Cyclops User's Guide
Contents
1. This opens a dialog box with edit boxes for 6 values RGB color values and amounts The values can be viewed and edited as either absolute 8 bit values 0 255 or as percentages 0 100 Also you can edit the color with the color picker by clicking the Pick button To set a color back to unassigned click the Delete button Color sampling In addition to editing Palette colors directly you can sample colors from incoming video and assign them to the Palette The sampling process works as follows First start video and enable sampling Then use the mouse in the Video window to acquire samples from the incoming video Finally assign the sampled data to a Palette color This is explained in detail in the section How to sample colors Taking a number of samples allows you to establish a color range The color of an item as viewed by a video camera is affected by many factors such as its location in the image the lighting conditions and its angle relative to lights and camera By moving an item around in the image and taking numerous samples you can establish a range of color variation When you assign the sampled data to a Palette color Cyclops performs calculations to determine a color center average and a range of variation It attempts to factor in samples which are close to the average and disregard samples which are far away In this way it makes its best estimate of the color and variation you are trying to capture Note tha2. of color numbers comprising the target colors When entering a color list in the zone editing dialog separate color numbers with spaces match mode compares the color value in the zone with the target colors It outputs the color number for the first color in the list which is a match A color value matches a target value if all three color components red green and blue are within the specified range of target s color components For example say a target color has an R G B value of 10 20 30 with values of 1 2 3 respectively A captured color value of 9 21 32 would match this target but 8 21 32 would not the red value is outside the target s red range If no value in the target list is a match for the captured color value match outputs 1 closest mode outputs the number of the target color which is closest to the captured color It determines the closest color by using a formula to check the distance between the captured color and each target color It does not use the values of the target only the color value For those interested in the arcane details the formula is distance sqrt delta R 2 delta G 2 delta B 2 closest mode will always output one of the target colors in the color list closestmatch is a combination of closest and match mode It finds all target colors which satisfy the match criteria and outputs the number of the closest among the ma
3. 2 the default all settings are saved With savemode 1 only video input settings are saved With savemode 0 no settings are saved You should send the savemode message to Cyclops right after opening the patch because the mode applies to changes made after the message is received Loadbanging the savemode message is a good idea Other issues and features For display purposes Cyclops assumes that you are using 24 bit color the millions of colors mode on your display If you are using a lower color depth the colors you see may not correspond to their real values and windows may draw with strange colors You will notice a flicker in the Video window when video is running and drawzones and or drawgrid is enabled For efficiency reasons this flicker has purposely not been eliminated as it would require extra drawing operations Cyclops s mouse key and menu editing features are disabled when video is running If you try to use these features while running Cyclops will inform you by printing a message in the Max window Holding down the control key and the mouse button stops video You can use this to stop video in a pinch e g if the processor is bogged down and mousing becomes difficult You should avoid moving the Video window while video is running Usually it will stop video capture and analysis You can generally restart capture by toggling capture off and on again 0 1 Message descripti
4. Cyclops User s Guide 2001 Code Artistry LLC All rights reserved cyclops info ericsinger com Cyclops is a Max object which receives and analyzes video input It receives input from a QuickTime video input source such as a video capture card USB or FireWire video input analyzes the video frames and outputs messages based on the images To use Cyclops you specify areas of the image to analyze called zones and what type of analysis to perform greyscale threshold difference motion or color Cyclops can then capture and analyze frames of incoming video and output messages based on the results If you are familiar with VideoIn Cyclops s predecessor you will notice that Cyclops has been completely redesigned Cyclops adds color support a graphical user interface and editing features a better zone numbering system and saving of video and object settings It works properly with PPC machines and in fact is PPC only and with most QuickTime input hardware Cyclops works with OS 8 5 through 9 1 and is available as a full featured time limited demo After purchase and authorization the demo version converts to the regular unlimited use version Though Cyclops works with most systems and QuickTime hardware you should test it with your system using the demo version before purchasing Windows Cyclops has two windows Video and Palette The Video window displays unprocessed or processed video frames The display me
5. cessarily constant If you send an idlerate lt t gt message where t is not 0 it will cause Cyclops to give time to QuickTime once every t milliseconds Depending on the value of t this could have the effect of calling the QuickTime routine more or less often than with idlerate 0 In most circumstances you will not need or want to change idlerate However if you have certain problems with normal operation you can try to alleviate them by changing idlerate If video processing seems to be slowing everything else down such as mouse response or other Max operation you can change idlerate to give time to QuickTime less often You might begin by trying a value of 500 ms and adjusting this up or down to see the effect Note that idlerate and video frame rate are not equivalent It is possible in some circumstances that you can use idlerate to control frame rate however if you require analysis data to be reported at a particular rate you should store output data and clock it out at the desired rate Using idlerate to attempt to speed up video processing is not likely to help and may in fact unduly slow down the rest of Max s operation You are welcome to try this though as results will vary depending on which Mac and video hardware you are using Note that you can easily crash Max by setting idlerate too low Improving performance Video frame capture and processing can take a lo
6. de outputs a 1 O or 1 when the difference value crosses a specified threshold 1 is output when the difference value crosses the threshold value in the positive black to white direction 1 is output when the difference value crosses the negative of the threshold value in the negative white to black direction 0 is output when the difference value crosses back between the threshold value For example say the threshold is 10 If the difference goes from 0 to 11 a 1 is output If it goes back down to 9 a 0 is output If it now goes down to 11 a 1 is output If it then increases to 9 a 0 is output mode outputs the difference in grey values between the current and the previous frame Changes from dark to light output positive values changes from light to dark output negative values For example if a zone changes from black 0 to white 255 the output will be 255 if the change is reversed the output will be 255 color mode outputs three values corresponding to red green and blue levels Each value is an 8 bit color level representing the levels of red green and blue respectively in the zone color is the only mode which outputs more than a one value per message The remaining three modes match closest and closestmatch use the Palette colors as target values to look for in a zone Target colors are specified using Palette color numbers When selecting one of these modes you also specify a list
7. eated and edited by using the mouse in the Video window and with the zone editing dialog box Zones can also be created and edited with messages To create a new zone command click on the Video window at the point where you want to place the zone A dialog box opens and presents options for setting zone parameters To edit an existing zone double click on it to reopen the dialog box Zones can be moved and deleted using standard mouse methods Click on a zone to select it Shift click to select multiple zones or click and drag to use a marquee rectangle to select Click and drag a zone to move it along with any other selected zones Hit the delete key with the Video window active to delete selected zones The clear message deletes all zones Zones are drawn as a dot with a zone number adjacent The zone number is shown to the right of the zone dot unless it is too close to the righthand edge of the window in which case it is drawn to the left Selected zones are shown with a circle around them To set the maximum number of zones use the maxzones message The default is 256 zones Cyclops analysis process As each video frame is captured Cyclops performs the following analysis sequence The captured frame is converted into one or two low resolution versions one for color and one for greyscale analysis as necessary see below This high resolution capture to low resolution analysis conversion has the effect of averag
8. ed When the grid dimensions are changed Cyclops determines which block each zone lies in If you create a zone then change the grid dimensions you can see how the block containing the zone will change Zone locations are not affected by the size of the Video window For example if a zone is 25 from the left edge and 25 from the top edge of the window it will remain in this relative location and thus in the same block if the Video window is resized To process video Cyclops averages the pixels within each block yielding an 8 bit grey value and or 24 bit color value for each block A zone s output is determined by analyzing the averaged pixel value of its corresponding block to generate an output value or values A zone output message consists of the zone number followed by the data value s All enabled zones are analyzed once per input frame By default zone messages are output once per frame only when their values change You can change this behavior using the changemode and bangmode messages see Output modes Messages are output in order of increasing zone number It is possible and perfectly acceptable to have a block which contains more than one zone You would do this if you wanted two or more types of analysis reported for the same block Note that you can not have more than one zone with the same zone number that is zone numbers must be unique Creating and editing zones Zones are cr
9. ff Cyclops performs the greyscale conversion If any zone is set to a color analysis mode color match closest or closestmatch or if the display mode is color Cyclops performs the color conversion A display mode of input or off does not affect this determination In other words Cyclops performs only the conversions necessary under the conditions you have set You can increase Cyclops s efficiency by causing it to perform only one conversion Use either greyscale or color analysis modes but not both and set the display mode to correspond Analysis modes Cyclops can perform many types of analysis Analysis type is set individually for each zone The following is a description of the available analysis modes grey mode outputs a grey value from 0 to 255 0 is black 255 is white and values in between are shades of grey diff mode outputs the difference in grey values between the current and the previous frame Changes from dark to light output positive values changes from light to dark output negative values For example if a zone changes from black 0 to white 255 the output will be 255 if the change is reversed the output will be 255 thresh mode outputs a 1 or O when the grey value crosses a specified threshold 1 is output when the threshold level is crossed in the positive white direction 0 when crossed in the negative black direction diffthresh mo
10. ing blocks of grey or color information in the image For each analysis zone Cyclops looks at the block which contains the zone performs the requested analysis and computes an output value or values in the case of color mode After all zones are analyzed Cyclops sends a sync 1 message out the right outlet If bangmode is off the default state zone messages are then sent out the left outlet in increasing zone number order If changemode is on the default state messages are output for zones with values that changed since they were last output If changemode is off messages are output for all zones Cyclops sends a sync 0 message out the right outlet when it has finished outputting zone messages Finally the analysis frame is copied to the output window in the manner specified by the display message For all messages except for zones in color mode the zone message format is lt n gt lt d gt where n is the zone number and d is the data value The interpretation of the data value is dependent on the zone mode For zones in color mode output format is lt n gt lt r gt lt g gt lt b gt where r g b are red green and blue values for the zone Greyscale and color resolution conversions are performed only if necessary If any zone is set to a greyscale analysis mode grey diff thresh or diffthresh or if the display mode is grey or di
11. ng of grid zonecolor gridcolor videowin lt b gt palwin lt b gt open color picker to pick zone drawing color open color picker to pick grid drawing color open b 1 or close b 0 Video window open b 1 or close b 0 Palette window zone lt n gt lt mode gt lt dl gt lt d2 gt edit settings for a zone where n is the zone number mode is the analysis mode and d1 d2 are data values dependent on the mode modes off grey diff and color have no data for thresh and diffthresh d1 is the threshold 0 255 for modes match closest and closestmatch d1 d2 are color numbers 0 99 zonexy lt n gt lt locx gt lt locy gt lt mode gt lt d1 gt lt d2 gt alloff clear zoneinfo create a new zone or move and edit an existing zone format is the same as the zone message with the addition of locx and locy which are the zone s x and y location in the window as values from 0 0 to 1 0 x y 0 0 is left top x y 1 0 is bottom right if lt n gt is an existing zone number the zone is edited else a new zone is created set all zones to off delete all zones send info about all zones out the right outlet the format is lt n gt lt gridx gt lt gridy gt lt locx gt lt locy gt lt mode gt lt d1 gt lt d2 gt where n is the zone number gridx and gridy are the zone s x and y location in the g
12. ons 1 start video 0 stop video bang settings listdevices device device lt n gt inputnum lt n gt composite svideo rgbcomponent grid lt x gt lt y gt videosize lt x gt lt y gt display lt mode gt drawzones lt b gt drawegrid lt b gt output zone data use when bangmode 0 is set open video settings dialog list available QuickTime input devices report current device set input device to device n where n is a number from listdevices set input on current device to input n where n is from 1 to the number of inputs on the current device set input to the composite input on the current device or the first composite input if there is more than one set input to the S video input on the current device or the first S video input if there is more than one set input to the RGB component input on the current device or the first RGB component input if there is more than one set the dimensions of the zone grid to x by y set the size of the Video window to x by y pixels set the display mode for the Video window where mode is one of the following off turn off display color display color data grey display grey data diff display grey difference data a difference value of 0 displays as medium grey 255 as white and 255 as black input display the input video signal enable b 1 or disable b 0 drawing of zones enable b 1 or disable b 0 drawi
13. rid locx and locy are the zone s x and y location in the window as values from 0 0 to 1 0 x y 0 0 is left top x y 1 0 is bottom right and mode d1 d2 are the same as in the zone command palette lt n gt lt r gt lt g gt lt b gt lt rvar gt lt gvar gt lt bvar gt sampling lt b gt set color and variation values for palette color n where r g b are the color values 0 255 and rvar gvar bvar are the variation values enable b 1 or disable b 0 color sampling bangmode lt b gt changemode lt b gt capsize lt x gt lt y gt idlerate lt t gt maxzones lt n gt savemode lt n gt output data each frame b 0 or only when a bang is received b 1 output data for zones with changed values b 0 or for all zones each time b 1 set the capture resolution to x by y pixels allow QuickTime processing time every t milliseconds t 0 default gives processing time to QuickTime once per event loop set the maximum number of zones which can be created n 0 means don t save settings n 1 means save video input settings only n 2 means save all settings
14. ssage sets the display mode off grey diff color or input The Video window is also used for creating and editing analysis zones and for sampling colors You can set the size of the Video window with the videosize message or by using the mouse Holding the shift key while resizing with the mouse constrains the window to standard frame sizes 80 x 60 160 x 120 320 x 240 or 640 x 480 The Palette window displays target colors for use in color analysis modes Double clicking on a color opens an editing dialog which you can use to set the color range which it represents Colors can also be set by capturing them from the Video window and transferring them to the Palette sampling Double clicking on the Cyclops object box opens the Video and Palette windows if they are closed and brings them to the front Blocks and Zones Cyclops divides the video image into a grid of blocks Blocks are equally sized rectangles created by dividing the image into the grid The dimensions of the grid are set with the grid lt x gt lt y gt message where x and y are the number of blocks across and down Zones are locations in the video frame Zones are created by command clicking in the Video window which opens the zone editing dialog and places a dot for the zone location The zone location determines which block will be analyzed for that zone The zone settings determine what type of analysis will be perform
15. t of CPU power Here are some ways you can affect the efficiency of Cyclops s capturing and processing to attempt to improve performance frame rate and latency Close the Video window or set the display mode to off when you are not using it Reduce the size of the Video window Reduce the capture resolution using capres Note that some input devices can only capture properly at certain resolutions Use either grey or color analysis and display modes but not both Turn off drawzones and drawgrid If available try using various input devices to see which one is most efficient Efficiency and latency can vary a lot depending on hardware For example as of this writing FireWire input is known to have latency problems The Irez CapSure PCM CIA card works very well and efficiently with Cyclops and is a recommended solution Internal video capture boards and cards will probably tend to work better than USB FireWire and serial devices though this has not been tested Settings saved with patch When you save a patch containing a Cyclops object the following information is saved with the patch window dimensions and locations zone settings palette settings video settings and settings for grid display drawzones drawgrid zonecolor gridcolor bangmode changemode and maxzones You can control the save feature using the savemode message With savemode
16. t these calculations are only as good as the data you have sampled If you take samples of areas with unrelated colors the calculations will yield useless values If you take only a single sample of a color it will be assigned to the Palette with a variation of 0 for each RGB component How to sample colors To enable sampling start video and send the message sampling 1 You will probably also want to set the display mode to color or input In color mode each block displays the color that will be sampled when you click in the block Clicking in a block in the Video window samples the block color from the processed video input Clicking takes a single sample shift clicking and holding takes continuous samples The number of samples acquired is displayed in the title bar After you have acquired one or more samples click on a location in the Palette to assign the color You can then double click on the color view the data and edit it if you choose To discard aquired samples and reset the sample count to 0 press the delete key with the Video window active After assigning a color to the Palette the sample count is automatically reset to 0 Remember to turn off sampling when you are finished by sending the message sampling 0 The capres message capres changes the resolution at which Cyclops captures video input frames prior to processing them capres lt x gt lt y gt sets the capture resolu
17. tches If no targets match it outputs 1 Output modes and sync messages Two messages bangmode and changemode affect how and when Cyclops outputs zone messages With bangmode 0 the default Cyclops outputs zone messages once per captured video frame With bangmode 1 Cyclops outputs zone messages only when it receives a bang A bang at any time will output the zone messages for the most recently analyzed frame By setting bangmode 0 and banging Cyclops with a metro you can control the data output rate With changemode 1 the default Cyclops outputs zone messages only for zones with values that changed since last output With changemode 0 Cyclops outputs messages for all zones every time it outputs Each time Cyclops is finished analyzing a frame it outputs a sync 1 message When Cyclops finishes outputting zone messages after each analysis in bangmode 0 or after each bang in bangmode 1 it outputs a sync 0 message You can use the sync message to synchronize your Max processing to Cyclops analysis and data output complete The Palette and palette colors The Palette holds up to 100 colors and is used by Cyclops s color matching modes match closest and closestmatch Palette colors are shown in the Palette window and are numbered consecutively from 0 to 99 going from left to right top to bottom 100 is probably more colors than you will e
18. tion to x by y pixels The default capture resolution is 320 x 240 You may be able to affect Cyclops s efficiency by changing the capture resolution Generally lowering the resolution will make Cyclops more efficient However some input devices can only capture video at certain resolutions If the hardware you are using does not support the resolution you select you will likely see only part of the video frame part of the Video window will be blank or contain garbage Try changing capres to see if a lower resolution will work with your hardware If it does you will likely see decrease in latency and or an increase in frame rate It is conceivable that some devices will be more efficient using their native capture resolution for example DV native resolution is 720 x 480 than a lower resolution Since video input hardware and drivers vary it is best to experiment QuickTime processing and the idlerate message In order for Cyclops to acquire video frames it must give processing time to QuickTime Internally this is accomplished by periodically calling a QuickTime idle routine The rate at which this is done is set with the idlerate message In normal operation idlerate is set to 0 This tells Cyclops to give time to QuickTime once each time through Max s internal event loop Though this may not mean much to you to Max it means to call this routine at the optimum rate Note that this rate is not ne
19. ver need but they are there if you do Generally you will only specify a handful of colors A color in the Palette is actually a color range Each Palette color has three values comprising the color center referred to simply as the color and three values comprising the range or allowable variation in color referred to as the variation The three values comprising the color are 8 bit red green and blue RGB color components These are the values you see in the Mac s RGB color picker The color created by these values is displayed in the corresponding location in the Palette window Colors which are unassigned either never given values or deleted display as a grey diagonal pattern The three values comprising the variation are the amount of allowable difference from each of the RGB components These values are specified as variation from the RGB components For example a Palette color with RGB values in percent of 100 40 20 and values of 5 10 15 would display as a shade of orange in the Palette For color matching purposes this color would allow for 5 10 and 15 variation in red green and blue values respectively This would include all colors with a red value between 95 and 100 green between 30 and 50 and blue between 5 and 35 Note that values pin between 0 and 100 or 0 to 255 Thus in this example maximum red is 100 not 105 To view and edit color values double click on a Palette color
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