On 15 April 2005 Claron Technology Inc. released version 2.1 of the MicronTracker SDK. As well as minor improvements to performance, the new version provides several new features:
Augmented Reality:
A new SDK function, Camera_ProjectionOnImage(), provides the projected position of a 3D location on the left or right video image. This can be used, for example, to provide visual coordinate registration accuracy feedback, or to overlay useful spatial information, such as predicted or hidden locations of interest.
A few examples of using this feature are provided in the Visual Basic demonstration source code. In one, the extrapolated tooltip position and orientation are presented as an arrow overlaid on the left/right video images, and in corner insets showing a magnified image region around the tooltip. This enables users to easily verify that the location being measured is, indeed, as intended.
Another example allows the user to create and view arbitrarily drawn lines in a 3D coordinate system defined by either the camera itself or a reference marker. In an actual application, the geometry can represent assumed visible features of an object for registration validation, a placement/cutting plan, hidden locations inside objects, or any other useful spatial information. Since the stereo video images themselves define the coordinate system, the augmented reality overlay does not suffer from the annoying visual motion lag common to other augmented reality presentations.
Video image equalization:
While MicronTracker's automated exposure controls continuously modify the camera exposure settings for optimal detection and tracking, a new image equalization feature stabilizes the brightness and contrast of the image displayed to users.
Automatic light-coolness adjustment
For optimal accuracy, the light coolness property needs to be set correctly. A new function in the SDK provides support for instant automatic light-coolness calibration. A special marker (CoolCard) was specially designed to work with this function, and is distributed to customers free of charge.
The new release, which is fully backwards-compatible with release 2.0, is available as a software upgrade to existing systems via ftp download (contact support@clarontech.com for details)
