ECTcamera Quick Start
Configuring ECTcamera quickly
In this complex, ECTCamera contains the least number of settings, however normal function of all other elements depends on the quality of the video acquired from any camera or other devices. That's why it is very important to receive a high-quality, sharp video (the best possible for your computer).
The user should use adequate lighting; it must not be too dark or too light in the room. In case of using in natural light, direct sunlight should not reach camera lens. In this case, the resulting image from the device should be clear and glare-free. Observance of the lighting conditions will allow the eye-tracking software to function correctly and receive maximum quality.
To start using ECTCamera the user has to select the video capturing device. It is usually an internal webcam in a laptop or an external webcam or other device for PC. The user can select any device by using main menu Video item. After selecting this a list of all connected devices which can acquire video images will appear. After choosing the desired device all modes (video format, resolution, color depth) will then be available to the user. The selected device and mode are marked with a checkmark (see Fig. 5).
ECTCamera supports various types of webcams and external devices that are connected to the computer and are intended to acquire video.
After selecting the device the user can then start capturing video by choosing main menu Start item, or by pressing the F2 button. The acquired video will then appear in the main window of the program (see Fig. 6).
The software will begin to acquire images from the connected device. The user needs to place the camera so that the face is approximately in the center of the window within the image.
The next step of the initial setting of ECTCamera is to focus on the eyes (or one eye, if the user plans to use one eye-identifying structure). First, it is necessary to increase the scale of the image. This can be changed through Scale item of the main menu. There are several scales available (see Fig. 7):
- 0% (Ctrl+0 keys combination)
- 50% (Ctrl+1 keys combination)
- 100% (Ctrl+2 keys combination)
- 150% (Ctrl+3 keys combination)
- 200% (Ctrl+4 keys combination)
- 300% (Ctrl+5 keys combination)
- increase scale by 10% (Ctrl+6 keys combination)
- decrease scale by 10% (Ctrl+7 keys combination)
- increase scale by 100% (Ctrl+8 keys combination)
- decrease scale by 100% (Ctrl+9 keys combination).
In cases where none of the mentioned scales suit the current video image, or the user needs a more detailed setting, the user can open the ECTCamera main menu and select Settings – Show Settings Form. Then the user needs to find parameter #3 - Scale video in percents from original, and change it to the desired value (see Fig. 8). After doing so, the user then needs to select Action – Set Current item of the menu to save the new settings.
After selecting the desired scale value, the acquired image shifts relatively to the center of the program window. In addition, the user will need to move the image to select the necessary area. This can be done through the Position items of the menu. There are several options available (see Fig. 9):
- Center, Ctrl+End keys combination
- Top Left, Ctrl+Home keys combination
- Step Left, Ctrl+Left arrow keys combination
- Step Right, Ctrl+Right arrow keys combination
- Step Up, Ctrl+Up arrow keys combination
- Step Down, Ctrl+Down arrow keys combination.
Center and Top Left items are appropriate if the acquired image is too big and the user needs to reduce its size (for when the user works with high resolution devices and in other cases). The positioning functions allow the user to move the focus to the desired fragment of the image (see Fig. 10).
The best way to move the image vertically and horizontally is to use corresponding "hot keys." Each key combination pressed will move the image by 1 step in the desired direction (1 step is equal to 20 pixels, by default). The user can always change the size of the step through the settings window of the software. The user can open settings panel through Settings – Show Settings Form item of the main menu, and then change parameter #4 – Step in pixels to the desired value (Fig. 11). After doing so, the user needs to select Action – Set Current point of the menu to save the new settings.
Now the user needs to place the ECTCamera window so that it takes up less workspace, leaving this free for using other program windows.
At this step the initial setting of ECTCamera is over. The user can save all settings into one file to use it for a quicker start-up in the future. To do so the user needs to select Settings – Save to file item in the menu. If some settings were made erroneously, the user can always restore initial settings by selecting Setting – Reset to default.
In addition to the information above, ECTCamera software supports command prompt start and can make screenshots of the whole image or its selected fragment. You can find detailed information in the user's manual of ECTCamera.