Hey guys,
I'm an amateur film-maker and robotics graduate student in Waterloo, Canada and I've recently been playing around with new and interesting tools for camera motion control. I've used the new DJI Ronin handheld stabilizer gimbal, built a camera dolly rig using an RC car as well as used a drone to film a couple of sweeping shots of an object in a field.
I quickly realized that it's actually pretty difficult to control the camera while simultaneously running around with a handheld unit, driving the motorized dolly or flying the drone in the air. For example following a soccer ball with my camera or keeping some object centered in the frame while taking panning or sweeping shots was hard without having at least 2 other guys helping out.
Anyway, so I'm a roboticist and hacked together this working prototype that uses the video stream to track anything I want, using computer vision algorithms.
Here's a quick youtube video to show what I mean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJW9ReKU-0I
So far, I programmed in smooth-motion and the ability to track and frame anything I select in a box. In the future I am going to make an android/ipad app so that you can just multi-touch define a subject with 2 fingers.
After looking into the control interfaces for most of these gimbals and motorized tripod heads I'm pretty sure I can make them follow my commands, in addition to commanding the motion paths of the drone or rc car itself to follow something (ie. a bike, animal, car etc.)
I was just wondering if anyone out there would also interested in this tech? It's easy enough for me to make and share, and any feedback on cool ideas to implement would be great
Cheers,
Neil
I'm an amateur film-maker and robotics graduate student in Waterloo, Canada and I've recently been playing around with new and interesting tools for camera motion control. I've used the new DJI Ronin handheld stabilizer gimbal, built a camera dolly rig using an RC car as well as used a drone to film a couple of sweeping shots of an object in a field.
I quickly realized that it's actually pretty difficult to control the camera while simultaneously running around with a handheld unit, driving the motorized dolly or flying the drone in the air. For example following a soccer ball with my camera or keeping some object centered in the frame while taking panning or sweeping shots was hard without having at least 2 other guys helping out.
Anyway, so I'm a roboticist and hacked together this working prototype that uses the video stream to track anything I want, using computer vision algorithms.
Here's a quick youtube video to show what I mean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJW9ReKU-0I
So far, I programmed in smooth-motion and the ability to track and frame anything I select in a box. In the future I am going to make an android/ipad app so that you can just multi-touch define a subject with 2 fingers.
After looking into the control interfaces for most of these gimbals and motorized tripod heads I'm pretty sure I can make them follow my commands, in addition to commanding the motion paths of the drone or rc car itself to follow something (ie. a bike, animal, car etc.)
I was just wondering if anyone out there would also interested in this tech? It's easy enough for me to make and share, and any feedback on cool ideas to implement would be great
Cheers,
Neil
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