You will need:
- An Orbbec Femto Mega camera, to be placed in the front of the rider. This might be your 3rd Femto Mega camera if you already have 2 for bilateral capture.
- A network cable connecting the camera to the PoE Network Switch (assuming you already have a network switch for your other cameras.)
- A sync adaptor and second network cable to connect the camera to the Orbbec Sync Hub (assuming you have a sync hub for your other 2 cameras)
- Tripod or other camera mounting option
- A subscription to Velogic Studio Pro (the Aero module is a Pro-only feature)
- A PC meeting our System Requirements.
TODO: Picture of frontal camera in place, with components labelled.
Positioning the camera
- Place the camera mounted vertically (so rotated 90degrees from the “natural” orientation; the camera sensors are wider than they are high, so by rotating, we can use the longest axis to match the height of the rider)
- Optimal distance for the camera is 1200mm (measured from the front of the camera to the leading surface of basebar for Tri, TT and road). It’s OK to go further back, but not too much closer than that.
- Optimal height of the camera is TODO
Installing Velogic software on the camera
If you are using a brand-new Orbbec Femto Mega camera, you will need to
book an installation session so that our support team can install the "Velogic FrameBlaster" software onto the camera.
If you're repurposing a camera which had already been used as a lateral camera with Velogic Studio, it will already have the "Velogic FrameBlaster" software, so you won't need to book an installation session.
Configuring the camera in Velogic Studio's Step 1
In Step 1 of Velogic Studio, you can set the placement of the new camera to "Frontal", and choose the orientation that matches how you have the camera installed:
You should then see the live view change, and split into 3 different views. You need to adjust the selection rectangles on each of the 3 views to correctly capture the rider with as little background as possible:
- "Color view" is the view from the color sensor in the Femto Mega camera. You should ensure that this rectangle is positioned to capture the rider, with some margin.
- "Wind view" is the view from the depth sensor in the Femto Mega. It has been "flattened" so that objects further away from the camera don't look smaller than objects closer to the camera, so it may look strange.
This is the view that's actually used to generate the Frontal Area metric, so it's important that you correctly position the selection rectangle to cover the rider, but exclude things like the platform that the bike is sitting on.
Note that this is a messy and imperfect-looking view, because Velogic Studio's algorithm is compensating for parts of the rider it can't actually see (e.g. the rider's chest obscured by their hands). Our algorithm accounts for this, and the overall Frontal Area metric that you see is a statistical combination from many frames. - "Depth view" is also from the depth camera, but as if viewed from the side of the rider. You can adjust this rectangle to control the "front" and "back" cutoff distances, to ensure that you capture all of the bike+rider, and nothing else (such as a platform or rear trainer). Make sure that the rectangle is positioned far enough backwards to get the rider's whole ankle at its rearmost point, i.e. halfway up the recovery phase of the stroke.
Adding Aero Baseline Details in Step 1
When you have an Aero camera active, you will see an "Aero Baseline Details" panel on the right-hand side of step 1: