motion capture application, need improvements

[untitled]

i wrote an application in c++ that capture a motion from a bmp
sequence and outputs a 3DS max secript file contains the motions keys.

i have two points here need to be fixed:
1- it is an offline application, ie. you take a movie file, convert it
to a sequence of 16color BMPs with adobe premiere for example. to
imporve, we should let it read the video stream directly from a webcam
for example and detect motion directly from it.
the problem here i don't know how to read the bit stream from the
webcam and what it the format of the stream.

2- it generate a 3ds secript file, for improvement, we can let it
connect direclty to the 3ds max script listener.

any ideas? questions?

BTW, i didn't use functions or classes because i was in hurry.

this is the source code:

#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>
#include <math.h>
#include <string.h>
//most of the "cout" are for debugging purpose.
using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{ //i,j are for loops
//iX,iY are an array for hit locations
//iTemp is for temporary place to store the character readed from
file to divied it to two hexas
//pFile is the address of the file object
//iDistance is the distance or the weight for each hit
//iWeight is the array containing the weight for iX,iY.
//iWeightTmp is a temporary array for weight
//iNear is a counter represent the weight for a hit.
//iCenterX,iCenterY is the center info.
//Color should be defined before compile the application
//ScriptLine is a temp place to convert ints to strings
//X, Y are the string format of the integer centers
int Color=9;
int i=0,j=0;
int iTmp=0,iPixle[320][240];
int iX[76800],iY[76800],iSize=0;
int iWeight[76800],iWeightTmp[76800];
int iNear=0;
double dDistance=0;
int iCenterX[1000],iCenterY[1000];
FILE * pFile;
int iFileName=0;
char cFileName[10];
char Prefix[3];
char Converter[3];
int iFileCounter=0;
char ScriptLine[20];
char X[5],Y[5];
//make file name
for (iFileName=1;iFileName<1000;iFileName++)
{
if (iFileName>=0&&iFileName<=9) strcpy(Prefix,"000");
if (iFileName>=10&&iFileName<=99) strcpy(Prefix,"00");
if (iFileName>=100&&iFileName<=999) strcpy(Prefix,"0");

strcpy(cFileName,"c:\\pix\\");
strcat(cFileName,Prefix);
strcat(cFileName,itoa(iFileName,Converter,10));
strcat(cFileName,".txt");

//open a picture file to start reading
cout<<"opening file... "<<endl;
pFile = fopen (cFileName,"rb");

//if the file is legal, start reading characters from bottom of
picture to top.
if (pFile!=NULL)
{
cout<<"file open....ok "<<endl;
fseek(pFile,118,SEEK_SET);
for (i=0;i<240;i++)
{
if (!feof(pFile))
{
for (j=0;j<320;j=j+2)
{
if (!feof(pFile))
{
iTmp=fgetc(pFile);
iPixle[j]=iTmp>>4; // one character contains
two bytes-
iPixle[j+1]=iTmp&15; //each byte is a pixle
color, here we devide it to two pixles
}
else cout << "done" << endl;
}
}
else cout << "done2" << endl;
}
}
else
{
cout<<" the center info
array"<<endl<<"=============="<<endl;
goto finish;
}

cout<<"file read complete, closing file now... "<<endl;
fclose (pFile);
cout<<"file closed...ok "<<endl;
//filter loop to read each element of the array and see if its
a hit or not.
iSize=0;
cout<<"reading array and check for hits... "<<iSize<<endl;
for (i=0;i<240;i++)
for (j=0;j<320;j++)
//cout<<iPixle[j]<<endl;
if (iPixle[j]== 9)
{
iX[iSize]=j;
iY[iSize]=i;
//cout<<"hit "<<iX[iSize]<<" "<<iY[iSize]<<endl;
iSize++;
}
cout<<iSize<<" hits found in file... "<<endl;
//check distances between points and save them in a weight
array.
cout<<"measuring distances between hits..iSize="<<endl;
for (i=0;i<iSize;i++)
{
iNear=0;
for (j=0;j<iSize;j++)
{
//cout << sqrt(((iX-iX[j])^2)+((iY-
iY[j])^2))<<endl;
dDistance=sqrt(pow((iX-iX[j]),2)+pow((iY-iY[j]),
2));
if (dDistance<20 && dDistance>10)iNear++;
}
iWeight=iNear;
}
cout<<"measuring distance complete.. "<<endl;
//copy weight array to a temporary array
cout<<"creating shadow array... "<<endl;
for (i=0;i<iSize;i++) iWeightTmp=iWeight;
cout<<"shadow array created. "<<endl;
//get the highest weight of hit
cout<<"getting highest weight... "<<endl;
for (i=1;i<iSize;i++)
{
if (iWeightTmp[0]<iWeightTmp)
iWeightTmp[0]=iWeightTmp;
}
cout<<"highest weigth is "<<iWeightTmp[0]<<endl;
//make an array containing locations for the highest weight.
cout<<"locating highest weight points... "<<endl;
j=0;
for (i=0;i<iSize;i++)
if (iWeight==iWeightTmp[0])
{
iX[j]=iX;
iY[j]=iY;
cout<<" coordinates "<<iX[j]<<" "<<iY[j]<<endl;
j++;
}
cout<<"location found "<<endl;
cout<<"high weight points number is "<<j;
//now we have iX,iY contains the info of the highest hits, and
with a length of j
//get the avarage of the center
cout<<"calculating center info... "<<endl;
for (i=0;i<j;i++)
{
iX[0]=iX[0]+iX;
iY[0]=iY[0]+iY;
}
iCenterX[iFileName]=iX[0]/(j+1);
iCenterY[iFileName]=240-(iY[0]/(j+1));
iFileCounter++;
}
//scripting part
finish:
if (iFileCounter!=0)
{
pFile=fopen("c:\\output.ms","w");
if (pFile!=NULL)
{
fputs ("select $Sphere01\nset animate on\nsliderTime
+= 2\n",pFile);
for (i=2;i<iFileCounter+1;i++)
{
cout<<iCenterX<<" "<<iCenterY<<endl;
fputs("move $ [",pFile);
itoa((iCenterX-iCenterX[i-1]),X,10);
itoa((iCenterY-iCenterY[i-1]),Y,10);
fputs(X,pFile);
fputs(",",pFile);
fputs(Y,pFile);
fputs(",0]\n",pFile);
fputs("sliderTime += 2\n",pFile);
}
fputs ("set animate off\n",pFile);
fclose(pFile);
}
}
else cout<<"no files found";
system("PAUSE");
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

 

[Chris Theis]

i wrote an application in c++ that capture a motion from a bmp
sequence and outputs a 3DS max secript file contains the motions keys.

i have two points here need to be fixed:

Honestly I think there are a lot more points that need to be fixed if you
plan to pull off a mocap to 3DS converter as a serious application.

1- it is an offline application, ie. you take a movie file, convert it
to a sequence of 16color BMPs with adobe premiere for example. to
imporve, we should let it read the video stream directly from a webcam
for example and detect motion directly from it.
the problem here i don't know how to read the bit stream from the
webcam and what it the format of the stream.

Neither does anybody else know how to read the bit stream because this
depends on it's format, and/or the device driver if you want to read it
directly. You'll have to figure out the format and google for a description.
As a starting point I'd recommend to stick to a video stream that was saved
in a file before getting the data "online" from the cam.

2- it generate a 3ds secript file, for improvement, we can let it
connect direclty to the 3ds max script listener.

Check out the docs of the 3ds SDK.

any ideas? questions?

What was your actual C++ related question? This newsgroup is dedicated to
C++ related questions and discussions. You might consider posting to a
computer graphics related newsgroup.

[SNIP]

Best regards
Chris