Software installation

Installing Tangible Landscape software

To use Tangible Landscape, you need to install two main components and its dependencies. The components are:

• Tangible Landscape plugin for GRASS GIS
• r.in.kinect (GRASS GIS module)

Main dependencies include:

• GRASS GIS (>= 7.2)
• Tangible Landscape plugin requires Python package watchdog, optionally matplotlib
• r.in.kinect requires libfreenect2, Point Cloud Library, OpenCV

We provide installation script for Ubuntu 20.04. If you need to install Tangible Landscape for other versions of Ubuntu (or Linux distributions), please adjust the install script accordingly. We don't provide installation instructions for other platforms, but we welcome contributions.

Installation using install script:

This option is available only for Ubuntu 20.04, for other distributions please modify the script accordingly.

1. Open a terminal and create a folder where all the dependencies will be compiled:

   mkdir tangiblelandscape
   cd tangiblelandscape
   

2. Download install script to that folder (check this repo for install scripts for specific Ubuntu versions) and run it:

   sh install_Ubuntu-20.04_k4a.sh
   

   It will ask you for administrator password. You need to be online to download all dependencies. After finishing the process, log out and log in (otherwise Kinect won't work).

3. Find GRASS GIS in Dash and start it. A start-up windows appears. Select GRASS GIS database directory or create a new one (e.g. one called grassdata). Then create a new GRASS Location or download sample dataset of North Carolina. Create a new mapset and press Start GRASS session. When GRASS Layer Manager opens, go to tab Console (at the bottom) and type (and hit Enter):

   g.gui.tangible
   

4. Plugin window should appear:

5. To verify Kinect is working, we recommend running this command from terminal (assuming you are in tangiblelandscape directory):

   ./libfreenect2-0.2.0/build/bin/Protonect
   

You should see a window showing what the scanner can see.

6. To verify r.in.kinect is working, press Start button at the very top of the plugin dialog. You should see in terminal:

[Info] [Freenect2Impl] enumerating devices...
[Info] [Freenect2Impl] 7 usb devices connected
[Info] [Freenect2Impl] found valid Kinect v2 @2:8 with serial 509076142542
[Info] [Freenect2Impl] found 1 devices
creating OpenGL processor
[Info] [Freenect2DeviceImpl] opening...
[Info] [Freenect2DeviceImpl] transfer pool sizes rgb: 20*16384 ir: 60*8*33792
[Info] [Freenect2DeviceImpl] opened
[Info] [Freenect2DeviceImpl] starting...
[Info] [Freenect2DeviceImpl] submitting rgb transfers...
[Info] [Freenect2DeviceImpl] submitting depth transfers...
[Info] [Freenect2DeviceImpl] started
[Info] [DepthPacketStreamParser] 1 packets were lost
running
[Info] [OpenGLDepthPacketProcessor] avg. time: 4.49882ms -> ~222.28Hz