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Hello and welcome. Thank you very much
for being here and also thank you
for being interested in this great
project that I'm working on with
a lot of colleagues for some time.
Also now, I will be talking
today about the oxygen
project adopted open source cinema.
It's not only about
cameras, but mainly about open
hardware cameras.
Just a brief introduction
to those of you who might not know what
open source hardware is.
The idea is to make every step
of the production process and all the
aspects of the project
freely available, open
source in a way that everyone can
get to see and to use
freely all the possible technical
schematics and all the technical
documentation, but as well the hardware.
So theoretically, people could rebuild
the hardware.
So a little bit about
my background.
I'm an ambassador and researcher with
Axium with the project and
doing mainly open hardware research.
So I run the Artistic Technology
Lab, which is currently located in
Vienna with the Research Institute for
Arts and Technology.
And I also run the Artistic Bokeh
Initiative, which is a media
arts group. And we are setting up some
kind of exchange with other labs
around Europe, mainly
working in projects in the domain
between art and technology.
And you can also find a slide online if
you're interested in seeing and
getting some more information on the
clicking through the links or something.
So
we need open source cinema cameras.
At least that's what I thought also when
I was joining the project.
But why do we need this open source
cinema camera? So mainly proprietary
cameras. And I'm talking about all the
film cameras, but also photo cameras as
well in
a way limited by the manufacturer.
So, of course,
that means sometimes that you cannot get
the actual resolution that you want,
the actual frame rate that you want.
Compression is not that good as it could
be so that the technology is limited
by the manufacturers, maybe sometimes
because they have another product
that they want to sell or it's some other
decision, or sometimes it's just
that development time
is to maintain.
It's time for the hardware ran out and
nobody is developing the firmware any
further. And these are
hacking communities. We are targeting
this since quite
some time. Just to give you a few
examples, maybe some of, you know, the
Magic Lantern project, which is a
project that tries to
create an alternative framework for
various Collomb cameras, trying to make
them also available for video and for
other
issues and tools and usages
that were not actually intended to be.
And there is actually to this
date, except our project,
no professional open source solution for
camera, for video camera available.
So.
Actually, here I
put your quote of the Operators
Association
to explain a little bit what is the
idea behind the project. So the idea is
to create
completely free software
based cinema camera, but not only cinema
cameras, also any tools you might
need in the process of developing
or producing a
movie or moved image
production.
So.
This oxygen project introduces this first
professional extendible, an affordable
camera, also the idea of this
product is to make it modular.
So ideally at a later stage,
you don't have to throw away your camera,
but you can rebuild.
It is like a kind of a maintainable
repairable device that you can also
ideally develop your own modules
for, use it in various
different other uses that
were not intended originally or
also like develop your own
scientific applications for it, you name
it. So
short introduction to the project,
because I'm not aware if people know
the projects are good.
So this project was started in
this association in 2006 with
this idea to create
a professional moving image camera
based on the el-Fadl three through three
camera, which is I don't know if
people know the camera.
It's actually the camera which is used in
the in the OR actually the company
produces cameras mostly for Google Street
View and for the 360 panoramic
images. This was also
the reason why the development
of the previously existing
cameras in 2009 was frozen because
they were focusing mostly on this
panoramic solutions and less on the
professional moving images, video images,
cameras.
So in 2011,
the Axium project was started because
it was clear into 2011 that
it's no chance that the AFL would bring
in a more professional or
a new camera that was actually
announced several times but was never
released. So the idea was to start from
scratch and we didn't know at this time.
I didn't join the project this time.
But when I talk about
we like talking in this kind of
plural, it isn't like open source
project. So
the project then decided and the
people running the project at this time
decided to develop completely,
entirely new system based on
self developed hardware and completely
from scratch, actually.
So this association, the
Operators Association, was found
in 2012 and in 2013,
the first prototype was developed, which
I will show you briefly.
And in 2015, we
started a crowd funding for the oxygen
better, which actually was that
was the idea to pool together
with other people who are interested in
camera development to
get cheaper, but also to start
developing. This is actually the state
where we are right now.
And also in 2015, we started the
development of another camera, the
camera, which I will also briefly
introduce.
So what we
what first was happening in 2013 after
was developed is like
here you see the board like a very
rough and kind of bulky big prototype.
This was more of a proof of concept.
And this is how the case looked,
and basically you see
this here on a mounted on the rig,
kind of bulky big
hardware, but but usable and working.
So we shot a lot of
demo footage with it and we were actually
showcasing it.
Here you see it mounted on a crane
system.
And actually, what you
see is like and I chose this
picture for a reason, because if we look
at look professional, maybe it's a
professional, but definitely professional
production.
People always tend to
design the rigs themselves.
So it's like a DIY situation.
The rig is as a basis.
And so it's kind of
it looks like kind of messy.
But this is how usually rigs also look.
In this particular case, it didn't look
even that mess, in my opinion.
Here's another side of
the of the first rig of the
iPhone.
And now we have the baton,
which is actually
ready now. We have like three developing
versions actually done.
I brought also one with me.
So if somebody.
Thank you.
So if someone is interested in actually
watching it or like I can briefly show
also what is working already, what it's
not working, I'm trying to figure out
a way like maybe today after the talk
also tomorrow to four interested people
to to be able to sit outside
a little bit, watch through the features
and through what's actually already
working. And
so the idea was we wanted to develop this
camera, but of course, we need a lot of
money in a way to order all these kind
of PCP's.
And the sensors themselves are also
expensive. We are we looked into
various different kinds of models, but
usually the sensors around a thousand
euros or something like that.
And the complete pattern
we have it here, excluding the enclosure
is around two thousand three
hundred euros or something like that.
So what we did is with this crowdfunding
on Indiegogo, we collected interest
from the audiences and from people that
are interested in developing it and
then to pull together and to
develop this the first batch
of the cameras.
So currently we have like two slots
for modules.
But I will talk about this a little bit
later. So here you see the the case,
which is now not ready yet, but
this is how the case should look.
And also
what I said before, already every
blueprint and all the technical drawings,
everything is released on GitHub.
So also feel free to to look into the
files. And also
all possible aspects of the
of the camera are open source as far as
you can do that, because, of course, you
are limited with the sensors.
You have to buy the sensors from from
somewhere.
Our dream is to in the future, develop
our own center.
But this is very utopian
attempt because it's not that easy to
develop your own sense of there's a lot
of technology
and like a lot of patents.
And this is also the problem with the
camera. Of course, this is I will also
talk about this little bit
about how hard it is
it actually to to pick sensors and which
kind of sensors are possible.
So here you see an overview of the of the
better. On the left side, you see
the two modules. The top models are in
the plug in module slot.
This is basically the first attempt
to make this completely modular so
people can develop their own modules and
make, for example, different
processing modules.
For currently it's two
etched in my outputs.
But theoretically there could be other
uses as well.
It's basically
the possibilities are endless, almost.
So here I just copied out the specs
to give you an idea what is theoretically
possible with the sensor and also with
the with the with this camera.
So it's theoretically up
to 300 frames per second that full
resolution possible, which would be three
hundred frames per second for K in super
thirty five millimeters format,
which is like amazing.
Currently we cannot really
get like 300 fps,
but we are working on it and extending
it. And also developers jumped
in and are developing
on this current is like one person
actively developing on it.
And this is the third developer
Cameron outproduced.
We are actually trying to get more people
to have the camera to work with
it. So
we'll see how it currently looks without
inclosing.
And since,
of course, we have 3D printers around, we
also try to 3D print
one enclosure.
So the idea is also to to
have like different enclosures of
different materials, of enclosures,
all these kinds of aspects.
So just briefly, to give you
an idea, we also started a second
camera project, which is a kind of a spin
off of this camera.
But often people think it's the success
of the better, but it's actually not.
It's maybe a mistake to
name it like a better camera.
But The Comisar
is a kind of a more a bigger
and more professional camera.
And it's part of the whole project is
funded by Horizon 2020 from the European
Union. And we have a partner consortium.
Actually, the the whole project is
led by the University of Applied Arts in
Vienna. And we have
a consortium of companies and
and and also the Operators Association,
of course, to actually try
to develop ideally six or,
let's say, six prototypes
for the camera in 2016.
So this is how it would ideally look.
So you see, it's like quite different
from from what the better looks
like. The idea still is here
to have a completely modular camera, but
the modules are much more
much bigger and much more in
a way
more fitting in a kind of a production
setting. And also,
interestingly, what
we thought about would be would be maybe
a kind of. An interesting aspect also
for filming in different
and different styles also
is like here, the idea would be to
have the sense of replaceable so you
could theoretically like easier than
it is in the in the better.
Of course, also possible.
But you have to screw around a lot.
But in the camera, the idea is that it's
like a hot pluggable module,
ideally.
And currently, our plans
to to produce it from the technical
aspect outlined here, so basically,
as you see, it's a much more advanced
look like stronger camera,
which is more focused on the professional
movie production business
market. And like all these aspects,
because we think it's it's theoretically
there's a lot of demand there because
people are already used
to develop
their own rigs and to find like specific
cameras and to test around
a lot with different lenses and
esthetics.
But we thought also it's important to
have like a kind of an affordable, cheap,
small development vision to
possibly also find other uses
for it. So
I'm going to it to this light.
You see our team working
on the on the camera.
So this is what we do
and here's the slide from what I already
outlined a little bit. So the pattern is
more of a development kit than a compact
camera for, for example,
drones, Kimballs, cable cams.
And it also has, of course, the same
sensors because we are limited from the
sensors that we can choose.
But the Comisar professional kit
for all challenges, in a way, it's really
a production high end production
camera.
In a way, you can also put more modules
inside four modules.
So this is
ideally what we are aiming for, but this
is still in the future, so this will be
2016.
So the idea also
behind the whole project
is to make it look
easy, extendable and easy, accessible
to other developers. So ideally,
you don't need to be a
FPGA programmer to
use the camera.
So we are trying to make every aspect of
it as easy, understandable as possible.
But of course, it takes time.
Ideally, we have this open modular
concept. So we have this kind of demo
modules already produced which
are like HDMI output modules.
But ideally you can create
your own modules. It's like basically
limitless what you can do with these
modules and could also
easily exchange them.
Just to give you an example of what what
could be these kind of modules like
send sensor applications or
different other output modules, then, for
example, a mini display, part
of other output, but also like
processing or for example,
as a recording module.
There's a lot of possibilities in the
modules.
And here's a picture
of the HDMI module, which is now plugged
in in the the lower part.
And also the idea
of this ecosystem, so the whole
idea behind the camera and the whole
project is to have it completely produced
in Europe as far as it's possible,
because, of course, there's a lot of
problems like the censors.
You cannot check if they are really
produced, they're really produced, but
usually not in Europe.
And ideally, also,
we have a lot of people that can actually
work with the camera and repair it, for
example. And if enough people
use it, it becomes a kind of an ecosystem
by itself. So, for example, for rentals
or for special niche
applications such as underwater
videography or
there's like a lot of
different niches which would need this
kind of modularity in a camera.
Another small side project we are
developing is the Axium remote, which
is like a kind of a remote
control for these cameras, which would be
especially used, especially
usable for underwater applications.
So I think that's kind
of an I think you get the idea of the
ecosystem a little bit.
So currently we're just using it because
there's not enough developer units
out. I mean, it's like this is the third
one, but ideally people like Register and
you can maybe also also rent out
to other people to camera work and
actually the developers of the businesses
around it.
So there have also been a lot
of challenges and there still are a lot
of challenges.
So most of the challenges we
face are interfacing with proprietary
and closed devices.
Like, for example, we want to support all
possible video
recording devices that could
actually, of course, record
the stream. But it's not clear because
the developers of all this
proprietary Kramers don't really see
how they will how they use the
device mean you can actually they have to
somehow reverse engineer to actually look
what essent it's like really interesting
because there's like special molds for
all recording and all these
different aspects. But also, of course
this is a big
challenge regarding the sensors because
we have now three sensors which we can
use with the whole camera.
And it's it's actually interesting.
Interesting because we are to interface
and talk to a lot of sense of developers
and it's not clear if you get the right
documentation that they can use it in a
specific, productive way.
So sometimes you have to sign NDAs
and in the end you don't get all the
documentation you need.
So it's a kind of a small
amount of sense that we can use now.
But we think already it's changing
because the manufacturers already
saw that there might be demand.
Of course, they can sell more sensors.
So I think it has also
changed over the years.
I cannot say from now, but it looks
also that we might
be compatible with more sensors soon.
So another challenge would be dislocated
work, because it's a quite big community
of people working on this project,
not only on the cameras, but also on the
whole project around it.
But actually, it's it's working out and
also.
And yeah, I just want to
briefly also tell you how it's possible
to join the development of the joinder,
the whole project, so
currently we are manufacturing
the chemical, like really building the
Petter's and sending them to the
crowdfunding supporters at
cost. So that was also
what is our aim also to
to get a lot of people interested.
They want to develop with it.
And soon as far as
we can, as soon as we can actually
produce more, we will make
this kind of voucher system where
it's possible to to get this vouchers and
then also get the hardware on cost.
We found out that it's a lot of different
people that are interested in the in the
cameras because of different reasons.
Some think it's like a small camera
you can just get and then film with it.
It's not the case right now.
It's very hecky.
So it runs actually Norks.
And it's it's like kind of a
terminal setting.
It has no menu still.
We don't have an HTP interface, nothing.
So basically we are just in the very
early stages of developing
here. But of course, there are other
stages where people would actually join
in. So we thought with this you can
actually decide when you want the camera,
like regarding also
the features that are deployed already.
So.
Actually, I brought a video of
the demo footage Shot with the Better,
which I will briefly show you.
This was actually shot in.
Like in there in the realm of the camera.
So this was still not possible, which
is actually my output, but
it was like different modes also of
production. And also
you'll notice on the right side
that the problem with the center
configuration. So this is not a very
clean image, at least not on the right
side.
But the rest of it is is
is quite good.
We already fix this issue.
It's an open source project.
So, yeah.
If we see some errors, we try to fix it
fast, but you get
the idea, it's like already producing
these kind of images, all with a complete
workflow, which is which is nice.
Of course, we still need recording
devices which are
recording these images.
In the case, if you record it to the RAM,
you can completely maintain a complete
open source workflow in case a
recording from the demitasse, it's kind
of getting hard because that's only
proprietary devices out there.
So, yeah.
Um.
Basically, also, if you
want, you can start
with the.
You can contact us about.
And also, a lot of people
from the development team will be in
our seats. Feel free also to talk
to them. And of course, you can also talk
to me later on and possibly also
we will find a way to showcase
the camera. And also, if you're
interested to to to see
what is producers, what kind of pictures
to see this life.
And, yeah, of course, get in contact with
us or contact me directly.
But usually if you send to a team
of parties, people will react and will
try to answer. Your question
to ask is quite frequently
used. A lot of people are.
They are. Because also from the
dislocated nature of the project, this is
a necessity for us, how we work together.
So, yeah, feel free to
to join us.
And also, it would be nice if people are
interested to develop or to
actually join the project.
It would be.
You're very welcome, actually.
Thank you.
So I guess we have a couple of minutes
for Q&A. So just line up in front
of the microphone. Oh, there you go.
Quick question.
I see you said you have just three
ready cameras. Already
tried to any of them in some kind
of production setting like the Congress
or somewhere else, that you had the
cameras working for a few days
and to compare them with
the usual stuff that used the
proprietary cameras.
Can you again see the last
10? I didn't understand it.
And have you if you've ever
tried these cameras in such a production
setting, you compared
them to the proprietary cameras?
Yes. Yes. OK, maybe a good question,
actually. So what cameras
do they have always a kind of an image
sweetening so they changed the image.
It's not actually the clear
image. It would be on the sensor.
They have all the kind of specific ways
of dealing with the image and like,
for example, like smoothing it a little
bit and also that the firing is totally
different or it's different in most
of the cameras. And most importantly, you
cannot actually change this process
or you cannot change these sorts of
algorithms because you are like
in a way limited to what the manufacturer
gives you. So the idea with the with the
Axium cameras is also that you can even
have your own disbarring
algorithm running or like your own
different way of producing the
the image.
So it's yes, the answer is yes, it's
different.
And because.
Sorry to the microphone at my right.
Uh, you said it's possible to
put the images out of the realm in an
completely open source workflow, in
which interface do you put the images
out of Iran in this case?
It's it's connected to cameras connected
via the Internet cable and also
by USB cable.
So you have to dump it on the over
uh, of course,
it's like very limited.
So we can actually record a few seconds.
But this would be in this high
frame involved in this case.
It's like it's like a small in a way
you can compare it to a Raspberry Pi
because it's also like an arm.
So so you can just you have to top it off
with some some interface, which is fast
enough, of course.
What is the data rate that flows out of
the sensor into the RAM?
And this I cannot answer
in detail, but you can actually go to the
RC and ask the developer because I'm not
the developer of the camera.
OK, thank you.
Are you at some time planning also to
build photographic cameras or just
for filming?
Yes, of course it is actually a
photographic camera because it takes like
still images. So theoretically, we could
use it for for as a photographic
camera. But the sensors
are, of course, different because you
have like a high up pixel
sensors and they have not so,
so much frames per second the
photographic sensors. But theoretically,
you could if you find
the sensor, which is like, um, documented
enough, just find it.
And and and we
try if it's if it's working out.
But it's like it needs development
actually. So to do this.
But theoretically it's possible, of
course, because I sense they might be
interested in that as well.
Thank you, Ron.
Thank you. Yeah, and you
see Kemar currently being controlled
command line config files.
Currently it's a it's a command line
interface and you
control everything in the in the command
line. So we have a few scripts that run
specific settings like exposure.
So everything is really only
on the command line as for now, but
we are actively working on the
middleware, which runs in Python, which
is actually partly developed already
where we can actually have overlays,
which are, for example, the second HDMI
port visible.
So you have a menu structure
which is then programable and you can
actually
develop your own menus for it and for
your specific cases.
But also ideally we're thinking of
of an HTP interface where you
can easily get some
for example, also an API would be great
to have like where you can actually
remote control it.
But so we are planning this, of course.
But currently it's commenting on the.
Is it currently the camera cuts into
RAM or output's of HDMI,
other plans to change that record
to SD or SSD?
Yes, for the camera, definitely,
but for now, for the better.
We wanted to to develop a model
that works with kind of
existing technological solutions.
So its demise quite the standard,
although it also is not that
easy because its demise also not really
free format.
So we were thinking about
this play part, which would be possible,
but it's much more harder to develop.
So the next that the second
the next
small kind of plug
in module will be maybe Immunity's
ClipArt.
Yeah, hi, which Lensmen did you
use for your camera?
Theoretically, it's not for the first
one for the iPhone. We used the
F mount and this one is not
Sony, our format.
So basically the idea is to keep
a long distance to the sensor so that you
can apply other Lance molted
and you can apply adapter
so you can use the most variety
of lenses. Of course, there's no no motor
controls yet. So it's
like manual.
You have to manually.
I control the lenses and so one more
is which kind of are you going to think
about the projection of the cinema,
the projection of the cinema?
Are you going to do, like any projection
kind of open source for
the showing of a cinema?
Or it would be great, but it's
like this is really taking a lot of time
to develop this now.
But it be a great idea to one thing to
develop an open source project.
That would be awesome.
Great, thanks.
What do you think about using SDI
as an output instead of HDMI?
Yes, yes, of course.
I mean, also we are thinking of an
Australian module, but for now, it
was really the easiest to develop the EMR
module. We are thinking of
in the in the camera, of course, to
have a Schweinsteiger module.
But for now, we want to make it also
fast available because developers
want to use it already.
And a lot of people have ideas about how
to extend its radius to to
to research all this and to make this,
like, available fast to everyone that
people can can start thinking of their
own modules and developing this.
But it's definitely planned.
OK, thank you.
Good.
So I think they're done and
give our players another big round
of applause for yes.