Adding cameras' view
Previous tutorial: Adding cameras
Once some cameras are added into a project of the Computer Vision Sandbox, it is time to add a view, which shows several cameras together. Well, strictly speaking we need to add a sandbox, which is a project object where multiple cameras are processed together. But the main point here is that sandbox provides at least one view of the cameras it contains, which is what we need so far.
Similar to adding cameras, a sandbox can be added using project's context menu or application's main menu. The first page of the wizard is standard - describe the object being added. The next wizard's page asks to choose cameras we want to have in the sandbox - simply double click those cameras you like or add them using provided UI controls. Lets add 6 cameras for now.
When cameras choice is done it is time move to the next step and configure a view. Sandbox wizard always tries to suggest a square view which is big enough to fit the number of chosen cameras. So for 6 cameras it will come up with 3x3 view, which is bigger than what we need. Changing Rows value to 2 in the view properties area will give us what we need - good enough view size for 6 cameras. Once view size looks reasonable, all we need is just to drag and drop cameras into the cells we want them to be.
That might be it. But might be a bit boring. Before finishing with the sandbox, lets see what could of been changed to make the view layout look a bit different. Suppose one of the cameras is nicer than others (or more important, or just shows your favourite view outside) and you want to make its view bigger. Indeed, we can do so. Lets change the Rows value back to 3 to get 3x3 view layout. And now right click on the top/left cell of the view to get its context menu. Using the Merge down and right option we can merge the selected cell with adjacent cells on the right and below. And here is the result - although the view size is 3x3, we have only 6 cells now: 5 small cells and 1 bigger cell for the camera we like most.
Using the merge cells technique it is possible to build lots of interesting view layouts for different purpose. You may have a 4x4 view size, put a bigger cell in the centre and surround it by 12 smaller cells. Or in the 4x4 view you may apply merge option twice to a cell, which will give one extra large cell surrounded by 7 small ones. Well, just play with it.
Oh, and here is the result of the tutorial.
The video below demonstrates adding cameras of different types into the Computer Vision Sandbox application and then combining them into a view.
Next tutorial: Multiple cameras' views and their rotation