SCENECT 5.

1 Quick Start Guide September 2012

1. Start SCENECT
On the first program start, SCENECT will ask you to set up a default project location on your hard disk. If you already have existing scan projects in a dedicated spot on your hard disk drive, you would typically pick this directory. After having set up the default project location, SCENECT starts with the Project Selector window by default. It presents all the scan projects known to SCENECT at that time.

5.1 QUICK START GUIDE SEPTEMBER 2012

2. Create a New Scan Project Introduction

SCENECT enables anyone with the Microsoft Kinect for Xbox or the ASUS Xtion Pro Live1 to capture objects and environments in 3D with little effort and expense. While recording, the data obtained from these sensors is used to track the motion of the device and to create a colored 3D point cloud of the captured objects and environments. For this, the device has to be moved along or around the object of interest. While it is moved, the devices motion is tracked by means of distinctive features identified dynamically in the recorded data, and the pose of each recorded frame is estimated by registration against its previous frame. At last, to reduce data size, not all recorded frames are used for the resulting 3D point cloud. For this, so called key frames are picked from the data stream. The pixels or points of these key frames are then used to build up the colored 3D model of the captured object. Once the 3D data has been captured you may view and analyze it by e.g. measuring distances between objects. You may also export the data to different file formats and import it into third party applications, like CAD programs. Please note that SCENECT is a technology preview. It is provided to you as is at no charge and without warranty of any kind. It has not been released for sale and will be referred to as beta software from here on and should not be used on sensitive and/or valuable data. In no event will the licenser be liable for damages arising out of the use or inability to use the software. SCENECT is not supported by FARO Customer Service. Please see the license agreement during installation or in the SCENECT manual for more information. After having installed SCENECT you may use it for 30 days without a license key. After this 30 days trial period, you need a license to further use the software. This license is free of charge. Please read the SCENECT manual for instruction on how to request a license key. This quick start guide will guide you through the first steps of capturing objects and environments with the two supported sensors. For detailed information, please read the SCENECT manual.
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SCENECT needs to know where to save your recorded scan files before starting with the recording. For this, you have to create a new scan project with the project button in the standard toolbar

in the main menu under File > New > Project or with the New Project button in the Project Selector.

3. Live Tracking Settings

Once, the scan project has been created and opened you may start your first recording. Before starting live recording, you may have a look at the live tracking settings first. Open the settings dialog by selecting Live Tracking Settings in the drop down menu of the live tracking button in the SCENECT toolbar. Sequence Name A sequence contains all the data of one single recording process. Enter the name for your sequence here. Track Frames Enable to capture key frames in real-time during the recording process. If your system is too slow for this you may disable this option and record the raw data video only. This allows you to track the frames later offline from the recorded raw data video file. Record Video Enable to save the raw data video. Max. Range Limit the maximum

Reference to any ASUS products, services, processes, or other information and/or use of ASUS Trademarks does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation thereof by ASUS.

SCENECT 5.1 Quick Start Guide September 2012 September 2012 recording range. Objects within the set range will be captured. The recommended max. range is 2.5m. Color Mismatch Filter If there is an object in the foreground which differs from the background color there might be some mismatching between the color of the background and foreground and the 3D model points at the edges of that object. This filter attempts to detect such situations and removes the critical points from the model. Fine Registration You may apply fine registration - an additional registration step to the frames - after the recording has been finished. Fine registration tries to further improve the initial registration of the frames. You may disable this for your first recording

SCENECT 5.1 Quick Start Guide

Live Tracking
Start live tracking with the Start button. To get best results, please take care of the following before and while you are recording: Make sure your device is connected to your computer and if you are using the Microsoft Kinect that it is connected to the power supply. When tracking live, you should set the power management of your system to maximum performance. Make sure that the object of interest is within the specified maximum range and that it is not closer than the minimum range of the sensor (approximately 80cm). Stable tracking requires objects and environments that have enough color structure. Avoid having only plain-colored surfaces in the devices field of view. Move the device slowly and constantly, avoid jerky movements. Fast and jerky movements may lead to inaccurate data or tracking will get lost. Objects should not move while they are captured Ambient light conditions: In scenes with too bright illumination (close to lights or outdoors), the sensor will produce no 3D data or only with a limited distance range. Keep an eye on the quality indicator of the progress dialog (more information below). If the number of features gets critical, try to move the devices field of vision to areas with more structures. The video screen on the right shows the RGB cameras field of view. The green, yellow and red crosses in this view symbolize recognized features used for tracking. Their quality is indicated by their color. Cyan: New recognized features. Green: Good features used for tracking. Yellow: Recognized features that are not yet used but are good candidates for tracking. Red: Features recognized but not good enough for tracking.

If the number of features gets below a certain threshold tracking is not possible anymore and gets lost. Please make sure to have enough features in the field of view. The screen on the left shows the 3D view of the point cloud of your captured area. It will build up in real-time. The progress dialog shows the number of frames, some status messages and the overall quality of the tracking: Green: there are enough structures and the movement of the device is not too fast. Yellow: at least one of both quality criteria is below a certain threshold. You should keep an eye on the number of recognized features and the movement of the device. Red: at least one of both quality criteria is critical and tracking is on the verge of getting lost.

If the ASUS Xtion and Microsoft Kinect drivers have been installed properly and the device is connected to your computer tracking should start immediately; a split window will show up with the point cloud of your recording on the left and the video picture on the right as well as the progress dialog.

SCENECT 5.1 Quick Start Guide September 2012 September 2012

SCENECT 5.1 Quick Start Guide Open the planar view or the quick view of a frame with View > Planar View or View > Quick View in the context menu of the frame. When viewing frames in one of these two views you will recognize that some areas are color coded: If tracking got lost, the video picture will change according to the screenshot on the left. On the bottom right you will see the last video frame before tracking got lost. Try to align the sensor so that the current field of view approximately matches the picture on the bottom right. The red and the green crosses in the live video picture will help you to get the correct alignment. Try to move the sensor so that both crosses match, tracking should then resume automatically. Red areas: areas without scan points due to the set maximum scan range. Yellow areas: Areas where scan points have been dropped by the color mismatch filter. Magenta-colored areas at the borders of a frame: Areas where scan points have been dropped due to bad quality. Black areas: no 3D data received from the depth sensor.

Resume Tracking
You may resume tracking if it gets lost

Stop Tracking
You may stop tracking at any time with the ESC key on your keyboard or by clicking on the stop button in the SCENECT toolbar or in the progress dialog. Once the recording of a sequence is completed you will get the following structure in the projects workspace: Folder Scans: Contains all recorded sequences. Sequence folder (named according to your specified sequence name): Contains all the frames, and other objects of a single sequence. Frames folder: contains all the captured key frames. Trajectory: object that represents the trajectory of the recording device.

The 3D view also offers the combined viewing of scan points of more than one frame, of a complete sequence or the complete workspace. Start the 3D view of a frame, sequence or the workspace with the command View > 3D View in their context menu. The 3D view is used just like the other views. In addition, in the 3D view you can position yourself at arbitrary positions in space and have a look at the scan points and CAD models. The mouse is used to define the turning movements you want to perform, and with the keyboard you define the actual movement in space.

4. Viewing the Scanning Results

There are three view types to display the recorded data, the planar view, the quick view and the 3D view. While the planar view and the quick view are the views to examine single frames only, the 3D view is not limited to display the scan points of a single frame. It also offers the combined viewing of all the frames and objects in your project. Frames are best viewed and analyzed in the planar view or the quick view but can also be displayed in 3D of course.

SCENECT 5.1 Quick Start Guide September 2012 September 2012 Recommended 3D view options for displaying scan points recorded with the Kinect and the Xtion: Set the rotation point near the center of the captured scene: select the button from the 3D toolbar and click on a point in the 3D view to set the rotation point. SCENECT point clouds are best viewed with the object based navigation mode: Select the button in the 3D toolbar. button in the 3D toolbar.

SCENECT 5.1 Quick Start Guide

FARO Technologies, Inc., 2012. All rights reserved. For personal use, this publication may be reproduced or transmitted. For commercial use, no part of this publication may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of FARO Technologies Inc. FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTY, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, REGARDING THE FAROARM, FARO LASER TRACKER, FARO LASER SCANNER AND ANY MATERIALS, AND MAKES SUCH MATERIALS AVAILABLE SOLELY ON AN AS-IS BASIS. IN NO EVENT SHALL FARO TECHNOLOGIES INC. BE LIABLE TO ANYONE FOR SPECIAL, COLLATERAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES IN CONNECTION WITH OR ARISING OUT OF THE PURCHASE OR USE OF THE FAROARM, FARO LASER TRACKER, FARO LASER SCANNER OR ITS MATERIALS. THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE LIABILITY TO FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC., REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF ACTION, SHALL NOT EXCEED THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THE MATERIALS DESCRIBED HEREIN. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MANUAL IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE AND DOES NOT REPRESENT A COMMITMENT ON THE PART OF FARO TECHNOLOGIES INC. ACCEPTANCE OF THIS DOCUMENT BY THE CUSTOMER CONSTITUTES ACKNOWLEDGMENT THAT IF ANY INCONSISTENCY EXISTS BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND NON-ENGLISH VERSIONS, THE ENGLISH VERSION TAKES PRECEDENCE.
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Use the smallest displayed scan point size: select the Disable gap filling: deselect

button in the 3D toolbar.

Hide the symbols for the sensor positions: right click in the 3D view and select Visibility Settings from the context menu. On tab Extra disable Scan positions. If the 3D view looks distorted switch to the orthographic view: right click in the 3D view and select Camera > Orthographic from the context menu.

5. Hints & Tips

After plugging in the Xtion or Kinect wait untill the computer detected the device. If SCENECT scanning starts too early, initialization may fail. If the drivers for the Kinect or the ASUS were already installed on your system and the devices are not recognized by SCENECT when starting tracking, you should uninstall these drivers and install the drivers coming with the SCENECT setup by running the setup again. The Microsoft Kinect and the ASUS Xtion might not work on some USB 3.0 ports. If the device is not recognized by your system when plugging into a USB 3.0 port, plug it into a USB 2.0 port of your computer. USB 3.0 ports can be identified by their blue connector. When using a notebook in battery mode: Set the power management of your system to maximum performance. If you have many sequences in the workspace, unload older ones to reduce memory consumption.