I am doing relative motion analysis and am wondering if there is a way to do a simple image stabilization? I am able to track multiple points and am interested in stabilizing a series of frames to one of the tracked points. I have a background that is featureless so I just need frames shifted such that the point I tracked stays fixed relative to the screen and the other pixels are shifted accordingly.
I've just started using a high end video editor (DaVinci Resolve), and think video editing software might be one avenue you could consider. Resolve has some pretty robust tracking and stabilization features. They have a free version that might let you accomplish what you're looking for. I'll warn you, it's an imposingly deep piece of software.
Then again, there might be something in Kinovea but I've never needed this type of capability. Good luck in your search!
- joan
- Admin
- Offline
Just to confirm, there is currently no image stabilization in Kinovea.
If it's for measurement purposes what you can do is track the origin of the coordinate system, this way the other points and lines will be measured with regards to that moving origin.
I made several experiments with regards to stabilization and moving shots over the years and to be honest it's mainly an issue of user interface and integration. I'm not really sure how to "present" this functionality in a well integrated way because it's modifying the video frames themselves and possibly the canvas size necessary to show them. Similarly you will note that there is lens distortion correction but the way it works is that it distorts the coordinate system instead of undistorting the images.
It does feel like a pre-processing step to everything else done in Kinovea and for now it has to be done in a separate app prior to loading.
Thank you both for your responses. DaVinci Resolve interesting, but I am not sure I need a tool quite that complex. The note about tracking the origin is helpful although I don't think I have the calibrated imagery to truly leverage it. I think as it stands Kinovea gets me 95% of what I am needing.
I can see where visualizing it can get messy as either frames have to be cropped down or moved around a canvas. I have actually been thinking about it more as a final post-processing step rather than a pre-processing step. My thought has been after I track points and annotate the frames, it could be a save option. For my use, I think it would only need a couple inputs such as the coordinates for a tracked point, the X,Y pixel location within a frame to place it, and a frame size to crop to. If there is negative space after shifting a frame, it could be filled in with white or grey. In terms of visualizing, I would be okay with a bit of trial and error where I output video or frames, then open them in another kinovea session until I get the framing right.
The output I am looking for is essentially what the magnifier shows while it has tracking turned on. I understand its a complicated problem but thought it was worth asking if the feature existed before looking for other software.
- joan
- Admin
- Offline
By the way are you trying to remove general shakiness of the video or is the tracked point independently moving?
I am trying to stabilize around an independently moving point. My imagery could be considered effectively shake free. My imagery contains multiple independent objects that I am wanting to analyze, but the imagery is only centered on one of them. If I labeled the objects A, B, and C, the video was captured with A in the center of view. The behavior of A to B and A to C is relatively easy to observe as my imagery is stabilized around A. The behavior of B to C is where I am having difficulties. I'd like to be able to create a new video such that it was centered on B so that the behavior of C relative to B can be reviewed. Using tracked points, the relative motion can be computed, but the numerical values are only part of the analysis. With both points moving it is very difficult to observe what is happening between points B and C and make visual comparisons between tests.