I was wondering if it was even possible to make either a rangefinder app or some sort of ruler device using the EVO 3D's two cameras. This has been brought up in several forums, but it was never possible to make an accurate measurement. With our state of the art hardware of two cameras is it now possible to triangulate the distance of an object.
I just watched the XDA TV episode and he did mention the idea so i give all credit to azrienoch for thinking of it, or at least getting the word out there, but I have not found a place to discuss it other than in the comments of the youtube video.
So, i have done some research on the idea of triangulating with two parallel cameras and the idea is certainly not new. I have come across two articles explaining the process and calculations involved. They both basically have the same information.
http://www.dis.uniroma1.it/~iocchi/stereo/triang.html
http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~gsibley/Personal/Papers/gsibley_stereo.pdf
I tried brainstorming the idea, and what seems to be unknown is the focal length of the evo cameras, and how to determine an angle to the object of measurement.
Any input would be awesome, and I would like to see an app like this possible.
I too would like see such an app.
This might also be helpful, and i think this is the actual process to determine the angle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_rectification
Well I now realize this idea is much harder than expected. For an app to be able to tell distance, it must first acquire a picture from both cameras, then interpret the image and find similar points in both photos. To do this all in real time takes some serious work.
Now, the easier way would be to let the user manipulate the images to line the two pictures up, however nobody wants to show this of and end up talking ten minutes to do so. Not to mention you would not get a distance displayed in real time.
The only crucial bit of information I am still missing, is the focal length of our cameras. I still have no idea if i can even code this yet. Has HTC released an sdk for the 3d features yet?
If anyone else has knowledge in the field of optics please give your input on this process, as I am super excited to see this become a reality.
Related
Someone enlighten me on why official reviews of this phone do not include a GPS test. Knowing how all variants of the Galaxy S failed miserably on the GPS, would it not make sense to put peoples minds at ease with a simple mention of GPS? Why official reviewers never mention GPS is kind of strange and especially with this particular branded phone ;(.
OmniNut said:
Someone enlighten me on why official reviews of this phone do not include a GPS test. Knowing how all variants of the Galaxy S failed miserably on the GPS, would it not make sense to put peoples minds at ease with a simple mention of GPS? Why official reviewers never mention GPS is kind of strange and especially with this particular branded phone ;(.
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i'm sure i read on a few of those that gps is quick and accurate. What official tests do you need? didn't all the mobilers show you the performance of their units?
Also do we need another thread for this?
ph00ny said:
i'm sure i read on a few of those that gps is quick and accurate. What official tests do you need? didn't all the mobilers show you the performance of their units?
Also do we need another thread for this?
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An official review would be from someone like Engadget or Cnet or Android Central. Official reviewers are more meticulous with everything. I just don't understand why they wouldn't do it lol. There's no rational reason not to quickly mention that either "gps is very accurate" and vice versa =/. Strange.
OmniNut said:
An official review would be from someone like Engadget or Cnet or Android Central. Official reviewers are more meticulous with everything. I just don't understand why they wouldn't do it lol. There's no rational reason not to quickly mention that either "gps is very accurate" and vice versa =/. Strange.
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engadget is meticulous with their reviews? lol you're kidding right?
you should probably catch up on mobiler's reviews which had gps tracking with diagrams drawn. If that's not enough for you then what is
Engadget goes straight to the main points that matter and give an educated opinion, which is what I look for. It's blog short, meaning very little fluff. If I want to read an exhaustive and robotic detail of every feature, with very little I would call "impressions" because really, almost every phone is good to them, I read a GSMArena review. If I want a poorly translated and very dry review that is so long but says so little, I read a mobile-review.com review. If I want to get my tabloid kicks and whoever is paying them to defecate on some brand or write vilifying troll reviews, I'll go Gizmodo. If I want blind fanboy lust reviews with tons of smooching, I read Androidcentral and Phandroid reviews.
Here's a respectable enough looking and sounding review, saying thte GPS locked in under 5 seconds and the compass seems better than most.
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-s2-930907/review?artc_pg=11
I have found Anandtech have the most thorough reviews...
silverwolf0 said:
Here's a respectable enough looking and sounding review, saying thte GPS locked in under 5 seconds and the compass seems better than most.
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-s2-930907/review?artc_pg=11
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Frome same article:
"Another point we were happy with – the compass on the Samsung Galaxy S2 was more accurate than anything we've seen recently on smartphones, and actually pointed in the right direction most of the time."
This is indeed good news... ^^
GPS Test on engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/29/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-gps-it-works-it-really-works-video/
Wis12 said:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/29/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-gps-it-works-it-really-works-video/
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Just saw that as well ...
So in one instance at one location the phone's GPS locks quickly, but they don't say how quickly, if the lock was hot or cold or even how accurate it was. Also, why they turned off wireless network positioning is beyond me. If it works, it should only help, not hinder, the lock. If it doesn't, well, they should have said so. (Disabling A-GPS altogether would make sense if you only wanted to test the chip + antenna setup instead of the whole stack, but they didn't do that.)
I'm assuming there's labs where GPS signals can be simulated and conditions completely controlled. That's really the only way you can meaningfully test GPS functionality for a single device. To expect even a professional publication to run such a lab is unrealistic but they could certainly pay to have a few devices tested.
Aside from that there's the far easier way of comparison. Take a top of the line (civilian) GPS as a reference, 10+ phones including some with known good and known bad GPS, including non-Android ones and run a few tests in different locations.
But no, none of the above. I'm so fed up with people who conclude something works great just because it doesn't fall flat on it's face ... Instead, another video that takes ages to make, ages to watch and is absolutely devoid of any meaningful content. Bloody worthless ...
Yep, pretty hopeless video at Engadget. A quick lock with no real indication of accuracy, and no information about how well it maintains a lock. Face palm.
Jeez!
Nothing is good enough for you guys.. go buy the device and do the test yourself.
There are alot of posts about GPS and it simply works as it should!
techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-s2-930907/review?artc_pg=11
"the Galaxy S2 managed to lock our GPS in less than five seconds, and we were away in no time at all."
lugi93 said:
Nothing is good enough for you guys.. go buy the device and do the test yourself.
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That simply isn't practical. Even if I wanted to pay for the SGS2 itself out of pocket just to review it, I still wouldn't have enough phones and/or stand-alone GPS units for a meaningfull comparison. Never mind the equipment needed for the audio, screen and camera quality measurements. A little more technical knowledge would surely be beneficial as well.
But the fact that this is impractical if not impossible for a private layperson to do is the very reason that tech publications exist in the first place! If all I wanted were an (more or less) uneducated impression or opinion I could just order the thing off Amazon and return it after a few day, if I don't like it.
This problem is not specific to mobile phones, of course, but it's especially bad there since a lot of non-overlapping knowledge would be required to do a proper review - basically you'd have to review each device
as a mobile phone (calling & SMS/texts only)
as a portable music player
as a compact camera
as a personal / in-car navigation device
as an e-book reader
as a mobile web-browsing device
as a gaming handheld
as an external storage device / thumb drive
... ... ...
Now, some of those features can be evaluated "at a glance" but a lot simply cannot.
And no, I'm not being perfectionist right now - if I were, I'd be insisting on multiple review copies from different batches ...
lugi93 said:
There are alot of posts about GPS and it simply works as it should!
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Not quite. There are a lot of posts about the GPS, yes. But it seems to me that they are by people who don't have much experience with GPS, on mobile phones or otherwise. How could they know if it works as it should if they've nothing to compare it to?
In my very limited personal experience the LG P500 for example is so much better than the SGS1, NS and - by the looks of it the SGS2 as well - that it isn't even funny.
Wis12 said:
GPS Test on engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/29/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-gps-it-works-it-really-works-video/
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That must have killed them to say something positive that wasn't iPhone related!...
My contribution to testing the GPS functions, hopefully useful to people (particularly prospective buyers). If you have comments please post them there at the blog, rather than here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VuptfBPIEI&feature=player_embedded
It is a general failing of many reviews that they do not compare but just give an overall impression .
But that is the same across a broad range from inkjets to GPS with all in-between .
Not that i am complain about my SGS2 GPS far from it i have no complaints it works as i want it to .
A minority view possible but 14 million users did not complain about SGS1 GPS some did but not 14 million of them .
jje
Since we now have an experimental USB Host app...
I just saw the second request for this so I thought I would post it here where people could find it easier if they so desired.
If any of you use a Nook and a DSLR, this may be the app for you. I found it on DPreview. It is early in its development, but works with my 50d.
http://www.anthonymandra.com/RawDroid/.
What it does is convert RAW images into jpeg previews. These are high res. so they will take a lot of space.
Note, you cannot browse to a file and try to decode it, you must go to a folder. The process for using this to transfer photos is large right now, and the workflow for doing in the field work even larger. One goal of mine this summer is to streamline the workflow, but it is possible.
Now it looks like there really is no reason to buy an iPad.
Have fun,
Leko
lekofraggle said:
Since we now have an experimental USB Host app...
I just saw the second request for this so I thought I would post it here where people could find it easier if they so desired.
If any of you use a Nook and a DSLR, this may be the app for you. I found it on DPreview. It is early in its development, but works with my 50d.
http://www.anthonymandra.com/RawDroid/.
What it does is convert RAW images into jpeg previews. These are high res. so they will take a lot of space.
Note, you cannot browse to a file and try to decode it, you must go to a folder. The process for using this to transfer photos is large right now, and the workflow for doing in the field work even larger. One goal of mine this summer is to streamline the workflow, but it is possible.
Now it looks like there really is no reason to buy an iPad.
Have fun,
Leko
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny, i was looking at this today, for the same reason you were. My big question, is what RAW formats are supported? I did some quick looking, but didn't actually see a list anywhere...
I know for a fact that cr2 (Canon) is supported. I also think nef (Nikon) is as well. Apparently, it does not do too well with Minolta files. However, Sigma is good.
I am not sure about the fuji or pentax ones. He is trying to support all of them, and I think his model is dcraw, but I am not sure. Just a guess. My best advice is grab it and try it. It worked for me, hopefully it will work for you too.
~Leko
Cant say i am horribly impressed with the program so far. The website has NO documentation, and i have no idea if it is doing what i want it to.
I have a test file in a specific folder, and i click it and tell it to decode files in this folder. I see the thumbs, and i can click on them to get a bigger image. But i cannot zoom the image, nor do i see any JPGs in the folder when i check with root explorer. Perhaps it doesn't like Sony Raws (not Minolta)? I wouldn't know, because the author has **0** documentation...
EDIT: and this time, a 1/4 res JPG showed up... no clue what i did different. Again, there is no documentation or anything....
I feel you frustrations in the initial release. Keep in mind this was not intended for public consumption. My goal was to get the functionality in place, queue some interest, and utilize some desperate android folks as testing guinea pigs.
I now have much of the functionality in place and put it on the market. The interface is greatly improved, and shortly will be fully automatic. Many of your complaints are already implemented/fixed.
I invested every moment of my free time to pull this off in the state it's in. Since I was changing everything rapidly, documentation would be a redundant effort I couldn't afford until now. I will be sprucing up the website, documenting the program, and offering a camera model self report page shortly.
You should check out the market version which is much more straightforward now.
(Also the 1/4 res thumbnail is what is stored in your raw type, I can do full decodes, but currently it's much too slow so I haven't released it yet)
RcketScientist said:
I feel you frustrations in the initial release. Keep in mind this was not intended for public consumption. My goal was to get the functionality in place, queue some interest, and utilize some desperate android folks as testing guinea pigs.
I now have much of the functionality in place and put it on the market. The interface is greatly improved, and shortly will be fully automatic. Many of your complaints are already implemented/fixed.
I invested every moment of my free time to pull this off in the state it's in. Since I was changing everything rapidly, documentation would be a redundant effort I couldn't afford until now. I will be sprucing up the website, documenting the program, and offering a camera model self report page shortly.
You should check out the market version which is much more straightforward now.
(Also the 1/4 res thumbnail is what is stored in your raw type, I can do full decodes, but currently it's much too slow so I haven't released it yet)
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RcketScientist - Thank you for your info, and taking the time to comment. I think i was a bit too harsh (that way was particularly stressful), and i should have been a bit more lax. As it is, I know it is not easy to start on something like this from scratch, so i do applaud your efforts. The 1/4 size previews, while not perfect, are admittedly a good start, and hopefully full decodes will come (speed isn't an issue, if we have the ability to select per file).
Please accept my apology - i continue to look forward to your updates.
Divine_Madcat said:
RcketScientist - Thank you for your info, and taking the time to comment. I think i was a bit too harsh (that way was particularly stressful), and i should have been a bit more lax. As it is, I know it is not easy to start on something like this from scratch, so i do applaud your efforts. The 1/4 size previews, while not perfect, are admittedly a good start, and hopefully full decodes will come (speed isn't an issue, if we have the ability to select per file).
Please accept my apology - i continue to look forward to your updates.
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No problem, when I said I felt your frustrations I really did. The makeshift interface was driving me nuts too.
As it stands for the full decode I was going to have that done at the full view stage (menu>decode). That way the lucky folks (canon/nikon) whom have high quality thumbs don't have to wait if the thumb suffices. I'll follow that up with a preferences suite that will allow you to force a full decode with each full view.
When I said the full decodes were slow I meant really slow. I've seen some very fast but I've also seen inexplicable 15 secondish decodes. Until I can make it more reliable or at least understand the delay and throw in a progress indicator it's a liability to release.
The full decodes are also a lot more unwieldy (70+ MB for my 5dmii) and the built in android stuff is having trouble loading with them at the moment.
I'm about to move across country so things will slow down, but by mid July I should be settled and able to devote more time to finishing this up.
Samsung GX10 DNGs processed
Just a quick note: I had no problems decoding DNG files from the Samsung GX10 (sibling to the Pentax K10D) on the Nook Color w/ CM 7.0.3 & dalingrin's kernel.
I pushed 100 files through it with small embedded Jpgs and two at full 10mpix and all went well.
Keep up the good work - looking forward to your next versions!
If I were going to do this I would just do raw+ jpeg.. Converting on the nook seems a little silly.
Hi RcketScientist, I really appriciate your effort with the RAW decoding, I know it is not an easy task. We are working some time on porting dcraw library (probably as you do) to Android, so maybe I could give you some advice.
khaytsus said:
If I were going to do this I would just do raw+ jpeg.. Converting on the nook seems a little silly.
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I don't think it's silly idea. Imagine if photographers could import photographs to tablet on site, present them to a customer and make selection with some editing. At home, they would synchronize the photos with Lightroom, for example. We talked to some professional photographers and they confirmed that it would be very helpful.
But if you want to do full-decoding, be prepared for hard coding and optimizing to make it work fast. I suggest to focus and optimize it only for dual-core devices, especially with Tegra processor, which has really good performance for this purpose.
Also, if you want to view the image, you should't write it to SD card, but keep the data in RAM. Reading/writing operations are quite slow and you can't optimize them much.
Now, we can decode the image to view on screen in about 3-6 seconds on Asus transformer, but we'd like to make it a little faster.
We plan to release some demo application in few weeks. The first final release is planned for the September / October and there will be functions like importing directly from camera, viewing and editing images, full decoding, synchronizing with Lightroom (with XMP files).
I will post the demo as soon as we finish it, and I will appreciate your opinions for new functions and features.
Alwar,
Sounds great. Thanks. I will stay tuned.
~Leko
@Rcket, I sent you an email offering to help with this project. PM or email me back if you're interested.
lekofraggle said:
Alwar,
Sounds great. Thanks. I will stay tuned.
~Leko
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We have still many issues with full decoding, so I just posted some screenshots:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=15610505&posted=1#post15610505
Alwar,
Looks great. I do not mind playing around if you want me to. However, my primary camera is a 50d. which has 15 mp. That is a lot for even my mac to handle.
~Leko
I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place, I'm ok for it being moved of course. But just read an article that Samsung has patented a method to produce shallow depth of field photos for point and shoot and cell phone cameras. Looks like nothing for the consumer market but the idea makes sense for the EVO 3D.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/07/samsung-patent-creates-shallow-depth-of-field-in-digicams/
In a nutshell, some computations are made to determine the depth based on 2 images, one slightly offset to either side of the other.
Though, with all the patent lawsuits going on now, I doubt anyone would want to try to produce something... But I'd like to see this come to life. I don't have the skills to write something like this or I'd try.
gk1984 said:
I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place, I'm ok for it being moved of course. But just read an article that Samsung has patented a method to produce shallow depth of field photos for point and shoot and cell phone cameras. Looks like nothing for the consumer market but the idea makes sense for the EVO 3D.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/07/samsung-patent-creates-shallow-depth-of-field-in-digicams/
In a nutshell, some computations are made to determine the depth based on 2 images, one slightly offset to either side of the other.
Though, with all the patent lawsuits going on now, I doubt anyone would want to try to produce something... But I'd like to see this come to life. I don't have the skills to write something like this or I'd try.
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I actually just skimmed that on Engadget. didn't actually rad the article. Didn't know it used 2 cameras to cause that effect. This would be awesome on the 3D. *crosses fingers for some developer magic*
typically the devs don't get much hardware-level access like that... but it's fun to dream
now if you want CM7 with vga recording capabilities, that's a different story!
So...from what I can glean from YouTube vids and interviews this charming very mobile toy is not but a very bare bones robot. It has function limited true, but function. It can patrol on its own or can be directly controled by ANDROID phone. It is running on an ANDROID IOS, and logically it has a ROM, right? It has some way of sending and recieving data, it communicates (I am speculating bluetooth) with the phone, right? It generates holograhic messages on your phone screen. With an expansion of memory you should be able to enlarge or change its function, modify its ROM? Like a little round phone that follows you around. If it uses bluetooth that it must have basic telephony app or something similar? It could be rooted, bootloader unlocked? I would think that it depended on its parent phone except that it can and does patrol indepentantly.
The creaters were only 48 hours in getting the prototype ready, so it is not new technology but adapted tech. Using apps and system data already in use on Android phones, right?
Does anyone else see this as possibility? Challenging? Even as a noob I am intrigued by the scope of what could be.
Or am I merely fantasizing wiidly? Has anyone actually had one in hand?
Thankyou for the space to speculate and wish. Any insight would be appreciated, eeven if it is to tell me I wrong or an incoompetent noobie that knows nothing. Better yruth than hallmark rhetoric.
DRONE
So I know you folks are busy and being at the top of your game much in demand, so I tried not to be offended that I was ignored. I would like to point out LG's new phone and modular accessories, includes a spherical drone much like the one I was describing in the first post.
My skill set was exceeded by my vision. That is changing in part from the tutorials from XDA, and the advice on how to look for answers.
I've got a few larger tablet type Android devices mounted around the house that I use for security camera viewing. That's the only purpose they serve and they're wall mounted. Next to a couple I have a $20 device from CostCo that displays the current time and current temp as well as lots of other BS I really don't need.
What I'd like to do is eliminate these secondary devices as right next to them is a much more powerful machine that is capable of more accurate temperature and what not. I'd like an app that will display the current time and current temperature in text form right over the top of other apps. I use IP Cam Viewer for my cam app and it has a time feature but the time is too small to see from a distance. Something that allows me to sort of hover the time in the middle of the display with the temp right above or below would be perfect.
I've used the Google Machine and haven't come up with much in terms of a solution that will help me accomplish this. It's probably something very simple that I'm not thinking of or finding... hopefully. It could also be that what I'm looking for is unique enough that it's not out there but I hope not.
Any help, thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Anyone have any ideas?
I'm not really sure why this got moved to "help & troubleshooting" as I don't really need help nor do I have a problem. I just want to know if an app exists that will allow me to do something that is relatively basic.
This site's countless subforums with nondescript descriptions has always been one of it's negatives IMO. In all the years I've been here I doubt I've got a 50% record of not having a thread moved to a section that doesn't seem to make sense. I've had zero issues on all other forums of all types. This is a problem unique to XDA for me.