libseek-thermal

master

development

Description

libseek-thermal is a user space driver for the SEEK thermal camera series built on libusb and libopencv.

Supported cameras:

• Seek Thermal Compact
• Seek Thermal CompactXR
• Seek Thermal CompactPRO

Seek Thermal CompactPRO example:

Credits

The code is based on ideas from the following repo's:

• https://github.com/BjornVT/Masterproef.git
• https://github.com/zougloub/libseek

Build (Linux)

Dependencies:

• cmake
• libopencv-dev (>= 2.4)
• libusb-1.0-0-dev

NOTE: you can just 'apt-get install' all libs above

cd libseek-thermal
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../
make

Install shared library, headers and binaries:

sudo make install
sudo ldconfig       # update linker runtime bindings

For more build options (debug/release, install prefix, opencv install dir, address sanitizer, debug verbosity) run

cmake-gui ../

Getting USB access (Only Linux)

You need to add a udev rule to be able to run the program as non root user:

Udev rule:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="289d", ATTRS{idProduct}=="XXXX", MODE="0666", GROUP="users"

Replace 'XXXX' with:

• 0010: Seek Thermal Compact/CompactXR
• 0011: Seek Thermal CompactPRO

or manually chmod the device file after plugging the usb cable:

sudo chmod 666 /dev/bus/usb/00x/00x

with '00x' the usb bus found with the lsusb command

Build (Windows)

(Tested using VS2017, CMake 3.11.1, OpenCV 3.3.1 and OpenCV 2.4.1)

Dependencies:

• cmake
• opencv (>= 2.4)
• libusb-1.0
• WinUSB driver

You can set the OpenCV directory with OpenCV_DIR and the libusb-1.0 root directory with LibUSB_ROOT_DIR. The libusb-1.0 windows binaries can be downloaded directly from its webpage https://libusb.info.

If you do not have installed opencv as a package, OpenCV sources files can be downloaded from https://github.com/opencv/opencv/releases, then simply build the tarjets using CMake and pass the build directory to libseek-thermal through OpenCV_DIR.

In order for libusb-1.0 to connect to the infrared camera, the WinUSB driver must be installed to the device. We recommend using the Zaing tool that can be downloaded at http://zadig.akeo.ie.

Note: Using the cmake-gui is recommended.

Running example binaries

./examples/seek_test       # Minimal Thermal Compact/CompactXR example
./examples/seek_test_pro   # Minimal Thermal CompactPRO example
./examples/seek_viewer     # Example with more features supporting all cameras, run with --help for command line options

Or if you installed the library you can run from any location:

seek_test
seek_test_pro
seek_viewer

Note: In Windows, the library will be installed in %programfiles%/libseek-thermal, if you want the library to be accesible from any point, you should add the /bin and /lib folders to the path.

Some example command lines:

seek_viewer --camtype=seekpro --colormap=11 --rotate=0                     # view color mapped thermal video
seek_viewer --camtype=seekpro --colormap=11 --rotate=0 --output=seek.avi   # record color mapped thermal video

Linking the library to another program

After you installed the library you can compile your own programs/libs with:

g++ my_program.cpp -o my_program -lseek `pkg-config opencv --libs`

Using the following include:

#include <seek/seek.h>

Apply additional flat field calibration

To get better image quality, you can optionally apply an additional flat-field calibration. This will cancel out the 'white glow' in the corners and reduces spacial noise. The disadvantage is that this calibration is temperature sensitive and should only be applied when the camera has warmed up. Note that you might need to redo the procedure over time. Result of calibration on the Thermal Compact pro:

Without additional flat field calibration	With additional flat field calibration

Procedure:

1. Cover the lens of your camera with an object of uniform temperature
2. Run:

# when using the Seek Thermal compact
seek_create_flat_field -c seek seek_ffc.png

# When using the Seek Thermal compact pro
seek_create_flat_field -c seekpro seekpro_ffc.png

The program will run for a few seconds and produces a .png file.

3. Provide the produced .png file to one of the test programs:

# when using the Seek Thermal compact
seek_test seek_ffc.png
seek_viewer -t seek -F seek_ffc.png

# When using the Seek Thermal compact pro
seek_test_pro seekpro_ffc.png
seek_viewer -t seekpro -F seekpro_ffc.png