Infrastructure of the GrImage experimental platform: the video acquisition part

Bertrand Holveck (1) , Hervé Mathieu (1)

1 MOVI - Modeling, localization, recognition and interpretation in computer vision

GrImage (Grid and Image) is an experimental platform for the virtual reality domain. It is located at INRIA Rhône Alpes. GrImage is a test-bed dedicated to interactive applications. GrImage aggregates commodity components for high performance video acquisition, computation and graphics rendering. The video acquisition system consists of 25 cameras, connected to 12 computers. The camera placement al-lows the acquiring of a 2 m by 2 m by 2 m volume space. A typical application consists in: (1) doing an acquisition from multiple views of a human; (2) extracting the human visual hull, for instance, by using a background subtraction algorithm; and at the end (3) processing the immersion of the virtual human visual hull into a virtual world. The video acquisition system presents some interesting challenges: (1) to get the system real-time; (2) to get a high frame rate acquisition; (3) to warranty high quality images; (4) to be easy to install and to maintain. We present in this document the full description of the video acquisition system. It aims to share our knowl-edge with others similar projects, to help people working on this experimental platform to understand the sys-tem, but also to help maintain the system itself.

Mots clés: CAMERA; LENS; FIREWIRE; CAMERALINK; SYNCHRONIZATION

Domaines: Autre [cs.OH]

Bertrand Holveck, Hervé Mathieu. Infrastructure of the GrImage experimental platform: the video acquisition part. [Research Report] RT-0301, INRIA. 2004, pp.50. ⟨inria-00069879⟩