OPERATIONS MANUAL

(for ver. 4.62 Wimdows users) Form 6 Physics Project Prepared by F6B students: Aska (11) Leon (16) Johnny (22) William (23) 30/01/2012

OPERAT IONS MANUAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

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1.0 OVERVIEW

1.1 Introduction to Tracker

Tracker is a free video analysis and modeling tool built on the Open Source Physics (OSP) Java framework. Features include object tracking with position, velocity and acceleration overlays and graphs, special effect filters, multiple reference frames, calibration points, line profiles for analysis of spectra and interference patterns, and dynamic particle models. It is designed to be used in introductory college physics labs and lectures.

1.2 System Requirements

Tracker requires Java 1.5 or higher to run on Windows and Linux and Java 1.6 on Mac OS X. Tracker also supports QuickTime 7 (Windows/Mac only).

1.3 Getting Started

Before start using Tracker, you need to ensure Java 1.5 (or higher) is installed on your computer. Verify and/or install Java Download the most recent Java installer from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/. The JRE (JavaRuntime Environment) is all you need. If Java has already been installed, please skip this step. Download the latest version of Tracker http://www.cabrillo.edu/~dbrown/tracker/installers/Tracker-4.62-windowsinstaller.exe After downloading and installing Tracker, you may need to choose/search Tracker from the start menu to open it up. Keep in mind that Tracker can analyze three different video types: 1. digital video files including MOV, AVI, MP4, FLV and WMV files. 2. animated GIF files (.gif). 3. Image sequences consisting of one or more digital images (.jpg, .png) Check carefully if the media files are supported, or you might need to convert your video before importing into the software.
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The User Interface

General interface view Components explained A main video view that displays video images with track overlays. The video view has a fixed,stable video image. Tracks are marked and edited in the video view.

A menu bar that offers access to most program commands and settings. Some menu items include icons showing which toolbar buttons perform identical actions.

A two-tiered toolbar, displayed directly below the menu bar, that offers quick access to frequently used controls, tools, track settings and data fields.

A player that controls the video playback and video clip settings. Additional views in attached view panes. Open, close or resize a view by clicking or dragging the thin dividers between panes or by selecting the desired view from the Window menu. Maximize or restore a view by clicking its Maximize button or double-clicking its toolbar.

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1.0 OVERVIEW

In the toolbar - The order of the buttons on the main toolbar closely match the steps used to analyze a video. They include (from left to right):

Open button opens a digital video or tracker file in a new tab. Open Library Browser button opens the OSP Digital Library Browser for webbased videos and tracker files. Save button saves the current tab in a tracker file. Clip Settings button shows and hides the clip inspector. Calibration button shows and hides the calibration stick, calibration points and/or offset origin. Axes button shows and hides the coordinate axes. Create button creates a new track in the current tab. Track Control button shows and hides the track control. Zoom button turns on the zoom tool. Trails button sets the length of all trails. Labels button shows and hides all labels. Path button shows and hides all paths. Positions button shows and hides all point mass positions. Velocities button shows and hides all point mass velocity vectors. Accelerations button shows and hides all point mass acceleration vectors. Stretch button stretches all vectors. Dynamics button multiplies all motion vectors by mass. Notes button shows and hides the notes window.

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2.0 FUNCTIONALITY

2.1 Tracks
A track represents a video feature that evolves over time. All interactive elements in Tracker, including the axes, measuring tools and calibration tools, are tracks. Creating a track (Point mass) Create a new track by selecting the desired track type from the Create button menu on the toolbar or the Track > New menu on the menu bar. A newly created track is automatically selected for marking. The Autotracker feature (shown in below right)

Tips: Marking the track there are 2 ways A. Manual tracking: shift-click once to mark a step at the mouse position, or shift-enter to mark a step at the exact location of the previous step. You may need to zoom in for accurate tracking. B. Autotracking: point mass tracks can be automatically marked as long as the feature of interest has a consistent shape, size, color and orientation.

2.0 FUNCTIONALITY

2.2 Coordinate Axis

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The coordinate axes show the location of the origin and direction of the positive x-axis of the coordinate system. The origin is at the intersection of the axes and the positive xaxis is indicated by a tick mark near the origin. Displaying the axes Display the axes by clicking the axes button Set up of the axis on the toolbar.

Select and drag or nudge the origin to a desired location in the main video view. Select and drag or nudge the positive x-axis to rotate the axes about the origin. Hold down the shift key torestrict angles to 5 degree increments. The angle is displayed in the angle field on the toolbar. A desired angle may be entered directly in this field.

2.3 Calibration Stick s

The calibration stick is the most commonly used tools for calibrating the video scale --i.e., the ratio of the world distance in meters (or any desired length unit) to the image distance in pixels between two points. A calibration stick can also be used to correct for tilt in the video image. Creating and using a calibration stick

2.0 FUNCTIONALITY

Click the arrow on the Calibration button on the toolbar and select New > Calibration Stick to create a new calibration stick.

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The calibration stick is initially placed near the center of the video image, and its world length is determined using the current scale. The world length and angle from the xaxis are displayed on the toolbar.

2.4 Autotracker
When a video feature of interest has a consistent shape, size, color and orientation in all video frames, it can be tracked automatically using autotracker. This eliminates the need to mark each frame manually with the mouse, thus speeding up the tracking process and producing more consistent data. Using autotracker 1. Select the target track. 2. Shift-control-click the video feature of interest to create a key frame. This will display autotracker if it is not already visible. 3. Verify that the feature of interest is visible and reasonably consistent (shape, size, color and orientation) in all frames. If not, click the Clip Settings button on the

toolbar to adjust the start frame, end frame and/or step size until this condition is met. 4. Select the object you wish to be autotracked and set the centre of mass of the object 5. Click the Search button Note: The Autotracker feature is very useful this function is better illustrated in practical situation. For detail explanation of autotracker, please refer to the section TRACKER IN ACTION.
2.0 FUNCTIONALITY

to start autotracking.

2.5 Particle Models

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A particle model track is a mathematical model of a point mass. The step positions of the particle are determined by the parameters of the model rather than being marked with the mouse. Building models Particle model properties are displayed and edited using the Model Builder tool. To use the builder, choose Model Builder... from the model's track menu.

Note: Note that this modeling functionality would only be suitable once you have tracked / analyzed your videos, and can only be applied in case you have given an equation that relates the motion of the object (as you need to set the parameters of the model in order for this to work)
3.0 TRACKER IN ACTION

3.1 Project I Tracking a car down an incline

This is a step by step tutorial on how to use Tracker to analyze a video.
Open a video or tracker file

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Click the Open

button m and select a digital video (mov, avi, mp4, flv,wmv, etc.)

Identify the frames ("video clip") you wish to analyze Display the clip settings by clicking the Clip Settings button wish to analyze. You may drag the player's slider to scan through the video and quickly find the frames of interest. If the video contains too many frames to analyze (more than 20 or so can become tedious), increase the Step size to automatically skip frames if necessary Note: Note that different videos may need different settings. You may need to play around with the settings to get your desired frames tracked on the toolbar.

In the clip settings dialog, set the Start frame and End frame to define the range you

3.0 TRACKER IN ACTION

Set the reference frame origin and angle Click the Axes button to show the coordinate axes. Drag the origin and/or x-axis to

set the reference frame origin and angle, as shown below.

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Calibrate the scale Click the Calibration button and select the calibration stick.

3.0 TRACKER IN ACTION

Drag the ends of the calibration stick to a video feature with known length Tips: Setting of the Calibration stick For example, in the figures below the scale is set in meter units using a video image of 0.9 metre.
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Track objects of interest with the mouse or model them with particle models. Click the Create button and choose a track type from the menu of choices. Most moving objects are tracked using a Point Mass track.

3.0 TRACKER IN ACTION

Tips: Renaming tracks for better identification You may rename your point mass clicking on the target track on the Track panel and select name to rename it to your desired name. Tips: Manuel tracking or Autotracking Autotracking: When tracking an object, mark its position on every frame by

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holding down the shift key and clicking the mouse (

) as the video

automatically steps through the video clip. Don't skip frames If you do, velocities and accelerations cannot be determined. Point mass tracks may also be marked automatically using autotracker. In this case, autotracker would be a effective way. Click on the target track (Car) > Autotracker

Shift-control-click the video feature of interest to create a key frame. This will display autotracker if it is not already visible. Select the object you wish to be autotracked and set the centre of mass of the object (as shown in the figures)
3.0 TRACKER IN ACTION

Click Search to start autotracking.

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Just sit back and relax let Tracker do its job. It will automactically plot a graph for you.

Tips: Obtaining different data / graphs Change the variables on the axes by simply clicking once on the axis label and choose from the list. A double-click on the graph gives a clearer presentation 3.0 TRACKER IN ACTION

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3.2 Project II Tracking periodic motion (pendulum experiment)

Follow the previous tutorial steps for: 1. Import the video 2. Select the target frames for analysis 3. Set up the axis and the Calibration stick. 4. Create a point mass, rename it and select the Autotracker option Note: This project (II) is just another partical circumstance. The fact is the steps towards obtaining the graphs is the same as to how it is done in Project I

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3.0 TRACKER IN ACTION

Now, Shift-control-click the video feature of interest to create a key frame. This will display autotracker if it is not already visible. Select the object you wish to be autotracked and set the centre of mass of the object (as shown below.)

Hit Search to let the software run. The Autotracker should be able to analyse the desired frames (you should set these in the Clip Settings in advance.)

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3.0 TRACKER IN ACTION

Once again, you can change the variables on the axes to obtain differnet graphs

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