Track horse motion with servo driven video head -remote riding lessons
boltthecolt
Posts: 1
Hi,
This is not my area of expertise and I am looking for advice on how to achieve an outcome that will require an iPhone on a tripod that auto tracks (pan only) a horse and rider from the centre of a 20 x 60 meter flat horse arena for approximately 1 hour. ie a real time video horse riding lesson necessitated by Corvid 19 restrictions.
This does not have to be high end gear (I do have a conservative budget) but I envisage the full solution working like this.
Two iPhones:
#1. At the horse end we would have rider with an iPhone mounted to the helmet viewing riders hands and horses head. EarPods in rider's ears communicating live with instructor over cellular connection.
#2. Previously mentioned iPhone mounted on a tripod that autopans continuously following the horse and rider. Instructor can monitor both iPhone video streams and give audio only feedback. There would be basically no other significant movement in the area so software that tracks movement might work? Conversely the rider could carry some kind of beacon for the servo driven head to track?
Clearly I have no idea how but that's why I am asking here. If there are more appropriate forums to post this to please let me know.
Many thanks
Mark
This is not my area of expertise and I am looking for advice on how to achieve an outcome that will require an iPhone on a tripod that auto tracks (pan only) a horse and rider from the centre of a 20 x 60 meter flat horse arena for approximately 1 hour. ie a real time video horse riding lesson necessitated by Corvid 19 restrictions.
This does not have to be high end gear (I do have a conservative budget) but I envisage the full solution working like this.
Two iPhones:
#1. At the horse end we would have rider with an iPhone mounted to the helmet viewing riders hands and horses head. EarPods in rider's ears communicating live with instructor over cellular connection.
#2. Previously mentioned iPhone mounted on a tripod that autopans continuously following the horse and rider. Instructor can monitor both iPhone video streams and give audio only feedback. There would be basically no other significant movement in the area so software that tracks movement might work? Conversely the rider could carry some kind of beacon for the servo driven head to track?
Clearly I have no idea how but that's why I am asking here. If there are more appropriate forums to post this to please let me know.
Many thanks
Mark
Comments
It seems like a fun thing to DIY, but if you need something quick and reliable take a look at PTZ IP cameras. Have the instructor or someone else control the camera. There are also 360 degree cams, that show a flat image based on motion, but you wouldn't see much 30 meters away. I think a few strategically placed fixed cams could work too.
I would not suggest mounting anything to an equestrian helmet. Insurance hates it and I'm sure you know people fall off, and phones are easily broken.
If you want to do tracking, more info would help. You'd have to post more details. For example, a child going 2 mph indoors would require a lot less than an adult going mach 1 outside and rapidly changing direction.
https://www.jigabot.com
https://soloshot.com
Since you specified pan only, that simplifies the hardware a lot. So, just one servo to rotate the camera. It could be controlled from the headphone jack. https://instructables.com/id/Control-Servo-With-Headphone-Jack/ Almost forgot that iPhones don't have headphone jacks.
The real trouble will be the software. I expect that video motion tracking code would be difficult enough to be annoying. In the desired operating configuration, the background would move and the horse and rider would be approximately stationary.
There is also an option of using 360 degree (fisheye) lens. The resolution of this may be too low since it spreads out the camera's resolution over a very wide area.
GPS may be reasonable. Both phones have GPS so it would be easy to compute the bearing from camera to rider. So all that is left is to point the camera in that direction.
Does the tracking need to be continuous, or can it loose the rider for a short time to reset? I haven't used Parallax's continous rotation servos to know if they can maintain an exact angle over a long period. Apparently not, unless you get the ones with the feedback encoder.
The phones could do most of the work, short of actually moving itself. Or it could be build as a stand-alone system for maybe $200 of Parallax parts, phones not included.
The PyImageSearch website has a lot of information, and a tutorial on using OpenCV to track objects, colors or even faces with a Raspberry Pi, a camera and a simple pan & tilt set up. Look at the examples where the camera live tracks an item by color (imagine a big orange dot pasted to the horse's saddle, chest, etc...).
OpenCV exists to allow developing a solution without recreating all of the processes inherent in object detection. You just need to think about what you want to accomplish rather than how to program each and every aspect of motion/object detection...
https://pyimagesearch.com/start-here/
dgately
Sure they do. The issue becomes most are designed to be wall or pole mounted. A few degrees of view would be blocked by such. Unless you mounted it upside down, low to the ground, flipped the image vertically and reversed the controls.
You can't continus turn them. The way of mounting do not change it.
At one point you have to flip, and you lose a couple of degrees and time to do this.
PTZ is a one block camera, Pan, Tilt, Zoom, (+focus +power +network) unit
If you break those part in pieces, it is not a PTZ. It is a robot head; and a camera, like SaucySoliton links
You can use a 8K 360° camera. You have to move the tracking system on you software receiving part.
8K 360° is expensive but you can zoom in a part of the picture and keep decent definition.
We do this on big event like the one canceled in Tokyo
I believe the Jigabot with (iPhone camera) and the IR transmitter mount on the horse would be the easy and reliable way of building you system
Here, this one is continuous pan and tilt, so you can mount it on a tripod. It was designed IN a wind tunnel, so you know it's good haha.
Maybe IR tracking, what about in bright sunlight?
Read the reviews. Soloshot 1 and 2 were both discontinued because they didn't work well. An 8K 360 camera would be great but again, it depends on how far away it is. Since OP didn't leave any information about anything important I'll just stop typing now ; )