Embedded system for remote control of a 3D camera rig

The production of stereoscopic motion pictures has been recently getting increasingly popular. To provide the best quality of the resulting image, the parameters controlled must precisely correspond to the values calculated by the stereoscopic image analysis platform or chosen by a camera operator. Currently no integrated system exists, which can provide remote monitoring and control of the parameters of 3D rig and cameras on it. The parameters should be controllable both by the Rig Controller software, tablet application or hand controller. The paper discusses an innovative system for remote control of 3D camera rig created within the Recording of 3D Image (ROS3D) research project. The system controls several parameters of both camera rig - stereo base, convergence and camera lenses - focus distance, aperture and focal length. Several approaches of implementation of a solution for the aforementioned problem are presented and compared. The first proposed approach used custom servo motor controller with CAN bus as the communication interface between connected devices, i.e. Rig Controller board and hand manipulators. Another solution contains a commercial servo motor controller connected to the Rig Controller board via RS232 and commercial hand controller. D-Bus Inter-Process Communication (IPC) system is used to communicate between the servo motor controller drivers and Rig Controller software.