Anyone interested in a C++ project for $$$

[EntertainerBob]

To be honest, it is not $$$ upfront, but we want to develop the software that I will describe and sell it on a website that already sells complimentary products. You would get money from every sale and you can be sure that happens by creating a licensing proceedure for the software so that it does not work until the user pays the fee.

Here is a description of the project:

I have a project I am working on that incorporates some very simplistic motion capture and wondered if you are aware of a way that I can do what I need to do and avoid re-inventing the wheel.

I will describe breifly what I want to achieve and we can talk in more detail about it later if it's something you can help me with.

I want to use an ordinary webcam focused on a live subjects head.

Either using markers or face recognition of some sort, I need the image to be fed into software that can tell if the subjects head is being moved in any combination of 3 axis.

I need that information to be converted in real time into commands that will control servos which will move a robotic head in the same patterns that the actors head are moving in.

The only motions I care about for this project are up and down (nodding), left and right (Rotating) and tilting side to side (tilting).

I do not need to track lip movements, eyebrows or any other facial muscle movements, just the basic motions of the head.

So to summerize....by using a single standard webcam as the input device, I want to control a robotic head to match the basic movements of an actor in real time (a slight delay is acceptable. a few hundred milliseconds)

I know there are combinations of products out there that I can buy to get this done, but the cost is prohibitive.

There is an outlet to sell these that I am sure will get a lot of attention and if it is priced right, will sell quite well.

Please let me know your thoughts.

I will share more detailed information with anyone who thinks they may want to take this on.

[Zaita]

It'll need more than 1 webcam. As 1 POV can only do 2 Axis accurately, not 3 :)

[HalloweenBob]

No, it can be done with just one camera. There are many face tracking programs out there that use just a single camera. There are also a couple of people developing exactly what I want to do with just one camera. Problem is, I think it's way overpriced.

Look at this video. It is being done with just one camera. Granted it's not perfect, but it is pretty darn close to what I need.

http://rewindshow.com/Download/movingheads.mp4

All of the webcam software that allows you to appear as funny animated creatures or the ones that add glasses or a mustache to your face....All that is face-tracking with a single webcam. I don't need any more sophiticated tracking than that just to get basic motion on 3 axis.

In short, I know it can be done, because others have done it and are doing it. I just don't know the programming language I need in order to get it done.

A friend of mine was working on this, but only knows Visual Basic. He was able to track his face movements just fine using colored markers attached to his face. Problem is, Visual Basic was not fast enough to do the job in real time.

Here are some links for people doing Face tracking with only one webcam:

http://www.codeplex.com/touchless

http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~hanlen/vision/facelinks.html

http://www.facedetection.com/facedetection/software.htm

http://www.ces.clemson.edu/~stb/publications/headtracker_cvpr1998.pdf

http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~kamenick/tomoeye/final_report.html

Some of those are open source programs meaning that most of the work would already be done for you. All you would need to do is take the data that is collected and output it to the servo controller in a way that makes sense.