5. How To use openEyA?

    ... It is very, very simple! 

Unmount first the Digital Camera and launch openEyA (see section Start Up openEyA). Then, proceed further as indicated next.

5.1 Setup

The openEyA Graphics User Interface (GUI) is shown in Fig.3. It allows to configure (and preview), to record and to post-process (i.e., automatically synchronize audio-video and digital camera images).

To start click on the big green openEyA logo.

      Fig.3: openEyA GUI

5.1.1 General Settings

By selecting 'Settings' from one of the upper links in the GUI (Fig.3), it is possible to (i) test 'close camera after recording', (ii) select the 'Input/Ouput' recording directories and (iii) select a timing for the photos. The default is user's Desktop for the stored recordings and a deafult value of 15 sec for taking photos as shown in Fig.4.

      Fig.4: openEyA general settings

5.1.2 Video Test

Select 'Video device' (usually 'video0' or 'video1)' depending if your are using your computer's webcam or an external USB webcam (with Linux UVC Driver).

Click 'Start video' to test and see the video image and positionate the webcam.

5.1.3 Photo Preview

Click 'Take a photo' to test, get a picture and positionate the digital camera. Wait some seconds until every taken image appears in the Photo preview! Do not use/insert the Memory Card!

You can then select Zoom and other standard Camera parameters (such as ISO, speed, …) to optimize your recording needs.

You may also want to crop the pictures by selecting an area within the Photo preview windows in Fig.5. This allows to save disk space when processing the synchronized audio-video-slides openEyA files. Duplicated photos, or photos that have slighltly changed, are automatically discarded by openEyA during the 'Processing' (see section Processing). Another feature of openEyA is that all photos taken can also be easily straighten out (see section Photo Straightening/Reprocess) and synchronized to the corresponding audio-video recordings.

It is also possible to select the location of the openEyA logo defult to appear in the recordings (from the Photo Preview corners in Figs. 4 or 5). When photos are straighten out, this logo can be cleaned out.

5.1.4 Audio Gains

To test the audio quality, select first 'Enable' and click 'Start audio' to check the correct audio level (see Fig.5).

Select then 'Audio device' or in-'Line' depending if your are using your computer's Microphone or an external USB omni-directional Microphone.

Check also parameters such as Capture, … to optimize the audio quality.

After all these parameters have been set, it is possible to make a recording test of few secs (the small windows appears when pressing Record of Fig.5) and to Play it to listen the audio quality.

Try several brief audio recordings to adjust the Software Gain.

      Fig.5: openEyA video, photo, audio setup example

5.2 Recording

Within the Recording GUI shown in Fig.6, it is possible to start an 'Immmediate recording' or to program recording(s) by selecting the 'Alarms' options (alternative it is possible to load in saved Alarms).

‘Immmediate recording’

Press 'Start' and select the time lag in minutes to activate the recodings (using the Setup of previous sections). openEyA allows to record slots of 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes continuously and automatically. If you need to record for longer than an hour then you need to set 'Alarms'.

‘Alarms’

Select this option, to program future automated recordings of up to one hour maximum each. You can Add, Modify, Delete alarms to build on a given schedule of recordings.

Set of Alarms can be re-used for different occasions by simply saving them into a file and then loading them into the openEyA control panel! Open the File menu and simply click save/load.

The 'Current time' level indicates to time left (or, alternatively, the time passed) to complete the recording.

      Fig.6: Example of Immmediate recording (45 mins)

5.3 Processing

Within the Processing GUI in Fig.7, it is possible to start processing the synchronization of audio, video and photos taken during the recording session(s).

As in the figure, you need to select first the 'Input/output'(s) files from the list of available recordings carried out so far.

You can also 'Create output Zip file' to backup your data or to display your openEyA recordings on a dedicated webserver (just copy and unzip the file and make a link to the 'index.html' file).

The Processing status is indicated in the GUI in Fig.7. Wait until it completes (100 percent)!.

      Fig.7: Example of Processing the selected recording

This document was generated by sdu on August, 20 2009 using texi2html 1.78.