libseek-thermal

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:

NOTE: The library does not support absolute temperature readings since we don't know how. Any pull requests to fix this are welcome!

Credits

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

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

Build

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 ../

Windows

This library and example programs can be built on Windows with multiple versions of Microsoft Visual Studio. This is most readily done with Visual Studio 2015 or newer, as dependancy binaries for Windows are available from the official projects, as described below.

libusb is required, and Windows binaries are available from the offical libusb project.

• Download the latest binary release (files ending in .7z) from libusb GitHub Releases
• Extract the archive
• If using libusb-1.0.24 or greater you will need to copy the contents (MS64 & MS32) of the VS201X directory approriate for your version of visual studio up into the root libusb-1.0.X directory.
• Set LIBUSB_DIR to the extracted directory (e.g., C:\local\libusb-1.0.23)

OpenCV is required, and Windows binaries are available from the official OpenCV project.

• Download one of the Windows releases from the OpenCV releases page (3.x and 4.x work)
• Run the self-extracting archive
• Set OpenCV_DIR to the build directory containing OpenCVConfig.cmake (e.g., C:\local\opencv-3.4.10\build)

Consider setting the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to a location in your build directory. Then after running the INSTALL target, copy the libusb and OpenCV libraries (e.g., libusb-1.0.dll and opencv_world430.dll) to the bin\ directory containing seek_test.exe.

Before this library or example programs will work, you will need to set the driver for the USB device. The simplest way to do this is to use Zadig. Run Zadig, then select iAP Interface, select libusb-win32, then click Install Driver.

Configuring USB access

You need to add a udev rule to be able to run the program as non root user, and another rule to prevent the kernel from putting the device to sleep. (If the camera is put to sleep, running any utility will fail with Error: control transfer failed: LIBUSB_ERROR_PIPE and you will be forced to unplug the camera and plug it back in again.)

Udev rules:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="289d", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0010", MODE="0666", GROUP="users"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="289d", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0010", TEST=="power/control", ATTR{power/control}:="on"

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="289d", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0011", MODE="0666", GROUP="users"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="289d", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0011", TEST=="power/control", ATTR{power/control}:="on"

Put the above in /etc/udev/rules.d/90-seekcam.rules.

The lines with MODE= set the device to be readable and writable by everyone, and the lines with power/control prevent sleep. idProduct==0011 corresponds to the Seek Pro and idProduct==0010 applies to the Seek Compact and Seek Compact XR.

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
./examples/seek_snapshot   # Takes still images, 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

seek_viewer

seek_viewer is bare bones UI for the seek thermal devices. It can display video on screen, record it to a file, or stream it to a v4l2 loopback device for integration with image processing pipelines. It supports image rotation, scaling, and color mapping using any of the OpenCV color maps. While running f will set the display output full screen and s will freezeframe.

seek_viewer --camtype=seekpro --colormap=11 --rotate=0                          # view color mapped thermal video
seek_viewer --camtype=seekpro --colormap=11 --mode=file --output=seek.avi       # record color mapped thermal video
seek_viewer --camtype=seekpro --colormap=11 --mode=v4l2 --output=/dev/video0    # stream the thermal video to v4l2 device

seek_snapshot

seek_snapshot takes still images. This is useful for intergrating into shell scripts. It supports rotation and color mapping in the same manner as seek_viewer. Run with --help for all options.

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 -tseek

# When using the Seek Thermal compact pro
seek_create_flat_field -tseekpro

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

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

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

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

Framebuffer Implementation

In order to run this program from a raspberry pi zero connected to a small 2.2" 320x240 screen, I have implemented a framebuffer output for the program. Instead of OpenCV opening a window under X, the image will be sent to the /dev/fb0 device, which draws on the screen directly. This will not work if you're running X. I have also implemented functions for the buttons on gpio pins 17, 22, 23, and 27 - 17 starts a flat field, 22 switches to a variable colorbar scale, 23 sets a fixed colorbar scale based on whatever you're currently looking at, and 27 takes a still image (if you hold down 27 it shuts down the system).

This implementation is based around the Adafruit 2.2" TFT display (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2315) set in raw text-only mode based on their setup script. I have used a raspberry pi zero so that you can directly plug the SEEK thermal camera into the pi without adapters. Because of this, I had to solder the screen to the back of the pi instead of the front, which made for much more complicated wiring.