December 20, 2017

Updated Poky to Rocko

by Oleg Dzhimiev

We have updated the Yocto build system to Poky Rocko released back in October. Here’s a short summary table of the updates:

before after
Poky 2.0 (Jethro) 2.4 (Rocko)
gcc 5.3.0 7.2.0
linux kernel 4.0 4.9

Other packages got updates as well:

  • apache2-2.4.18 => apache2-2.4.29
  • php-5.6.16 => php-5.6.31
  • udev-182 changed to eudev-3.2.2, etc.

This new version is in the rocko branch for now but will be merged into master after some transition period (and the current master will be moved to jethro branch). Below are a few tips for future updates.
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December 13, 2017

Assembling Long Range Stereo Camera

by Olga Filippova

MNC393-XCAM parts

MNC393-XCAM partial assembly and parts

The long anticipated parts for the Long range camera have arrived!

The mechanical parts for the MNC393-XCAM – Long Range Multi-view Stereo Camera are machined, tested, and ready to be anodized. This enables us to have the X-camera assembled before the winter holidays. The holiday break will provide a good opportunity to test the camera, capture new photos, and create robust 3D models from calibrated images.
The titanium X-frame of the camera ensures thermal stability required for continuous accuracy of 3D measurements. The aluminum enclosure and sealed lens filters weatherproof the system allowing for the proposed outdoor use of the camera.
We intend to assemble two cameras: one with a 150 mm distance between the sensors and another with a longer baseline. The expected accuracy for the camera with the shorter baseline is greater than 10% at a 200 meter distance. We have achieved 10% accuracy with H-camera with calibrated sensors, even though the 3D-printed parts were not thermally stable and some error was accumulated over time. It was a very pleasant surprise that the software was still able to deal with somewhat un-calibrated images and detect distances very accurately, creating impressive 3D-scenes: Scene_viewer The second camera will have a 280 mm distance between sensors, which is determined by the longest FPC cables we can use without signal losses. It promises to double the measured distance with the same degree of accuracy, therefore an extremely long range 3D-scenes will be produced.

The Long Range Multi-View Stereo Camera with 4 sensors MNC393-XCAM is planned for release in early 2018.


December 3, 2017

Drupal, WordPress, Mediawiki, Mail Archive, Gitlab – all in one web site

by Andrey Filippov and Oleg Dzhimiev

Multiple Subdomains for the Same Web Site

It is a common case when a company or organization uses multiple content management systems (CMS) and specialized web application to organize its web presence. We describe here how Elphel handles such CMS variety and provide the source code that can be customized for other similar sites.
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