Hello all,
I'm pretty certain this hasn't been done in the consumer space yet, nor has anyone been crazy enough to try it. I am trying to, with a mind for budget (not only cost, but power consumption and weight) capture a live 3D video stream from a 3D camcorder on an unmanned aerial vehicle, and stream it over 4G to a ground station.
I am reaching a roadblock at a reference to the FPGA implementation to capture and process such a stream, and package it up for transmission on a 4G mobile internet connection. I'll quote my design idea, then some references.
For the camcorder, I was looking at the 3D Hero2 HD, but I've heard they're pretty baulky, with sync problems and problems with cameras not activating over the link cable, giving only one viewpoint. So they're cheap? I don't want to program my headaches due to non-sync'ing in my implementation. I do get migraines with shutterglasses, but that was on a twenty year old SGI system - worked great when it worked, wasn't all that reliable though, which could've actually caused the headache.
So, I went and started looking at Sony cameras, theres a HDRTD20V camcorder that weighs 420g, and is meant for home users capturing home videos - which should imply there is no HDCP in the system. Then again, I could be wrong, but God help me if I am.
On the ground station side, a Samsung XE303C12 ChromeBook with the Mali T-604 GPU, which has stereoscopic 3D support, and an Acer passive 3D LCD monitor, along with a BladeRF running an LTE microcell to provide the link. Now, no one tell me about the legal implications of blasting a 20MHz 4G signal out across town - I'm a radio amateur, this is my life.
I've asked Samsung and ARM about details on the Mali T-604, waiting to hear back from them. As you can see, pretty much everything on this project is custom coded. Which brings me, at last, to the capture device: an Atlys Spartan 6 board, or a NeTV.
The end objective, apart from not spending ludicrous amounts of my hard earned cash, is to have a system that is as light as possible, that uses the least amount of power as possible - allowing me to load up more batteries, and not drain them out as quickly on video equipment, keeping my 3kg lift capacity UAV in the air longer.
I would prefer the NeTV, due to it having the HDMi input, wifi, and a Linux system to work with - I want to keep this as open source as I can get. It still has an FPGA that needs to be programmed, and I understand its "intended" use - strip off the HDCP and "overlay" other information on a live 3D stream, but could it be used to capture 3D video off a camcorder, package it up (VLC server or something?) and stream it over the wifi to a 4G modem, down to the base station, for display in 3D?
I should start looking at the NeTV FPGA implementation, it would capture the HDMi and process it. At the point where its in a digital format able to be streamed is where I start coding my own implementation suitable for live streaming over 4G. As mentioned, my only encounter with 3D was that SGI system, where it caused an almost immediate migraine - I was hoping A) that it was the fault of really old gear, and B) passive 3D wouldn't do that to me. However, I don't have the ChromeBook or the passive 3D monitor yet, I'm waiting to buy them, and designing the system and software in between.
Technically, I don't see why this is not possible - I mean, we are talking some grey areas if the camcorder outputs a HDCP stream (which would suck), and the activation of my own 4G cell, and I intend on breaking no laws in doing this - this might be a case of curiosity killed the cat, but I could also write a great engineering report out of it...
I'm pretty certain this hasn't been done in the consumer space yet, nor has anyone been crazy enough to try it. I am trying to, with a mind for budget (not only cost, but power consumption and weight) capture a live 3D video stream from a 3D camcorder on an unmanned aerial vehicle, and stream it over 4G to a ground station.
I am reaching a roadblock at a reference to the FPGA implementation to capture and process such a stream, and package it up for transmission on a 4G mobile internet connection. I'll quote my design idea, then some references.
For the camcorder, I was looking at the 3D Hero2 HD, but I've heard they're pretty baulky, with sync problems and problems with cameras not activating over the link cable, giving only one viewpoint. So they're cheap? I don't want to program my headaches due to non-sync'ing in my implementation. I do get migraines with shutterglasses, but that was on a twenty year old SGI system - worked great when it worked, wasn't all that reliable though, which could've actually caused the headache.
So, I went and started looking at Sony cameras, theres a HDRTD20V camcorder that weighs 420g, and is meant for home users capturing home videos - which should imply there is no HDCP in the system. Then again, I could be wrong, but God help me if I am.
On the ground station side, a Samsung XE303C12 ChromeBook with the Mali T-604 GPU, which has stereoscopic 3D support, and an Acer passive 3D LCD monitor, along with a BladeRF running an LTE microcell to provide the link. Now, no one tell me about the legal implications of blasting a 20MHz 4G signal out across town - I'm a radio amateur, this is my life.
I've asked Samsung and ARM about details on the Mali T-604, waiting to hear back from them. As you can see, pretty much everything on this project is custom coded. Which brings me, at last, to the capture device: an Atlys Spartan 6 board, or a NeTV.
The end objective, apart from not spending ludicrous amounts of my hard earned cash, is to have a system that is as light as possible, that uses the least amount of power as possible - allowing me to load up more batteries, and not drain them out as quickly on video equipment, keeping my 3kg lift capacity UAV in the air longer.
I would prefer the NeTV, due to it having the HDMi input, wifi, and a Linux system to work with - I want to keep this as open source as I can get. It still has an FPGA that needs to be programmed, and I understand its "intended" use - strip off the HDCP and "overlay" other information on a live 3D stream, but could it be used to capture 3D video off a camcorder, package it up (VLC server or something?) and stream it over the wifi to a 4G modem, down to the base station, for display in 3D?
I should start looking at the NeTV FPGA implementation, it would capture the HDMi and process it. At the point where its in a digital format able to be streamed is where I start coding my own implementation suitable for live streaming over 4G. As mentioned, my only encounter with 3D was that SGI system, where it caused an almost immediate migraine - I was hoping A) that it was the fault of really old gear, and B) passive 3D wouldn't do that to me. However, I don't have the ChromeBook or the passive 3D monitor yet, I'm waiting to buy them, and designing the system and software in between.
Technically, I don't see why this is not possible - I mean, we are talking some grey areas if the camcorder outputs a HDCP stream (which would suck), and the activation of my own 4G cell, and I intend on breaking no laws in doing this - this might be a case of curiosity killed the cat, but I could also write a great engineering report out of it...