L3CamViewer

This package is a Qt5 application to visualize the L3Cam device sensors manufactured by Beamagine and as example of the use of the libL3Cam library, provided by Beamagine as part of the L3Cam SDK. For more info on the L3Cam check the L3Cam User Manual.

Binaries only installation

Dont forget to follow the Operational Advise steps for your environment after installing.

Linux

Download the compressed tar.xz file for your distribution from the releases page.

Extract the files and run the install.sh script to install the needed dependencies.

./install.sh

To execute the application run the run.sh script.

./run.sh

Windows

Download the compressed rar file for your distribution from the releases page.

Extract the files and run the L3CamViewer.exe to run the application.

Source code installation

Dependencies

libL3Cam

First, you can download and install the L3Cam SDK. It's not necessary since it is already in /libs.

To do so, download the required package from Beamagine's L3Cam SDK repository depending on your hardware architecture and install:

sudo dpkg -i <PACKAGE>

OpenCV & PCL

OpenCV

The OpenCV version used in Linux Ubuntu 20.04 is 4.5.5

The OpenCV version used in Windows 10 is 4.4.0

PCL

The PCL version used in Linux Ubuntu 20.04 is 1.9.0

The PCL version used in Windows 10 is 1.9.1

You might have to change some parts of the L3CamViewer.pro file and put the routes to where the PCL library is located on your PC instead of $(HOME)/(...).

You might also have to change the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable in Qt Creator. To do so:

Open the project in Qt Creator.
Go to Projects → Build & Run → <YOUR_KIT> → Run.
Scroll to Environment and find the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable.
Modify it so it points to: <YOUR_WORKSPACE>/L3CamViewer/libs/opencv4 and <YOUR_WORKSPACE>/L3CamViewer/libs/pcl-1.9.0

Other dependencies

Install needed dependencies executing the script install.sh or manually execute in a terminal:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential -y
sudo apt install gcc g++ ffmpeg libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libswscale-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgtk-3-dev libpng-dev libjpeg-dev libopenexr-dev libtiff-dev libwebp-dev -y
sudo apt install libvtk7-dev -y
sudo apt install libboost1.71-all-dev -y
sudo apt install libtinyxml2.6.2v5
sudo apt install libqt5core5a libqt5gui5 libqt5network5 libqt5widgets5 libqt5printsupport5 -y

L3Cam Viewer

Clone this repository in your workspace (e.g. workspace):

cd ~/workspace && git clone https://github.com/beamaginelidar/L3CamViewer

Operational Advice

Jumbo frames

You will need to enable jumbo frames on your Ethernet adapter. A jumbo frame is an Ethernet frame that is larger than 1500 bytes. Most Ethernet adapters support jumbo frames, however it is usually turned off by default. Please note in order to set a 9000 byte packet size on the camera, the Ethernet adapter must support a jumbo frame size of 9000 bytes or higher.

See the "Windows host configuration" and "Linux host configuration" sections of the L3Cam User Manual for full details on how to enable jumbo frames.

Receive Buffer Size (Linux only)

It is also recommended to increase your network default and maximum receive buffer size.

You can check what your current buffer size is:

sudo sysctl 'net.core.rmem_max'
sudo sysctl 'net.core.rmem_default'

Update the buffer size with the following commands:

sudo sh -c "echo 'net.core.rmem_default=268435456' >> /etc/sysctl.conf"
sudo sh -c "echo 'net.core.rmem_max=268435456' >> /etc/sysctl.conf"
sudo sysctl -p

Port usage

libL3Cam uses the following ports for streaming and communications:

PROTOCOL	PORT	CONFIGURATION
TCP	6000 (L3CAM)	Fixed
UDP	6050 (LiDAR)	Fixed
UDP	6060 (Allied Wide, Polarimetric)	Fixed
UDP	6020 (Allied Narrow, RGB)	Fixed
UDP	6030 (LWIR)	Fixed
RTSP	5040 (LiDAR)	Reconfigurable
RTSP	5030 (Allied Wide, Polarimetric)	Reconfigurable
RTSP	5010 (Allied Narrow, RGB)	Reconfigurable
RTSP	5020 (LWIR)	Reconfigurable

TCP is used internally by libL3Cam and is transparent to the user. However, the system host must have the required port available.

User guide

Start the application and make sure the L3Cam is connected.

Initialization

To initialize the L3Cam, click the FAST INIT button or follow these steps:

Click INITIALIZE: This button will initialize the library and the internal communication system.
Click FIND DEVICES: This button will search for L3CAM devices in the network.
Click GET STATUS: This button gets the device internal status.
Click GET SENSORS: This button gets the available sensors in the L3CAM device, which will be shown in the System tab.
Once the L3Cam is initialized start the device by clicking START DEVICE.
When the START STREAMING button is available, click it to start streaming and the available sensors streamings will be shown on the right.

The response of every button call is shown in the logger screen below the app.

Power off L3Cam

To power off the device safely you should follow these steps:

(Optional) Click STOP STREAM and STOP DEVICE.
Click Power OFF: this will shut down the L3Cam properly.
Click TERMINATE: this will close the library communications and the app safely, properly releasing resources.

You can also TERMINATE the app without Power OFF.

Both Power OFF and TERMINATE will stop stream and device, that's why it's optional.

Tabs

System

In this tab the user is able to:

Change the network configuration of L3CAM device, such as the fixed IP address, or enable/disable DHCP.
Get temperatures information of the device and sensors. Using the GET Temperatures button, the different sensors temperature information will be shown.
The available sensors, and the status of each sensor will be shown when connected to a device.
Device information such as the IP address, the serial number and the software version.
Change the RTSP streaming pipelines for each sensor.

ECON + POL + THER

This tab includes the configuration parameters for the Econ RGB camera, the Polarimetric camera (mono or RGB-P) and the thermal camera.

Change the available parameters of the econ RGB Camera
Change the available parameters of the allied polarimetric mono or RGB-P camera.
Change the available parameters of the thermal camera.
Change the cameras streaming protocol (UDP, RTSP over gstreamer).
Get the current camera streaming pipeline.

Allied Cameras

This tab is dedicated to the allied camera parameters. If the wide camera and the narrow camera are connected, using the round button selector Wide Camera and Narrow Camera will determinate the camera which is being modified.

Change the available allied camera parameters
Change streaming protocol (UDP, RTSP over gstreamer)
Get current camera streaming pipeline.

LiDAR Settings

This tab includes the parameters related to the LiDAR and the 3D visualization settings.
For the visualization settings:

Change the visualization point cloud color.
Change the background color of the 3D window.
Change color range.
Show/hide the 3D axis.

For the LiDAR settings:

Remote points filter, allows to select a minimum and maximum distance for the point cloud.
Bias, behaves as the gain of a camera, high BIAS value means more range but also more noise, low BIAS means less range and less noise.
Change the streaming protocol (UDP, RTSP over gstreamer). The RTSP is only by custom request, if you need it please contact us.

Data Collection

This tab is to save the images, thermal raw data and the point clouds. The point clouds are saved in a custom binary format, the images are saved in png format and the thermal raw data in binary files.
The name of the files work as a timestamp with the format hhmmsszzz.ext.
For example, an image captured at 14:25:42:501 will have the name 142542501.png

Use different folders for each sensor, especially if they are 2D sensors

Use the checkbox to enable the saving of the specific sensor.
Use the ... button to select a folder for the selected sensor.
The Frames to save parameter, the user can select a number of frames to save or use -1 to save all the frames.
Click on the green button to start the data collection, it will turn red until clicked again or until the number of frames has been reached. If needed, the option to blur the faces of people detected can be done by enabling the Blur Faces check box.

Feel free to test all the Sensors and AlliedCameras parameters, but note that some parameters can only be changed when the L3Cam is not streaming and some when it is streaming.