This Blog Has Moved

This blogspot blog has been moved to my website:
http://www.peauproductions.com/blog/

PS3 m12 Lens Difference

Here are some comparison shots showing just how much better the PS3 camera is once you replace the OEM lens:

(Setup: Outside, midday)

Left: OEM__________Right: 3.6mm m12 Lens

OEM Lens

3.66mm m12 Lens

The perfect focus of the after-market lens is important when trying to get very accurate blobs in optical-based multitouch setups, and also when using fiducial patterns like those used by the Reactivision Team.
For finger tracking, the OEM lens can work fine, but should really only be used if on a tight budget, as the results from the more focused image will be better.
Here are some comparison shots using both lenses in a MT table:


(m12 lens)

(Comparison: OEM on left, m12 on right)
The reason why the OEM looks in focus is because the camera is only a few inches from the hand. Once you move away from it more, the image will go out of focus quickly, thus setups with the camera more than a few inches away won't be in focus.


(OEM lens)

(3.66mm m12 lens)

(2.1mm m12 lens - Fisheye/Wide Angle)

(OEM lens)

(m12 lens)

So as you can see, the screen shots support what I said before. The OEM lens can work for either really short camera distances, or for finger tracking systems that dont need high accuracy.

My store carries both m12 and OEM moddified cameras, so be sure to check it out and let me know if you have any questions.

ACRYLITE Rear Projection Material Comparison

So I tested the ACRYLITE RP materials that are offered by Evonik (Germany) for Rear Projection acrylic screens.
My favorite is the 7D006, but since it is hard to get if you live outside of Europe, of the other materials, which are domestic USA mainly, the dark grey had the best and closest image quality to the 7D006.

Tested Materials:
7D006 - grey (Used in the Microsoft Surface Tables)
0D002 - colorless
7D512 - light grey
7D513 - dark grey

Projector: 2500 lumens
Ambient Light: Medium

Environmentallights.com Releases an IR Buying Guide

So after much confusion and questions from the constant flow of multitouch customers trying to figure out exactly what they need to buy to build their MT setups, Environmental Lights has answered with a PDF buying guide. It breaks the process down for you with descriptions on exactly what to buy and url links to the products so that you can easily find what you need.
Environmental Lights also continues to deliver and respond to the Multitouch community. They have recently increased the brightness of their LED ribbons (from 300 to 390 LEDs), which means the possibility of even larger displays can be made with them and better results all around. The results I have been getting in all my testing with their previous ribbons is exactly what I expect from such high quality products, and this new line of products will be even better.

The Two Types of PS3 Eye Stock Lenses (Pictures of Each)

Here is picture proof that there are two types of stock PS3 Camera Lenses.
One is the easily modified one (the Good one), which is mostly sold inside the USA, and the un-modifiable one (the Bad one) sold mostly outside the USA.
First off, here are some pictures of the different boxes Sony packages them in:



As some members have pointed out, the box type doesn't mean you'll get a Good lens or not.
The cameras look exactly the same on the outside, except for the most outer piece on the lens.
These are pictures of the Good one:




These are pictures of the Bad one:




And here they are side by side:



You may not be able to tell that well, but the Good one has a curved outer glass lens piece, and the Bad one has a flat outer lens piece.
When you take it apart, you can see the biggest difference and the cause of the problem with the Bad one (on the left):



Bad one:



Good one:



You'll notice that the Bad one has a larger outer-most piece of glass than the Good one (on the right).
As far as I can tell, in this camera's stock lens, there are two pieces of glass and one piece that is the IR blocking filter.
The IR blocking filter is the piece that needs to be removed and replaced with an IR Band Pass filter which you can see in my other ps3 threads.
The problem is that the Bad one has the IR blocking filter between the two other pieces of glass, and the Good one has it closest to the sensor on the PCB.
Thus, you cannot modify the stock lens on the Bad one, without destroying the lens. You will have to buy a new m12 mount and a new lens.
To modify the Good one, just follow the video which you can see at this thread: http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/4189/

Peau Productions Website and Store Open

So a few weeks ago I finally decided to create a website to collect all this multitouch stuff together and make it easier to not only find what you're looking for but also something to easily reference. peauproductions.com has some basic categories on the main page to direct you to the information that you are looking for, with other links along the top of the page:

The site still has some categories to fill up, but there is a lot already up so just look around.
The most visited page so far is the purchase link which has the STORE:

On it I have put up the ability to purchase already modded Playstation 3 Cameras with band pass filters shipped to people around the world. I have had so many orders in the first week or so that I am basically purchasing more cameras and filters non-stop. Check the site and store out.

Received Endlighten Acylic and Environmentallights.com IR LED Ribbon

So I received my Endlighten acrylic last Friday and some IR lights from Environmentalights.com. I did a ton of tests so read through the stuff below.

Recieving the Endlighten:
Probably the worst packaging job Id seen ever. Like one of those shows where they show you how messed up an item looks after shipping it, that's how the acrylic looked. The very thin paper covering and thin layer of bubble wrap did little if anything to protect the expensive acrylic. Corners were heavily chipped and most of the sides were exposed.





Removed packaging (iphone for size reference) It is about 42" diagonal in a 16:9 ratio:

Brought my LED-LP LCD table over below the Endlighten acrylic and some normal, clear 6mm acrylic:

Looking down at the LCD image with both pieces splitting half the image (Endlighten on right and normal on left):


The pictures above are a little dark, but I could not tell any difference between the two acrylics in terms of clarity. They both looked exactly the same. Thus I think it is highly likely that a DSI LCD setup will work just fine.
Next I placed my projector below the two sheets and used normal computer paper as a diffuser for testing (again, Endlighten on right and normal acrylic on left):





Again I couldnt tell any difference, except that the particles inside the Endlighten diffused the image a little, so that without a diffuser, it seemed like you may not need a diffuser, since the particles stop the image, whereas the clear acrylic let the image go straight through.

On to the Environmentallights.com IR Lights.
I received a reel of 850nm IR LEDs:

and a test strip of 940nm IR LEDs:

The LEDs look like this close up:

And the 850nm ones glow a slight red which is only slightly noticable when the lights are completly off:

With my ps3 camera that had a floppy disk poor-man's band pass filter, here is what the 850nm LED lights look like:

and what the 940nm ones look like:

The floppy disk isnt filtering for a specific wavelength, but as you can see, the 850nm IR LEDs produce a much brighter image.
I also took a similar picture of a flourecent lamp in my room, with a floppy disk band pass filter:

And a 850nm band pass filter:

Quite a difference.

Next I did some tests. First I used the 6mm clear arylic and wrapped the 850nm ribbons all the way around:



The LED strips from environmentallights.com are really easy to use. Took me all of 5 mins to surround the acrylic.
The 940nm strip was too short to surround the entire piece of acrylic, so I did a test surrounding the clear acrylic with both wavelengths and only around as much as the 940nm length was and with the floppy disk as the band pass filter.
The 850nm:

And the 940nm one:

Not too much of a difference with the floppy disk on, but with the proper band pass filter it would make a big difference. Again, the 940nm is less as bright due to the ps3 cam's sensor being less sensitive.

Then I surrounded the Endlighten Acrylic with the full 850nm strip and setup the PS3 cam with the 850nm band pass filter:




Very light pressure:

And dragging with light pressure (peace):


The setup so far works great and I am very excited. The Endlighten coupled with the lights from Environmentallights.com created the DSI very well and very easily, as everything was setup in under 10 minutes.

Here is the url for buying the reel of 850nm IR LEDs from environmentallights.com