required objects, then right-click and
on the context menu click Group Objects.

2. Enter a name for your group and click OK.

The selected objects are grouped under the new group name:

You can create further groups of objects as required.

3. To see the objects in a group, expand the group by clicking the arrow to the
right of the group name. By default, all objects in the group are activated:

Add objects to a group

To add objects to an existing group:

On the Objects tab, right-click the name of the object that you want to add to
the group, point to Add to Group, and then click the name of the required
group.

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Activate and deactivate grouped objects

To activate/deactivate objects

On the Objects tab, you can activate/deactivate grouped objects in either of

these ways:

• All objects in a group: Clear or select the check box to the left of the group
name.

• One or more objects within a group: Expand the group and clear or select the
check box to the left of the object name.
The check box to the left of the group name changes to reflect the activation
status of objects within the group.

Select grouped objects

To select grouped objects

When you select a group (that is, click its name on the Objects tab), all the
objects in the group are selected by default:

You can also click, SHIFT-click and CTRL-click to select/deselect one or more
objects within the group.

Ungroup or delete grouped objects

To ungroup or delete objects

On the Objects tab, you can ungroup and/or delete grouped objects in either of
these ways:

• All objects in a group: Right-click the group name and click the required
option:
• Delete permanently deletes the group and all the objects within it.

• Ungroup moves all the group's objects outside the group and lists them
separately on the Objects tab. The group name is no longer displayed.

or

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\ About the Objects tab \

• One or more objects within a group: Expand the group, right-click the
required object(s) and then click the required option:

• Delete Object permanently deletes the object.

• Remove Object from GroupName moves the object from within the group
to outside the group, so that it is listed separately on the Objects tab.

Change the color of grouped objects

To change the color of grouped objects

1. On the Objects tab, select a group by clicking its name.

2. In the Properties pane, click the group's Color box.

3. In the Select Color dialog box, choose the required color.

The color of all the objects in the selected group changes.

Save grouped objects

To save grouped objects:

On the Objects tab, expand the group, right-click the object and click Save
Object.

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\ About the Objects tab \

Snapping an object to the global coordinate system

Tracker enables you to snap an object's axes to the global coordinate system, for
accurate positioning and aligning of objects.

To snap an object to the global coordinate system:

1. On the Objects pane, click the Pause button .

2. On the Window menu, click Options and in the dialog box, click Objects.
Ensure Snap Global is selected. If required, you can change the Snap
Distance (mm).

3. Ensure nothing is selected and then in the view pane, drag or rotate the
object axes to enable them to snap to the grid.

 Tip
To change the distance between the lines of the grid to which
objects can snap, in the Options dialog box, select Floor Grid and
adjust as required.

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Positioning an object in the global coordinate system

Tracker enables you to view and specify the values that determine the position of
an object within the global coordinate system.

To precisely position an object:

1. On the System tab, click the object and then in the Properties pane, click
Show Advanced.

2. In the view pane, drag or rotate the object's axes and observe the change in
the values in the Global Position fields (the location of the object within the
global coordinate system in millimeters) and Global Rotation fields (the
orientation of the object within the global coordinate system in degrees).

3. If required, change the Global Position and Global Rotation values.

The position of the object changes in the view pane.

 Tip
To set the current position of the object to the global position of 0, 0,
0 (that is, the origin), click the arrow to the right of the Global
Position fields and select Set to Default.

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\ About the Objects tab \

Reorder Markers dialog box

The Reorder Markers dialog box enables you to change the order in which
markers are displayed on the Objects tab.

To change the order in which markers are displayed:

1. On the Object tab, if necessary, expand the node of the object whose
markers you want to change.

2. Right-click the Markers node and then click Reorder.

3. In the Reorder Markers dialog box, click to select the marker whose position
you want to change and choose from the following options:

• Move Up

• Move Down

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Working with object properties

In the Resources pane, when you click on an object on the Objects tab, you can
configure the following setting in the Properties pane.

Setting Description
Name The name of the selected object. This name is used when the Vicon
Skeleton is saved in a .vsk file.
To change the name, do any of the following:
• In the Name box in the Properties pane, select the current
name and enter a new one; or
• Click the button next to the Name box to display the Name
dialog box, select the existing object name and enter a new
one; or
• On the Objects tab, double-click the current name and enter a
new one.

Color The color of the selected object.

Global Position The global position of the selected object.
Global Rotation The global rotation of the selected object. To choose the rotation
order, click the Rotation Order button .

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Changing marker color

You can change the color of object markers.

To change color properties:

1. Do one of the following:

• Select the marker in the Marker list.

or

• Click on the marker in the view pane.

2. In the Properties pane, click the currently displayed color in the Color box.

3. In the Select Color dialog box, assign a color in the Basic colors area, or
define a new color in the Custom colors area and then click OK.

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\ About the Recording tab \

About the Recording tab

Save and play back recordings of trial data, using the controls on the Recording
tab.

 Note
You will only see the Recording tab if you have the required license. For
more information, contact Vicon Support16.

16 mailto:[email protected]

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\ About the Recording tab \

The Recording tab contains the following components:

Component Description
Recording section In the Recording section, specify your requirements for
recording live trials. When you have finished specifying
your requirements, click the Start button to begin
recording.
Location Select Private or Shared, depending on your
requirements.
Open Folder View the location of the saved files. The default file
location depends on whether files are saved as Shared or
Private:
• File type: Private
File location (English language version): C:
\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Vicon\Track
er3.x\CapturedTrials
• File type:Shared
File location (English language version): C:
\Users\Public\Documents\Vicon\Tracker3.x\Captu
redTrials
Note: For each trial recorded, at least three files are
saved: .x2d, .system, and .xcp files. In addition, whenever
a new calibration is performed, an additional .x2d file, of
the format LatestCalibration yyyymmddnnnnnn.x2d,
containing the latest calibration data, is saved in the same
location as the .x2d containing the recorded trial data.
(This can be useful for data analysis and troubleshooting.)
If you are using an analog device to capture data, an .x1d
file is also saved.
Trial Name Enter a name for the new trial.
Auto Increment When selected, the trial number is automatically
Trial Number appended to the file name.
Permit When selected, existing captured trial data in the same
Overwrite of folder (see above) is overwritten when the new file is
Existing Files saved.
Show/Hide Displays or hides additional controls, such as those for
Parameters remote triggering.
Start/Stop on When selected, a remote trigger can be used to control
Remote Trigger capturing start and stop times. The remote device must
be connected to your Vicon system.

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Component Description
Capture Before To capture data before the capture start is triggered
Start (secs) either manually (by clicking Start) or automatically (based
on a remote trigger), select this check box and enter the
required number of seconds.
Stop after To end the trial automatically after a specified number of
Duration (secs) seconds, select this check box and enter the required
number of seconds.
Start/Stop over To make a UDP broadcast to a third-party application
Network that capture has started or stopped, select this check box
and from the adjacent drop-down list, select Send or
Receive. In the Address list, either select the IP address of
the network card that will be used to send or receive the
start/stop trigger message, or select All. In the adjacent
field, specify the UDP port which is to send or receive the
message.
Arm button To set the system to a state where it is ready to accept a
trigger for automatic capture based on a signal broadcast
over the network from a remote device, click this button.
If you want to enable the system to remain ready to
receive subsequent network signals after the capture is
stopped, click the Lock button to the right of the Arm
button.
Playback In the Playback section, click the Load Trial button to select the trial you
section want to play back.
Export CSV In the Export CSV section, select options to save trial data to a CSV file. For
section more information, see CSV Export, in What's New in Vicon Tracker.

Tip
Before attempting to load a trial, in the Recording section, ensure that the
relevant Location setting is selected (Shared or Private), depending the
option chosen for the trial you want to load.

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\ About the Recording tab \

Recording live trials

You specify your requirements for recording live trials on the Recording tab. If
you use the same setup each time, you can make subsequent recordings just by
clicking the Start button.

To record trial data:

1. Ensure your system is connected and calibrated and that Tracker is in Live
mode.

2. In the Resources pane, click the Recording tab.

3. In the Location area, select whether your trial will be saved as Shared or
Private files.

4. In the Trial Name box, enter a name for the new trial. If you want a number to
be automatically appended to the file name, ensure Auto Increment Trial
Number is selected.

5. If you want existing captured trial data in the same folder to be overwritten
when a new trial is saved, select the Permit Overwrite of Existing Files box.

6. Do one of the following:

• If you don't want to select any further parameters, go to step 7; or

• If your trial requires any further setup, for example, if you are using remote
triggering, click Show Parameters and supply the necessary information:

• Start/Stop on Remote Trigger To use a remote trigger to control

capturing start and stop times, select this check box. The remote
device must be connected to your Vicon system via a Vicon Lock.
• Capture before Start (secs) To capture data before the capture start
is triggered either manually (by clicking Start) or automatically
(based on a remote trigger), select this check box and enter the
required number of seconds.
• Stop after Duration (secs) To end the trial automatically after a
specified number of seconds, select this check box and enter the
required number of seconds.
• Start/Stop over Network To make a UDP broadcast to a third-party
application that capture has started or stopped, select this check
box and from the adjacent drop-down list, select Send or Receive. In
the Address list, either select the IP address of the network card that
will be used to send or receive the start/stop trigger message, or
select All. In the adjacent field, specify the UDP port which is to send

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or receive the message. For information on the format of UDP

broadcast and trigger notifications, see UDP capture broadcast/
trigger on page 139.

• Arm button To set the system to a state where it is ready to accept a

trigger signal for automatic capture based on a signal broadcast
over the network from a remote device, click this button. If you want
to enable the system to remain ready to receive subsequent network
signals after the capture is stopped, click the Lock button to the right
of the Arm button.

7. When you are ready to begin recording, click Start.

The Frames Captured number increases as frames are captured.
If you did not specify a number of seconds in the Stop after Duration box or if
you decide to end the capture before the specified time, click Stop when you
have finished capturing.
To abandon the trial without saving any data, click Cancel.

You can play back the captured trial immediately.

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UDP capture broadcast/trigger

Vicon Tracker supports a simple UDP protocol to broadcast when capture has
started. Tracker can also receive these messages, which can be used to trigger a
capture remotely.

For more information, see:

• Example notifications on page 139

• Supplied example code on page 146

For information on how to set up remote triggering in Tracker, see Recording

live trials on page 137, and in particular, Step 6.

Example notifications
The XML file contains the following notifications:

• Start notification on page 140

• Stop notification on page 141

• Complete notification on page 142

• Timecode Start notification on page 143

• Timecode Stop notification on page 145

• Duration Stop notification on page 146

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Start notification
The following example shows a Start notification. Note that the broadcast must
fit into one UDP packet.

The indents in the following example are for clarity: the actual packet is not
indented. White space between tokens is removed.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>

<CaptureStart>
<Name VALUE="dance"/>
<Notes VALUE="The pets ants crime deer jump. "/>
<Description VALUE="The crowd pencil pets alert fold deer. With welcome
practice representative complete great? Or jolly tiny memorise thread. However
wool insect pipe! "/>
<DatabasePath VALUE="D:/Jeremy/Susan/Captures/Take"/>
<Delay VALUE="33"/>
<PacketID VALUE="33360"/>
</CaptureStart>

Where:

Name The name of the trial, which is used as the filename for the capture
files, for example <Name>.x2d.
Notes Any notes provided
Description Any description provided. Avoid very long description strings as
the broadcast must fit into one UDP packet. If it does not, the
broadcast is not sent.
DatabasePath The target path for the capture files.
Delay The number of milliseconds that the broadcast is made before the
capture starts. This delay enables clients to do any preparation
required to respond.
PacketID A number that individually identifies the packet. It is incremented
for each packet generated. Use it to discard duplicate packets that
are delivered by UDP. (This can happen if there are multiple paths
between the broadcasting and listening machines.)

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Stop notification
The following example shows a Stop notification. It is a notification that
capturing has stopped.

Note that writing the file to disk may not be complete. Wait for the
corresponding Complete notification before trying to open the file.

Possible values for the result are:

• SUCCESS - Everything was ok.

• FAIL - Everything was not ok. Perhaps the disk ran out of room, or the system
was unplugged. You may get a truncated file.

• CANCEL - The user stopped the capture process. There will not be a
Complete notification.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>

<CaptureStop RESULT="SUCCESS">
<Name VALUE="dance"/>
<DatabasePath VALUE="D:/Jeremy/Susan/Captures/Take"/>
<Delay VALUE="33"/>
<PacketID VALUE="33361"/>
</CaptureStop>

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Complete notification
The following example shows a Complete notification. It indicates that the
captured file is ready at the path specified. Note that:

• When capture is complete, buffers have yet to be flushed to disk.

• If the file is on a remote drive, it may be captured locally and then copied to
the final location. This may take some time.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>

<CaptureComplete>
<Name VALUE="dance"/>
<DatabasePath VALUE="D:/Jeremy/Susan/Captures/Take"/>
<PacketID VALUE="33362"/>
</CaptureComplete>

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Timecode Start notification

The following example shows a Timecode Start notification. It is generated when
the system is armed. Note that:

• Capture starts when the system receives the timecode specified.

• Additional notifications may be generated if the start timecode is updated

after the system is armed.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>

<CaptureStart>
<TimeCode VALUE="0 38 10 17 0 0 0 4"/>
<Name VALUE="slip"/>
<Notes VALUE="The last ants great blade jump. "/>
<Description VALUE="The truthful pencil pets ants crime deer. With geese
trail representative complete crowd? Or jolly toothbrush slip thread. However
worried insect nest! "/>
<DatabasePath VALUE="D:/Captures/Take/DayOne/Final"/>
<PacketID VALUE="33364"/>
</CaptureStart>

Where:

TimeCode is represented as a sequence of integers delimited with spaces.

• Hours

• Minutes

• Seconds

• Frames

• Sub-Frame (Always zero)

• Field

• 0 - Even Field

• 1 - Odd Field

• Standard

• 0 - PAL

• 1 - NTSC

• 2 - NTSC Drop

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• 3 - Film at 24fps

• 4 - NTSC Film

• 5 - 30Hz exactly

• Sub-Frames Per Frame (the multiple of the timecode rate that the system is
running at)

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\ About the Recording tab \

Timecode Stop notification

The following example shows a Timecode Stop notification. Note that additional
notifications may be generated if the Timecode Stop is updated after the system
is armed or possibly even capturing.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>

<CaptureStop>
<TimeCode VALUE="0 46 27 15 0 0 0 4"/>
<Name VALUE="slip"/>
<DatabasePath VALUE="D:/Captures/Take/DayOne/Final"/>
<PacketID VALUE="33365"/>
</CaptureStop>

The values for TimeCode are as listed in Timecode start notification on page 143.

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\ About the Recording tab \

Duration Stop notification

The packet is generated when the system is armed, or immediately prior to the
capture being started.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>

<CaptureStop>
<Duration FRAMES="12867" PERIOD="32865" TICKS="5553087"/>
<Name VALUE="memorise"/>
<DatabasePath VALUE="D:/Take/DayOne/Final/Susan"/>
<PacketID VALUE="33367"/>
</CaptureStop>

Where:

Duration is the number of frames that will be captured.

The packet may contain extra information describing the frame rate:

• PERIOD is the number of clock ticks between each frame

• TICKS is the number of ticks in each second

The frames per second of the system can be calculated as TICKS/PERIOD. This
representation of the frame rate avoids rounding errors for rates such as NTSC,
which cannot be stored in a double without a loss of precision.

<Duration FRAMES="12867" PERIOD="653254" TICKS="135000000" />

Supplied example code

The examples are provided in C++ and require the boost library for
communications.

1. CaptureBroadcastMonitor shows how to monitor for and decode the capture

notifications described above.

2. RemoteStartStop shows how to package and send the packets to trigger

capture start and stop.

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\ About the Recording tab \

Playing back recorded trials

You load and play recorded trials using the Recording tab and the view pane.

To play back recorded data:

1. On the Recording tab, in the Recording area ensure that the relevant
Location setting is selected (Shared or Private), depending on the option
chosen for the trial you want to load.

2. In the Playback area, click Load Trial to access the location of the last saved
trial. If you want to load a different trial, browse to the appropriate location.
Click Open.
The recorded trial is loaded, a time bar appears beneath the view pane and
Tracker automatically enters Offline mode (if this was not already selected).

3. To play the recorded trial, click the Play button on the time bar. To stop or
pause the replay, click Stop or press the space bar on the keyboard. To view a
particular part of the trial, drag the slider along the time bar, or to move
through the trial, press the forward or back arrow keys.

To select from further options for examining the recorded data, click the
More option beneath the Play button on the time bar.

• Zoom to Trial – After zooming in to a selected range, resets the time bar
scale to include the whole trial

• Zoom to Region-of-Interest – After zooming out, resets the time bar scale
to zoom in to the selected range

 Tip
To select a region of interest, drag the beginning and end markers
(small green triangles) to the start and end of the required range
on the time bar. To return the markers to their original positions at
the start and end of the trial, double-click them.

• Replay Speed – Enables you to select from preset options (in multiples of
real time) or to specify your own custom speed

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Monitoring system activity

Monitoring system activity

You can monitor the activity of your Vicon system in the Communications pane.
You can view the updates in the Communications pane during any stage of the
Tracker motion capture workflow. For more information, see:

• About the Communications pane on page 149

• Working in the Communications pane on page 150

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About the Communications pane

The Communications pane contains a single window, which displays a continual

update of Tracker system activity since start up as well as feedback on some
motion capture and processing operations. Vicon Support may ask you for log
information if you contact them to report a system problem.

The default position of the Communications pane is at the bottom of the Tracker
window. You can resize this pane, detach it from its current location, and move it
to another location within the Tracker window.

The Communications pane contains the following information:

Information Description
type
Time The timestamp for the operation being executed in the hh:mm:ss
format.
Category The general Tracker function being performed, for example
Calibration Manager.
Text The specific action and its success or failure.

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Working in the Communications pane

You can monitor the activity of your Vicon system in the Communications pane.
Its default position is at the bottom of the Tracker window.

A new log is written each time you start Tracker. New entries recorded during
the current session are appended at the bottom of the log. You can copy all or
part of the information in the log and save it to an external file, such as a Rich
Text Format (.rtf) or plain text (.txt) file.

To monitor system activity:

1. In the Communications pane, view the entries for system activity and
processing operations.

2. Use the scroll bar to move down or back up the displayed entries.

To copy entries to external files:

1. Drag the cursor across the required entries.

2. Right-click and in the context menu click Copy. Tracker copies the text to the
clipboard.

3. Open a text editor, such as Microsoft Notepad, and paste the copied text.

To filter the log, right-click in the Communications pane.

You can choose to view or hide the following types of entries:

• Info – Information entries

• Warn – Warning entries

• Error – Error entries

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You can also change scrolling behavior and delete and restore entries:

• Auto-scroll – Automatically scrolls to the bottom of the list of entries

• Clear – Deletes all entries from the Communications pane

• Recover – Restores previously deleted entries.

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Viewing camera data

Viewing camera data

Vicon Tracker enables you to view camera data in a number of different ways,
depending on your selection in the Resources pane and the view pane.

For information on viewing camera data, see the following topics:

• About the view pane on page 153

• About the 3D Perspective view on page 157

• About the 3D Orthogonal view on page 159

• About the Camera view on page 162

• About the Graph view on page 170

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Viewing camera data

\ About the view pane \

About the view pane

The view pane enables you to view the data of one or more cameras. In the view
pane, you view the objects selected in the Resources pane during any stage of
the Tracker workflow. Depending on the type of view pane selected, there are
additional lists and buttons available to you to manage the display options for
that type of view pane.

By default, the view pane is above the Communication pane and to the right of
the Resources pane. You cannot detach or change the position of this pane, but
you can resize it. In addition, you can open a new floating workspace that can be
displayed on a second monitor, if required.

The view pane contains the following components:

Component Description
Configuration Enables you manage the configurations that you create in the view
management pane. Saved configurations include the layout of view panes as well as
controls any cameras, hardware devices, and object components selected in
the Resources pane, on the System tab, the Calibration tab, the
Objects tab, and/or the Recording tab when the configuration was
created.

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Component Description
View pane list The view pane list allows you to configure the way in which you view
Tracker data. Select from the following types of view panes:

3D Perspective
Reconstructed motion capture data from all active Vicon cameras in
3D.

3D Orthogonal
Motion capture data in 3D viewed from a specified point of sight or
direction of the capture volume.

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Viewing camera data

\ About the view pane \

Component Description
Camera
Raw 2D motion capture data from an individual Vicon camera.

Graph
Various values of one or more selected items, such as the x, y, and z
components of a marker trajectory, plotted against each other or
against time.

By default, a single view pane is displayed in the workspace.

Specify the number of view panes using the following buttons:

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Component Description
Split view Split the current view horizontally into two view
buttons Horizontal
panes.
Split the current view vertically into two view panes.
Vertical
Close the current view pane. You cannot close the
Close
default view pane in the center of the Tracker
window.
View pane time Enables you to play back recorded trials. Click More or right-click the
bar time bar to access further options for examining recorded trial data:

Zoom to Trial After zooming in to a selected range, resets the time

bar scale to include the whole trial.
Zoom to After zooming out, resets the time bar scale to zoom
Region-of- in to the selected range.
Interest
Set Current Opens the Go to Frame dialog box, in which you can
Frame specify the required frame. When you click OK, the
current time indicator moves to the specified frame.
Play Every When selected, the datastream ships all frames.
Frame (Rendering is unaffected.) Select this option only if
you want to run calculations on datastream data.
Replay Speed Enables you to select from preset options or to
specify your own custom speed.

To select a region of interest, drag the beginning and end markers (small green
triangles) to the start and end of the required range.

To return the markers to their original positions at the start and end of the trial,
double-click them.

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Viewing camera data

\ About the 3D Perspective view \

About the 3D Perspective view

You view the reconstructed motion data from all active Vicon cameras in 3D.

The 3D Perspective view pane contains the following components.

Component Description
3D Perspective You manage the display of 3D data in the active workspace by
view pane tool
bar selecting the following button: Center camera on selection
Positions the currently selected data in the center of the view pane.
This option does not automatically zoom in on the selected data.
When selecting an object to "follow", the camera also rotates with the
object.
3D Perspective You view and manipulate 3D data in the workspace. For example, the
view pane view can be oriented using the mouse and/or keyboard (see Mouse
workspace and keyboard shortcuts on page 21), such that you can focus on items of
interest.

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\ About the 3D Perspective view \

Viewing data in 3D Perspective view

View reconstructed motion capture data from all active Vicon cameras.

When you have displayed a 3D Perspective view pane:

• You can highlight the representations of specific cameras by selecting one or

more cameras under the Vicon Cameras node on the System tab in the
Resources pane.

• You can configure display options in the Options dialog box.

 Tip
To select multiple objects, hold down the ALT key and drag around
the objects you want to select.
To detach a marker, in the 3D Perspective view pane, right-click the
marker and in the context menu, click Detach Marker.

To view data in a 3D Perspective view pane:

1. Stream live camera data.

2. From the view pane tool bar, select 3D Perspective. The reconstructed 3D
data from all cameras is displayed in a single 3D Perspective view pane.

3. Select a marker and perform an action on it in either of the following ways:

• On the Objects tab, examine the reconstruction and labeling and edit any
errors or inconsistencies; or

• Right-click and select an option from the context menu.

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\ About the 3D Orthogonal view \

About the 3D Orthogonal view

View motion capture data in 3D perspective viewed from a specified point of

sight, or direction, of the capture volume.

The 3D Orthogonal view pane contains the following components:

Component Description
3D Orthogonal Manage the display of data in the active workspace with the
view pane tool bar following controls in the 3D Orthogonal view tool bar:
• Orthogonal view list
Set the point of sight by selecting one of the following
orthogonal projections (also called orthographic
projections):
• -Z (default)
• +Z
• +X
• -X
• +Y
• -Y

• Camera Centered on Selection button

Position the currently selected data in the center of the view
pane. This option does not automatically zoom in on the
selected data.

3D Orthogonal View and manipulate 3D data in the workspace.

view pane
workspace

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\ About the 3D Orthogonal view \

Viewing data in 3D Orthogonal view

View motion capture data in 3D perspective viewed from a specified point of
sight, or direction, of the capture volume. You can view 3D data from an
orthogonal perspective live in real time or from a previously saved trial.

When you have displayed a 3D Orthogonal view pane, you can:

• Manage the visualization of graph data in the workspace.

• Highlight the representations of specific cameras in 3D Orthogonal view pane

workspace by selecting one or more cameras.

To view data in a 3D Orthogonal view pane:

1. Stream live camera data.

2. From the view pane tool bar, select 3D Orthogonal. The reconstructed 3D
data from all cameras is displayed in a single 3D Orthogonal view pane,
initially from the Top view.

3. From the View list in the 3D Orthogonal view pane tool bar, either leave the
default or select another orthogonal projection to set the view to a different
point of sight:

• -Z (default)

• +Z

• +X

• -X

• +Y

• -Y

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\ About the 3D Orthogonal view \

4. In the 3D Orthogonal view pane, select a marker and perform an action on it

in either of the following ways:

• On the Objects tab, check the reconstruction and labeling and edit any
errors or inconsistencies; or

• Right-click and select a command from the displayed context menu.

 Tip
You can select the Detach Marker command from the context
menu displayed when you right-click on a marker in the 3D
Perspective view pane.

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\ About the Camera view \

About the Camera view

View raw 2D motion capture data from an individual Vicon camera.

The Camera view pane contains the following components:

Component Description
View Manage the way camera data is viewed in the active Camera view pane
by selecting the following options on the View drop-down list:

3D Overlay Overlay multiple Camera view panes on top of each

other, so all camera views are displayed in a single
view pane. Each camera is rendered in a unique color.

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\ About the Camera view \

Component Description
Rotated Rotate the camera view, so it is corrected to the
vertical axis defined in the system calibration (which
corresponds to the earth's vertical axis). It also
enables you to manually rotate the view by dragging
the view left or right. Information from the camera
calibration is required to present the rotated view.
Combined Correctly model lens distortions and display a
corrected camera view with the 3D workspace
rendered underneath the camera view.
Zoom to Fit Zoom the selected Camera view pane to fit the full
workspace.
Zoom to Zoom to the displayed sensor window. For more
Window information, see New sensor windowing display, in
What's New in Vicon Tracker.
Masks You can create a mask to hide any unwanted reflections and light
sources visible to a Vicon camera (such as stray reflections from other
objects or surfaces in the capture volume, opposing strobe units, and
direct light sources) with the following buttons in the Camera view pane
tool bar:
Paint a mask Paint over any cells in the camera grid (displayed
onto the camera when the button is clicked) that contain unwanted
reflections. When a cell is painted, its background
color changes from black to blue. The camera mask
consists of all blue cells obscuring unwanted
reflections.
Erase a mask Erase a previously painted cell from a mask. When an
from the individual cell is erased, its background color changes
from blue to black, and any reflection that had
camera
previously been obscured is visible again.
Clear the mask Automatically remove a previously painted mask.
from the When the mask is cleared, the background color of
any previously painted cells changes from blue to
camera black, and any reflections that had previously been
obscured are visible again.
Toggle display Display When selected, grayscale blobs are displayed in the
of centroids/ grayscale blobs Camera view.
grayscale blobs

Display centroid When selected, centroids are displayed in the

Camera view.
circles
Display camera When selected, the windowing of the sensor is
sensor window represented by a rectangle in the Camera view. For
more information, see New sensor windowing display,
in What's New in Vicon Tracker.

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\ About the Camera view \

Component Description
Lock / Unlock Lock the current Camera view pane, so that it is effectively detached
Selection Set from the selection set and is not affected by any subsequent selections
in other open view panes. This is useful for displaying views from
different cameras in multiple Camera view panes.
Camera You view and manipulate 2D data in the workspace. You can manage
workspace the visualization of camera data, for example, you can orbit, truck, dolly,
and zoom the displayed data.

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\ About the Camera view \

Viewing optical data in Camera view

View 2D optical data from Vicon cameras in the Camera view pane.

To view data in a Camera view pane:

1. Stream live camera data.

2. On the System tab in the Resources pane, select one or more cameras.

3. Expand the Vicon Cameras node and then click on the sub-node for one or
more specific Vicon cameras.

4. From the view pane tool bar, select Camera.

The 2D data from each camera selected on the System tab is displayed in a
separate Camera view.

 Tip
To help you to determine the most effect threshold setting for
grayscale blobs, you can set the background color of the Camera
view to the value of the Threshold control in the Centroid Fitting
section of the Properties pane.
To do this, open the Options dialog box (F7), and in the General View
Options, select Threshold.

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\ About the Camera view \

Creating camera masks automatically

You can automatically create camera masks using controls on the Calibrate tab,
in the Create Camera Masks section.

The automatic camera mask creation tool automatically creates masks to

eliminate any reflections in the capture volume that are visible to the cameras.
You can subsequently create masks manually to eliminate any remaining or
additional reflections.

 Important
Before using the automatic mask creation tool, ensure that you remove
from the capture volume any unnecessary objects, such as calibration
objects. For best results, the capture volume should be entirely free
from objects likely to cause background interference.

To automatically create camera masks:

1. Press F7 to open the Options dialog box and under General View Options,
ensure that Threshold Map is selected.
Any reflections are visible in the Camera view pane, typically as non-circular
areas of grayscale or edge data. Note that reflections can severely affect the
camera data rates, and you may find that the camera overloads. In this case,
the camera automatically sends edge data instead of full grayscale data.

2. On the Calibrate tab, in the Create Camera Masks section, click Start.
All Vicon cameras are selected and a separate Camera view pane is displayed
for each one. The Start button changes to display Stop. Tracker starts
recording the data visible to each of the Vicon cameras connected. Any
camera masks that are created are displayed as blue cells in the Camera view
panes for the affected cameras. If there is no data visible to a particular
camera, Tracker does not create any masks for it. About 30 seconds of
recording is generally sufficient to enable Tracker to collect the data visible to
the cameras.

3. Click Stop.

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\ About the Camera view \

Creating camera masks manually

You can manually create camera masks (a technique used to obscure selectively
or hold back parts of an image while allowing other parts to show) with the
Masks buttons in the Camera view pane tool bar, which eliminate any reflections
in the capture volume that are visible to the cameras. If you have a large number
of reflections in your capture volume, it is a good idea to initially create camera
masks automatically.

 Important
Before manually creating any masks, ensure that you remove from the
capture volume any unnecessary objects, such as calibration objects. For
best results, the capture volume should be entirely free from objects
likely to cause background interference.

To manually create camera masks:

1. On the System tab in the Resources pane, select all Vicon cameras.

2. On the view pane tool bar, select Camera to display the 2D data being
captured by each selected Vicon camera in a separate Camera view pane.

3. From the View drop-down list in the Camera view pane tool bar, make sure
that the 3D Overlay and Combined options are cleared.

4. Press F7 to open the Options dialog box and under General View Options,
make sure that Threshold Map is selected.

 Tip
The Threshold Map default color is blue, but you can change the
color in the Options dialog box.

5. Remove any unnecessary objects, such as calibration objects, from the

capture volume. For best results, the capture volume should be entirely free
from objects likely to cause unwanted reflections.

Any reflections are visible in the Camera view pane, typically as non-circular
areas of grayscale or edge data. Note that reflections can severely affect the
camera data rates, and you may find that the camera overloads. In this case,
the camera automatically sends edge data instead of full grayscale data.

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\ About the Camera view \

6. From the Camera view pane tool bar, use the following buttons to hide any
unwanted reflections that are visible from the selected camera. (When you
click any of these buttons, a grid of small blue tiles is superimposed over the
camera image in each Camera view pane.)

Button Usage
Paint a mask Click an individual tile, click and drag across multiple consecutive
onto the tiles, or hold down ALT and click while dragging the mouse across
an entire area of unwanted reflections visible in the camera grid.
camera
You can drag the mouse horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. When
a cell is painted, its background color changes from black to blue.
The camera mask consists of all blue cells obscuring unwanted
reflections.
Erase a mask Click an individual tile, drag the mouse across multiple tiles, or hold
from the down ALT and click while dragging the mouse across an entire area
of blue cells in the camera grid. You can drag the mouse
camera
horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
When an individual cell is erased, its background color changes
from blue to black, and any reflection that had previously been
obscured is visible again.
Clear the mask Click the button to automatically remove the entire mask from the
from the camera.
When the mask is cleared, the background color of any previously
camera painted cells changes from blue to black, and any reflections that
had previously been obscured are visible again.

 Tip
To zoom in on the view pane, right-click and drag the mouse pointer
forward (to zoom in) or backward (to zoom out). To pan the image,
click both mouse buttons and drag. The camera masks are applied in
real time and are saved along with your camera calibration.

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\ About the Camera view \

Save a configuration
To save a configuration:

In the configuration management section at the top of the System resources

pane, click the Save button to save your system configuration settings to
a .system file in one of the following systems configurations folders:

• If you select Shared the file will be saved in C:

\Users\Public\Documents\Vicon\Tracker3.x\Configurations\Systems

• If you select Private it will be saved in C:

\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Vicon\Tracker3.x\Configurations\Syste
ms

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\ About the Graph view \

About the Graph view

You view and manipulate various values of one or more selected items (such as
the x, y, and z components of a marker trajectory) against time.

The Graph view pane contains the following components.

Component Description
Graph view pane You manage the display of graph data in the workspace with the
tool bar following controls and buttons on the Graph view pane tool bar at the
top of the view pane. The Graph view pane tool bar is designed to
lead you left to right through the normal flow of operations required to
plot a graph for the selected elements.
Graph type You select the type of graph to be displayed in the workspace from
under the categories in this drop-down list (graph types that are not
available for the current selection are dimmed):

Devices Components – Displays graphs for the components

of signals from analog devices.

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Component Description
Trajectories
• Components – The X, Y, and Z position of a
trajectory over time.
• Distance From Origin – The linear distance
between a trajectory and the origin.
• Distance Between – The distance between
two selected trajectories.
• Distance Between (xyz) – The absolute
distance (as a vector) between two selected
trajectories.
• Angle Between – The angle between three
selected trajectories.
• Trajectory Count – The number of
trajectories being reconstructed.

Metrics
• Latency – A measure of the time taken by
Tracker to perform some task. As data is
received from the hardware and is
processed, Tracker takes timestamps that are
used to calculate the latency estimate. If you
are using Firmware 222 or later, two different
kinds of latency are graphed.
• Data Delivered – The amount of time taken
between the sync packet being received and
the data for that frame being delivered from
the hardware. This is the integration period
of the camera – the time that it takes the
camera to process the sample and any
Ethernet overheads.
• Data Processed – The amount of time
between the sync packet being received and
the completion of data processing.

Object Quality – The RMS error of a rigid body compared to

its model (VSK).
Segments
• Global Angle – The global position and
orientation of a rigid body.
• Relative Pose – The difference in orientation
between two objects. The relative pose
graph shows the transformation from object
A (the first object selected) relative to object
B (the second object selected).

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\ About the Graph view \

Component Description
Differentiate the You specify for the displayed graph the current variable, its first
derivative (velocity or angular velocity), or its second derivative
Graph
(acceleration or angular acceleration) by selecting the desired options
from this drop-down list:
• x (none)
• x' (velocity)
• x" (acceleration)
A graph of a trajectory will have X, Y, and Z axes, but when
differentiated to x' (velocity) will change to X', Y', and Z' axes.

Graph You specify the components of the selected graph type to be plotted
Components in the active Graph view pane by selecting the required options from
this drop-down list (only components that you have selected for graph
view are available):
• Components - Dependent on the type of graph you have
chosen. For example, the count for the Trajectory Count graph.
• Select None
• Select All
This option enables you to focus on a component of particular
interest, which occupies more of the workspace. When multiple
components are plotted, each is always shown on a separate
axis, and the components shown are applied to all channels
visible in the workspace. The number of vertically stacked
graphs displayed in the workspace depends on the type of
graph selected and the number of components selected from
this component list.

Rotation Order If you select an object on the Object tab in the Resources pane, you
can select Global Angle from the Graph view tool bar. This enables the
Rotation Order button. Clicking on the Rotation Order button lists the
angle convention choices of Helical (default), XYZ, XZY, etc. This
enables you to choose either a Helical or an Euler angle convention.
The Euler angle convention itself has multiple rotation order
conventions represented by XYZ, XZY, etc.
Show Legend This button allows you to show a legend to the right of the graph trace
for each component being plotted.

Scaling You manage the scale of the graph (to ensure that the desired portions
of the selected traces are visible) with these buttons:
Fit Horizontally Zoom out the x-axis to show the complete range of
the trace for 100 frames. This is useful if you have
zoomed in a long way and now want to quickly see
the entire graph again.

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\ About the Graph view \

Component Description
Lock Horizontal Lock the horizontal graph axis so that the current
zoom level is maintained.
Axis
Fit Vertically Scale the y-axis so that all the data in selected traces
for the currently visible x-axis is visible. If there are
multiple traces in the selected components, they are
all set to the same range required to show all the
data for all traces.
Lock Vertical Lock the vertical graph axis so that the current zoom
level is maintained.
Axis
Fit Both Scale the x and y axes simultaneously to fit the
Horizontally & horizontal and vertical ranges of data.
Vertically
Lock/Unlock Lock the current Graph view pane, so that it is effectively detached
Selection Set from the selection set and is not affected by any subsequent selections
in other open view panes. This is useful for displaying different
elements in multiple Graph view panes.
Graph view pane You view and manipulate graph data in the workspace.
workspace The workspace contains rulers and axes along the right and bottom
edges and graph traces for the item being plotted.
The y-axis vertical ruler is on the right side of the graph and the x-axis
horizontal ruler is below the graph. The y-axis represents the selected
component. The x-axis represents the time (in frames). It starts on the
right side, which is labeled 0 (current frame) and is labeled from right
to left with decreasing negative values to reflect the number of frames
away from the live frame.

Tips:
• To change the default number of samples to display when a
new real-time graph is opened, press F7 to open the Options
dialog box, click Graph on the left, and on the right side,
change the Default X-axis length value.
• When zooming into or out of graph data, the display of grid
lines in the workspace can be set to guide the eye toward the
selected area of focus. Major grid lines remain at their normal
weight, while any minor grid lines gradually fade. To obtain this
behavior, press F7 to open the Options dialog box, ensure
Graph is selected and in the Properties area, select Show
Minor Grid Lines.

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\ About the Graph view \

Viewing data in Graph view

You can display graphs of motion capture data in the Graph view pane.

The Graph view pane displays graphs for the types of data that can be produced
in a motion capture trial.

Graphs of trajectories data display three graphs of the X, Y, and Z components of

trajectories for two or more selected 3D markers, or a single graph of the
trajectory count for all 3D marker trajectories, against time. This is useful for
analyzing 3D marker trajectories and identifying gaps to be filled.

To view 3D trajectories in a graph:

1. Stream live camera data.

2. Select the markers to be graphed in either of the following ways. (The number
of markers you select depends on the type of graph you want to view, as
described in step 3 below.)

• On the Objects tab in the Resources pane, expand the required Object
node, expand the Markers node, and then select one or more markers; or

• In a 3D Perspective view pane, select one or more markers.

3. From the view pane tool bar, select Graph. A single Graph view pane is
displayed with the default Components graph type plotting the X, Y, and Z
components of each selected marker.

 Tip
When you have displayed a Graph view pane, you can select
additional markers to add to the Graph view pane. Each trajectory is
displayed in a different color trace. To identify the color trace used

for each trajectory, click the Show Legend button (or hover the
mouse pointer over it) in the Graph view pane tool bar. If the trace
for any additional markers is not visible, use the Fit Horizontally, Fit
Vertically, or Fit Both Horizontally and Vertically buttons.

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\ About the Graph view \

4. From the Graph Type list in the Graph view pane tool bar, select another
option under the Trajectories section to plot the selected marker trajectories
in a different type of graph:

• Distance From Origin: Plots the distance from the capture volume origin to
each selected marker. This is useful for later plotting velocity or
acceleration of markers.

• Distance Between: Plots the absolute distance between two selected

markers. This is useful, for example, for seeing how the distance between
two markers that are assumed to have a rigid relationship, changes over
time.

• Angle Between: Plots the angle between the two vectors formed by three
selected markers. This is useful for seeing how the group of markers move
over time.

• Trajectory Count: Plots the total number of trajectories over time visible to
the Vicon cameras (if streaming Live data in real time) or processed in trial
(if viewing previously captured data in a file).

5. If you want to save a particular graph view (for example, specific trajectories
that you have selected), save your configuration using the view pane
configuration management controls.

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Using Vicon Tracker menus and options

Using Vicon Tracker menus and options

For information on Vicon Tracker menus and on the controls in the Options
dialog box, see the following topics:

• About the menu bar on page 177

• Options dialog box on page 179

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\ About the menu bar \

About the menu bar

The Vicon Tracker menu bar contains the following menus.

Menu Options Description

Tracker Undo Undoes the last action. This command is available only
after a relevant action has been performed.
Redo Reinstates the previously undone action. This command
is available only after an Undo command has been
performed.
Exit Closes the Tracker application window. If you have not
saved any changes, Tracker displays a prompt to enable
you to save changes before it closes.
Window New Floating Opens a separate floating view pane.
Workspace
Resources Displays or hides the Resources pane in which you
manage the components of your Vicon Tracker system
and the objects whose motion is to be captured. To
display the pane, select the check box next to the
option.
Communications Displays or hides the Communications pane in which
you view the state of your Vicon Tracker system. To
display the pane, select the check box next to the
option.
Sounds Displays or hides the Sounds dialog box. For more
information, see Instant auditory feedback, in What's
New in Vicon Tracker.
Options Displays the Options dialog box in which you control the
way data is displayed in view panes. The Options dialog
box can also be displayed by pressing F7.
Help View Online Help Opens the online Vicon Tracker Help system.
Enable/Disable Displays the Analytics Collection dialog box, in which
Analytics you can choose to opt in or out of the collection and
Collection transmission of anonymized data about your use of
Tracker.
View User Guide Opens a PDF of the Vicon Tracker User Guide that was
installed with Tracker.
Check for Updates Checks the currently installed version of Tracker and
enables you to update it if necessary.

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\ About the menu bar \

Menu Options Description

Check for Displays the number of the latest firmware release in the
Firmware Updates Communications pane. Also see Firmware
notifications on page 178.
About Vicon Displays the Vicon Tracker startup screen, in which you
Tracker can view version information about the installed release
of Tracker.
About Tobii Pro Displays the Tobii Pro startup screen
Hotkeys Displays a list of Vicon Tracker hot keys.
Vicon Product Opens Vicon Product Licensing, which enables you to
Licensing manage licenses. See License Vicon Tracker.
Show 3rd Party Displays the Third-Party Licenses dialog box, which
Licenses shows required third-party license agreements and
copyright notices.

Firmware notifications
When you start Tracker or connect any Vicon devices into your system, Vicon
Firmware Manager checks whether the firmware for all your devices is up-to-
date.
If your devices aren’t using the latest firmware, a warning triangle is
displayed on the right of the menu bar to let you know that a more up-to-date
version of the firmware is available.

• To display more information, click the icon.

For information on updating firmware, see the Vicon Firmware Manager Quick
Start Guide.

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Using Vicon Tracker menus and options

\ Options dialog box \

Options dialog box

To control the way data is visualized in the view panes, you use the controls in
the Options dialog box.

You access this dialog box from the Window menu or by pressing F7. You can
save the settings that you make in this dialog box, which enables you to
customize sets of options to use for different types of motion capture projects.

To configure settings in the Options dialog box:

1. Press F7 or from the Window menu, select Options. The Options dialog box
is displayed.

2. In the Options list on the left, select or clear the relevant check box(es),
depending on the functionality you require.

3. To view or change the settings for an option, click on the option to select it.
The properties for that option are displayed in the Properties section.

 Tip
To see any available additional settings, click Show Advanced. To
show basic settings only, click Hide Advanced.

4. In the Properties section, change the settings for the properties, as needed.

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\ Options dialog box \

5. To save the changes you have made in the Options dialog box, in the
configuration management area, click the save button:

The Save As window is displayed.

6. Enter a name for the configuration and click OK.

 Tip
To indicate that you have made changes to a configuration but the
changes have not yet been saved, an asterisk * is displayed after the
configuration name in the configuration management list.

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Extending your use of Vicon Tracker

Extending your use of Vicon Tracker

In addition to using Tracker as part of a Vicon system as described in Tracker
system components on page 8, you can:

• Use Tracker's built-in VRPN server to extend your usage of Tracker (see
Working with VRPN on page 182).

• Use the Vicon Control app, to set up, calibrate, and capture with a Vicon
Valkyrie or Vantage system (see Using the Vicon Control app with Tracker on
page 186).

• Use the Vicon DataStream SDK (or UDP) to access Vicon Tracker data from
Simulink (see Accessing Vicon Tracker data from Simulink on page 189).

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Working with VRPN

The Virtual-Reality Peripheral Network (VRPN) is a library that provides an
interface between 3D immersive applications and tracking systems used for
Virtools. Vicon Tracker has a built-in VRPN server that will stream data natively
into these applications or will allow for the development of simple interfaces
using VRPN.

For more information on working with VRPN, see:

• Using VRPN within Virtools on page 183

• Using dual VRPN outputs on page 185

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Using VRPN within Virtools

Virtools, a commercial application, has support for VRPN and can be configured
to connect with Vicon Tracker as follows.

A full VRDevice.cfg file is included below.

 Note
Head@TrackerPC is the way Virtools connects to the VRPN server within
Tracker. The format is object_name@PC_Name. This configuration file
will look for an object called "Head" on the Tracker server called
"TrackerPC."

=======================================
vrpnTracker_0 Head@TrackerPC
neutralPosition_0 0.0 0.0 0.0
neutralQuaternion_0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0
axisPermute_0 0 2 1
axisSign_0 1 1 1
trackerScale_0 1
TrackerGroup_0 T0:0:6
=======================================

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This VRDevice.cfg also contains other directives that:

• Map the Vicon coordinates properly to the Virtools coordinates:

axisPermute_0 0 2 1
axisSign_0 1 1 1

• Add a tracker group with:

TrackerGroup_0 T0:0:6

To complete the process, do the following:

• Add the VRPN settings to a VRPack.cfg file, which is in the same folder as
the .cmo. That way it can be tested with Virtools Dev.

• For versions of Tracker before 1.2 in the composition, activate the Use Scale
option and change the value of trackerScale_0 in your VRDevice.cfg file to
0.001 (converts Vicon mm to Virtools m).

For a full description of any of these configuration options, please refer to the
Virtools documentation.

For sample files that use VRPN to connect Virtools to a tracked object within
Vicon Tracker, please contact Vicon Support on page 205 or download from
the Vicon website17.

17 https://www.vicon.com/downloads

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Using dual VRPN outputs

If you are rendering the same object to different display types (for example, to
both a large screen and an immersive environment such as a head-mounted
display), to obtain smooth visualization on both display types, you are likely to
need to apply different amounts of filtration for each.

To enable you to do this, Tracker provides a second set of VRPN trackers, which
are output with the existing ones. For easy identification, the names of this
second set of VRPN trackers are suffixed with _2.

To enable second filtered VRPN trackers:

1. On the System tab, select Local Vicon System and in the Properties pane
ensure Show Advanced has been selected.

2. In the VRPN Stream section, select Add Filtered Tracker.

The second set of VRPN trackers includes customizable One Euro filtering.
For information on adjusting filtering parameters, see Creating an object on
page 117.

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\ Using the Vicon Control app with Tracker \

Using the Vicon Control app with Tracker

Control connects wirelessly to Vicon Tracker and streams camera data to your
mobile or tablet, enabling a single user to change camera settings, calibrate the
system, and start or stop capture from anywhere in the volume.

Before you can use your iOS device with Tracker, you must pair it with the PC
that is running Tracker (the Vicon host PC).

Connect Vicon Control

To connect an iOS device running the Vicon Control app to Tracker on a Vicon
host PC:

1. Ensure that your iOS device is connected to a Wifi access point that is on the
same subnet as the Vicon host PC.

2. On the Vicon host PC, ensure that the required connection is used, that
Tracker is running, and the system is connected.

3. On the device, open the Vicon Control app.

The connection to Tracker is displayed on the initial Control screen:

4. Tap the Tracker icon.

You are alerted that you must authorize the connection on the Vicon host PC
before you can continue.

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In Tracker on the Vicon host PC, an authorization request is displayed:

5. To use the same connection in future, select Remember this choice for future
connection attempts. To permit Control to access Tracker, click Allow.

 Tip
If later you need to revoke authorizations for Vicon Control, on the
Window menu in Tracker, click Reset Control Authorization. This
revokes all stored authorizations.

On the device, a screen similar to the following is displayed:

6. To select a camera and display a camera view, tap at the bottom of the
screen.

You can swipe the camera view right or left to change to the next or previous
camera and use stretch and pinch as normal to zoom in and out.

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To access the dial control, tap and hold in a selected camera view.

Use the dial to view and change settings, calibrate and capture.

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Accessing Vicon Tracker data from Simulink

If you are working in an environment that supports the use of the
Vicon DataStream SDK (where TCP/IP is supported), you can use the SDK from
within a Simulink block (S-function) to access data streamed from Vicon Tracker.

In addition, Vicon Tracker 3 includes a UDP stream that contains object

translation and rotation data. If you are working in an environment that supports
only UDP and therefore cannot use the Vicon DataStream SDK to access Tracker
object data from Simulink, you can access Tracker positional data from the UDP
stream.

 Important
The UDP stream contains only a small subset of the data that is available
via the Vicon DataStream SDK, so if possible, use the Vicon DataStream
SDK in preference to the UDP stream.

To help you access Tracker data from Simulink, examples of both types of access
are installed with Tracker. They can be found in the following default location:

C:\Program Files\Vicon\Tracker3.#\Simulink

For more information, see:

• Prerequisites for using Simulink with Vicon Tracker on page 190

• About the UDP stream on page 190

• About the Simulink examples provided with Vicon Tracker on page 195

• How to run the Simulink examples on page 197

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Prerequisites for using Simulink with Vicon Tracker

To use Simulink with Tracker, ensure the following requirements are met:

• You are familiar with Simulink.

• For compiled S-functions, access to and proper configuration of a compiler in

MATLAB.

 Tip
You can use configurations other than compiled S-functions (such as
using MATLAB code within the Simulink block) but there may be a
performance disadvantage to using interpreted code. Alternative
configurations have not been investigated or tested by Vicon.

• A properly installed C or C++ compiler. Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 was used
during the development of the examples.

• Installed and licensed Instrument Control Toolbox. This toolbox is licensed

separately (i.e. it is not part of the Simulink license). It is needed for receiving
UDP packets only.

About the UDP stream

The UDP stream outputs translation and rotation information for active objects in
Vicon Tracker.

To access data from this stream you must write a 'client' to access the stream and
parse the data block to access its contents. The example clients provided with
Tracker illustrate the block parsing and some possible configurations for block
outputs.

For each frame in Tracker, one or more data blocks are sent. The number of
blocks per frame sent is dependent on:

• The data block size setting

• The number of active objects

• The object-per-port setting

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The UDP Stream parameters are stored in the .system file:

On the System tab, when you click on the Local Vicon System node, the
following settings are available in the UDP Object Stream section of the
Properties pane.

Setting Description
Enabled If selected, starts the UDP streaming of data. Unlike the
data stream, the UDP stream does not maintain client
connection information. If selected, data is output whether
or not there are any connected clients.
Data Block Size The size of the UDP datagrams (data blocks). Ensure the
value selected matches the expected value for the
datagram size in the client program.
Options are 256, 512, and 1024.
Object Per Port If cleared, all objects are output on the same port.
If selected, each object is output on its own UDP port. Port
assignments are made whether or not the object is active.
The following image shows how port numbers are
assigned:

IP Address The network address used to broadcast the data.

Port The starting port for UDP streaming. If Object Per Port is
selected, this is the starting port number. If Object Per
Port is cleared, this is the output port for all objects.

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Example UDP Packet contents table

The following UDP Packet contents table provides more technical detail about
the layout and content of the UDP stream. You may find this useful if, for
example, you want to use the UDP stream, but do not want to use it with
Simulink. It is taken from DataBlock.h, which is one of the Simulink example files.

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Byte offset Content Comment

0-3 Frame Number nnnn
4 ItemsInBlock 2
5 ItemHeader:ItemID 0 (0 for object data. Other object types
not currently supported.)
6-7 ItemHeader:ItemDataSize 72
8-31 TrackerObject:ItemName 'O''b''j''e''c''t''1'00000000000000000
32-39 TrackerObject:TransX
40-47 TrackerObject:TransY
48-55 TrackerObject:TransZ
56-63 TrackerObject:RotX
64-71 TrackerObject:RotY
72-79 TrackerObject:RotZ
80 ItemHeader:ItemID 0 (0 for object data. Other object types
not currently supported.)
81-82 ItemHeader:ItemDataSize 72
83-106 TrackerObject:ItemName 'O''b''j''e''c''t''2'00000000000000000
107-114 TrackerObject:TransX
115-122 TrackerObject:TransY
123-130 TrackerObject:TransZ
131-138 TrackerObject:RotX
139-146 TrackerObject:RotY
147-154 TrackerObject:RotZ

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Object data output by the UDP stream

Data that is output matches the Vicon DataStream SDK values for the same
frame. The UDP stream contains no axis mapping options.
For each object six values are output:

• Translation X, Y, and Z
The values match the values received from GetSegmentGlobalTranslation
through the Vicon DataStream SDK.

• Rotation X, Y, and Z
The values match the values received from
GetSegmentGlobalRotationEulerXYZ through the Vicon DataStream SDK.

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About the Simulink examples provided with Vicon Tracker

All of the examples consist of an S-function along with a Simulink model showing
a block using the custom S-function in a simulation. Note the following points:

• Simulink models are stored in files with a .mdl extension

• Examples were developed and tested using 64-bit versions of MATLAB/

Simulink/Vicon DataStream SDK. (You cannot mix 32- and 64-bit code.)

• Single object and multiple object examples on the same port are provided
using the Vicon DataStream SDK as well as the UDP stream. The only
difference in these examples is the method of data access.

• An additional example for the UDP stream is provided, which illustrates the
Object Per Port functionality. This functionality is not available using the
Vicon DataStream SDK.

• The examples use block parameters to specify the object names to be output.

• String parameters are surrounded by single quotes.

• Multiple parameters are separated by commas.

• To access block parameters, double-click on the block in the model.

Single block parameter:

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Multiple block parameters:

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How to run the Simulink examples

The following steps described how to run one of the Simulink examples provided
with Vicon Tracker, which demonstrate how to obtain Vicon Tracker data from
Simulink.

 Important
When you compile the code for the custom blocks, files are created in
the same folder as your source file. It is recommended that you copy the
example files to a folder other than the Tracker installation folder before
compiling, running, or modifying the example files.

To run an example:

1. Ensure Tracker is running and streaming data.

2. The examples reference objects named Object1 and/or Object2. If you need
to change the objects that are displayed, modify the block parameters to
reference the desired object(s).

3. Open MATLAB.
A MATLAB window similar to the following is displayed:

4. Change your current folder to one containing the example you want to run.

5. Compile the example file. For more information, see the specific compile
information below. Vicon DataStream SDK examples need to link in the
proper Vicon DataStream SDK file as well.

6. Load the model by dragging the desired .mdl file from the file listing to the
command window.

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This issues a uiopen command passing in the file you are dragging and opens
the model window.

7. In the model window click the Play button to run the simulation.

 Tip
If the model contains a scope block to draw a graph of the data, you
must double-click on the scope to open it – it does not open
automatically.

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Vicon DataStream SDK examples

Before you use any of the Vicon DataStream SDK examples, they must be
compiled and linked with the Vicon DataStream SDK.

To compile and link the Vicon DataStream SDK examples:

1. Copy the CPP files from the Vicon DataStream SDK installation folder to the
folder containing the example files.
Your file names might be slightly different from those in the following
illustration, depending on the version of the Vicon DataStream SDK you are
using.

2. To compile and link C++ code, use the mex command. You need to compile
the .cpp file and then link it with the Vicon DataStream SDK .lib file. You can
do this in a single step that looks like this

Successful compilation results in the creation of a file with a .mexw64

extension.

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Vicon DataStream SDK SingleObject example

This example displays the positional information for an object (object name
specified as block parameter). Each of the translation and rotation values is on a
separate output.

Vicon DataStream SDK MultipleObjects example

This example displays the positional information for two objects (names specified
as block parameters). Three values are provided for each of the four defined
outputs.

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UDP stream examples

All examples use the Instrument Control Toolbox receiving UDP packets. This
toolbox is licensed separately (i.e. it is not part of the Simulink license).

All of the example S-functions have been written in C. Before using any of these
examples, they must be compiled.

To compile the examples:

• To compile C code, use the mex command, supplying the name of the .c file
as input, as follows:

ObjectPerPort folder
This folder contains two models:
TrackerSingleObject.mdl and TrackerMultipleObjects.mdl

Both models use the same custom S-function, TrackerSingleObjectParser. The

object parsing function looks for the object name passed in as a block parameter
and displays the positional information for the object. Each of the translation and
rotation values is on a separate output.

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You must configure the UDP Receive blocks in the models to match Tracker
output with regard to data block size and port numbers.

UDP stream TrackerSingleObject example

This example displays the positional information for an object (object name
specified as block parameter). Each of the translation and rotation values is on a
separate output.

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UDP stream TrackerMultipleObjects example

This model has two UDP receive blocks to receive data from Tracker, using the
Object Per Port option.

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UDP stream MultipleObjectsSamePort example

This example displays the positional information for two objects (object names
specified as block parameters). Three values are provided for each of the four
defined outputs.

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Contact Vicon

Contact Vicon
If you need more information than that supplied in the documentation or
on the Vicon Support web pages18, please contact Vicon:

Denver, CO Los Angeles, CA Oxford, UK

Vicon Denver Vicon LA Vicon Oxford
7388 S. Revere Parkway 3750 S. Robertson Boulevard Unit 6, Oxford Pioneer Park
Suite 901, Centennial Suite 100, Culver City, Los Mead Rd, Yarnton, Oxford
CO 80112, USA Angeles OX5 1QU, United Kingdom
T: 303.799.8686 CA 90232, USA T: +44.1865.261800
F: 303.799.8690 T: 310.437.4499 E: [email protected]
E: [email protected] E: [email protected]

18 https://www.vicon.com/support

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