[ros-users] image_proc doesn't work with camera1394

[Jack O'Quin]

On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 6:35 PM, Eric Perko <wisesage5001 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm currently trying to use the ROS image_pipeline and the new
> camera1394 driver to get some Point Grey 1394 cameras up and running.
> For some reason, I am unable to view any of the topic being published
> by image_proc. First, here is the launch file I am using to start up
> the camera and image_proc:
>
> <launch>
> <node pkg="camera1394" type="camera1394" name="left">
> <param name="guid" value="00b09d010061ab25" />
> <param name="video_mode" value="640x480_rgb" />
> <param name="camera_info_manager/url"
> value="file:///home/eric/code/cwrucam/cwrucam/calibration/calibration_left.yaml"
> />
> </node>
> <node pkg="image_proc" type="image_proc" name="proc" ns="left/camera" />
> </launch>
>
> After running this, I get the following output from rostopic list -v:
>
> Published topics:
>  * /left/camera/image_rect_color [sensor_msgs/Image] 1 publisher
>  * /left/camera/image_rect [sensor_msgs/Image] 1 publisher
>  * /left/camera/camera_info [sensor_msgs/CameraInfo] 1 publisher
>  * /rosout [roslib/Log] 2 publishers
>  * /left/camera/image_raw [sensor_msgs/Image] 1 publisher
>  * /rosout_agg [roslib/Log] 1 publisher
>  * /left/camera/image_color [sensor_msgs/Image] 1 publisher
>  * /left/camera/image_mono [sensor_msgs/Image] 1 publisher
>
> Subscribed topics:
>  * /clock [unknown type] 3 subscribers
>  * /rosout [roslib/Log] 1 subscriber
>
> So, based on that, I can see that the image_proc node is actually up
> and running. I am able to do "rosrun image_view image_view
> image:=/left/camera/image_raw" and see the color image from my camera
> streaming in. rostopic hz also confirms that both
> /left/camera/image_raw and /left/camera/camera_info are running at
> about 15 fps.
>
> Now, when I run "rosrun image_view image_view
> image:=/left/camera/image_rect_color" (or any other image_proc
> published topic), I get a blank window with no image in it. Running
> rostopic list -v again while the image_view node is running gives me
> the following:
>
> Published topics:
>  * /left/camera/image_rect_color [sensor_msgs/Image] 1 publisher
>  * /left/camera/image_rect [sensor_msgs/Image] 1 publisher
>  * /left/camera/camera_info [sensor_msgs/CameraInfo] 1 publisher
>  * /rosout [roslib/Log] 3 publishers
>  * /left/camera/image_raw [sensor_msgs/Image] 1 publisher
>  * /rosout_agg [roslib/Log] 1 publisher
>  * /left/camera/image_color [sensor_msgs/Image] 1 publisher
>  * /left/camera/image_mono [sensor_msgs/Image] 1 publisher
>
> Subscribed topics:
>  * /left/camera/image_rect_color [sensor_msgs/Image] 1 subscriber
>  * /clock [unknown type] 4 subscribers
>  * /left/camera/camera_info [sensor_msgs/CameraInfo] 1 subscriber
>  * /rosout [roslib/Log] 1 subscriber
>  * /left/camera/image_raw [sensor_msgs/Image] 1 subscriber
>
> So, I can see that image_proc is subscribing to the correct topics and
> image_view is also on the correct topic. I also tried starting the
> image_proc node from the command line as indicated at
> http://www.ros.org/wiki/image_proc but got the exact same behavior as
> with the launch file. In either case, rostopic hz
> /left/camera/image_rect_color just outputs that it is subscribing to
> the topic and waits.
>
> I'm pretty sure the camera is properly calibrated, as I just finished
> calibrating it using the directions at
> http://www.ros.org/wiki/camera_calibration/Tutorials/MonocularCalibration
> and it worked fine and output a .yaml file when I hit upload in the
> calibration GUI. rostopic echo on the /left/camera/camera_info topic
> gives me the values that are in the calibration file. I'm assuming
> that even if the calibration were somehow off, I should still at least
> see the image_pipeline attempting to display an image_rect_color
> topic.
>
> So, I'm a bit stumped as to what to do to narrow down what is causing
> this behavior, since I get no error output in any of my terminal
> windows. I'm running the latest based on these .rosinstall files:
> http://ros.org/rosinstalls/latest_pr2.rosinstall with
> http://www.ros.org/rosinstalls/wg_latest_devel.rosinstall in an
> overlay.
>
> Are there some steps I can take to try to debug this problem? Has
> anyone else experienced this type of issue with the new camera1394
> driver?

Thanks for the report, Eric.

You seem to be farther along than I have gotten with this driver. From
your report, it looks like the things I tested so far are working
(image_raw, camera_info, set_camera_info), and your driver setup looks
right to me.

I have not yet tried to run a rectified image with it. Maybe the
driver is not producing exactly what image_proc expects. Perhaps the
ROS experts can help us.

Did the calibration data look sensible? What was saved in this file?

  /home/eric/code/cwrucam/cwrucam/calibration/calibration_left.yaml

There are still some known problems with saving the calibration data
initially. The YAML parser does not tolerate missing or empty files
very well. So, if the calibration looks wrong, try waiting to set the
camera_info_manager/url parameter until after the driver has started
and before running the calibration. Then, it should start up with no
calibration, but still store the data where you want them.

I'll try to duplicate your test and let you know what (if anything) I
discover. I probably won't get to it tonight, however.

Regards,
-- 
 joq