Explore camera functions in Orbbec Viewer

1.  Orbbec Viewer Special feature Summary

Orbbec Viewer is a one-stop preview tool service platform launched by Orbbec, based on the Orbbec SDK. In addition to standard functionalities such as turning data streams on and off, controlling data streams, and storing data streams, it also supports some special features as outlined in the table below:

2.  Check device connection

When you connect an Orbbec 3D camera to a host platform such as a Windows PC or a Linux development board using a USB cable, the camera can be enumerated without the need for additional driver installation. This means that the operating system recognizes and configures the device automatically, allowing you to begin using it immediately.

On a Windows platform, you can quickly access the Device Manager to verify the connection and enumeration of the Orbbec 3D camera. Here’s how you can do this:

Open Device Manager:

1. 1. Press the ‘Win + R ‘ keys simultaneously to open the Run dialog box.
   2. Type ‘devmgmt.msc’ and press ‘Enter’ or click OK. This command launches the Device Manager.

Check the Camera Enumeration:

1. 1. In the Device Manager window, look under the “Cameras” or “Imaging devices” section. You should see the Orbbec 3D camera listed there if it has been properly recognized and enumerated by the system.

Verify Device Status:

1. 1. Double-click on the camera entry to open its properties. Check the device status to ensure there are no errors reported, such as driver issues or connection problems.

On a Linux platform, you can easily enumerate and view details about connected USB devices, including an Orbbec 3D camera, by using the lsusb command in the terminal. This command lists all USB devices connected to your system and provides valuable information about each device, such as their ID and description.

Once you’ve confirmed that the Orbbec 3D camera is successfully connected to your computer, you can proceed to run the Orbbec Viewer software. When the Orbbec Viewer is open, the current device connection status will be prominently displayed in the top left corner of the application window. This area provides instant feedback about whether the camera is connected and functioning properly.

When using the Orbbec Viewer, the connection information provided allows you to access important details about the connected device, such as the model number, serial number (SN code), and the data interface. To view this information for all currently connected devices, you can use the dropdown menu on the right side of the interface. As shown below:

Hovering the mouse over the serial number (SN) of any device will display more detailed information about the device, including the Name (product name), PID (product identification code), SN (serial number), and UID (unique identifier for connected devices).

3. Camera Control

3.1 Device Control

Open the “Device Control” tab and the following setting items will appear.

“Preset” is a variety of preset provided by Orbbec. It has provided the most suitable product configuration for scenarios with specific needs to provide depth quality that meets the needs. Currently includes: Default, High Accuracy, High Density, Medium Density, Hand and one user-defined preset called Custom. For details on the applicable scope of each mode, see “Depth Preset” document.

“Preset” also supports loading or exporting in the form of “.Json”.

The “Laser Control” function primarily targets the LDM (Laser Dot Module) and LRM (Laser Ranging Module), controlling the speckle emission module and the laser ranging module. The laser can be toggled on or off with the “on” or “off” selections. There is also an “Laser On-Off Alternately” feature which controls the sequential toggling of the laser.

Choosing “off” disables the alternating switch feature. Selecting “On-Off” activates the “switch on, switch off” mode, and choosing “Off-On” sets it to “switch off, switch on” mode. When the laser is off, the IR camera captures a clear IR image, useful for applications such as Visual SLAM (VSLAM). When the laser is on, the IR camera captures a speckled IR image, which facilitates the acquisition of higher quality depth maps.

The “Laser Ranging Module” can activate the LRM module to determine the distance of obstacles in front of the camera, especially those within the blind spots of stereo cameras. The “Status Update” option allows for automatic updates every 1000 milliseconds (1 second) or manual updates through a manual refresh button. The displayed range of obstacle distances is from 0 to 400mm.

The laser energy is controlled by the “Level Control”,  divided into seven levels from 0 to 6, where level 0 means the laser is off, and levels 1 to 6 increase in energy incrementally, with level 6 being the highest energy state. The higher the laser energy level, the brighter the speckles projected at the same distance, and the higher the power consumption of the camera. The “Actual Level” section displays the current actual level of laser energy. Each level increases by 60mW.

The “Sync Config” allows control over the camera’s frame synchronization (between depth and RGB) or multi-device synchronization (among multiple devices). For details of multi-device synchronization, see the document “External Synchronization”.

The “Trigger Capture Config” enables timed or manual capture. The number of captures can be set from 1 to 255, and the interval can be set up from 1 to 2000 ms. If “Timed Capture” is not enabled, it will capture only once. However, if “Timed Capture” is enabled, it will capture snapshots at the set intervals. “Manual Capture” can be initiated by clicking the “CaptureOnce”  button .For details of “Trigger Capture Config”, see the document “Triggering”

3.2 Depth

The depth special features of the camera include “Depth Unit“, “AE ROI“, and “HDR” functions.

Depth Unit: This represents the unit of measurement for depth data output. Once “Disparity to Depth” is activated, the MX6800 chip outputs the data in a 16-bit unsigned integer format, with a value range from 0 to 65535. Under the default setting of 1mm per unit, the output depth range is 0 – 6.5535 meters. To enhance the precision of data output at closer distances and expand the output range at farther distances, Orbbec Viewer provides a selection of depth units ranging from 0.001mm to 10mm, with increments of 0.001mm. Using smaller depth units at close range can enhance precision.

HDR (High Dynamic Range): The Orbbec Gemini 330 series cameras support Depth HDR function, which involves applying different exposure times and gains to depth data. Typically, this includes one long exposure time and one short exposure time, allowing for the capture of different scene effects with varied exposure settings to enhance the dynamic range of the capture results. The settings for “HDR” exposure times and gains can be adjusted as shown in the diagram below. The default output depth is not fused.

“Advanced Control”–>”Post-Processing” can set up post process of“HDRMerge”. After that, the output depth will be fused.

“Advanced Control”–>Other options in “Post-Processing” are detailed in the documentation “Use Post-Processing Filter Blocks”.

Buttons above the preview window function as the table below：

Stream preview windows	Button	Instruction
		Maximize/minimize the current data flow rendering display
		Show/hide current data stream metadata information
		Pause current data stream rendering display
		Start current data stream rendering display
		Get snapchat
		Enlarge the current data stream preview window
		Restore default preview window size
		Stop current data stream
		Adjust the IMU preview coordinate system visual effect range

3.3 IMU(Inertial Measurement Unit)

“Orbbec Viewer” has implemented a data correction function for the IMU. For details, please refer to “IMU data correction” document.

The calibration of the gyroscope is based on the calibration of the accelerometer. After the accelerometer is calibrated, the theoretical value of the acceleration of gravity can be obtained by integrating according to the z-direction component of the acceleration, and then compared with the direction data obtained by the gyroscope to obtain cost parameter to perform correction.

IMU data also supports saving and can be recorded for any length of time. The time unit is s. The recording data is stored in the /installation path/output/IMU folder.

3.4 Save Image

Orbbec Viewer supports storing depth, RGB, left IR, and right IR data. You can store rendering screenshots and original images through the screenshot button  on the preview windows, or you can check the data stream under the “Image Save” option and then save it.

Storage methord	Interface display	Storage
Method 1：screenshot button on the preview windows		Rendering snapshot & image map & raw data for Depth & IR & Color stream. Csv table for IMU stream.
Method 2：Save Image Tab		Image map for Depth & IR & Color stream.

4. Advanced Function

4.1  PointCloud

PointCloud stream can be displayed as two methods below：

1.Start the stream by clicking the“PointCloud” Button：

2.Start the stream by clicking the “Stream” button in PointCloud tab；

Point cloud alignment modes include “Disable”, “D2C(SW)”, and “C2D(SW)”. The default configuration is “D2C (SW)”. D2C and C2D actually refer to the spatial alignment of the depth image and the color image. “SW” refers to alignment on the host (such as Windows PC or Linux development board) platform, which will consume the computing power of the host. Depth and color resolution can be selected using the options below.

“Depth scale” function is to be completed later.

The “frame synchronization” function enables the synchronization of depth and color images to ensure timestamp alignment.

After turning on the “Point Cloud” stream, you can click the  button to obtain the intrinsic and distortion parameters of the camera at the current resolution. If the current state is D2C, the depth and color intrinsic parameters are the same, the color distortion is the actual calibration distortion parameter, and the depth distortion parameter is 0. Rotation parameters are[1,0,0;0,1,0;0,0,1]，translation parameters are [0,0,0]，the origin of both is the same point. Parameter example is shown below：

4.2 Image view

Through the image view, you can check the depth and color image overlay effects after D2C or C2D, and confirm whether the depth and color images are aligned. Click the “Display”  button to open the depth color alignment view. You can check the overlay alignment effect through the “Overlay” button, and adjust the transparency of the overlay depth rendering effect through the “Alpha” tab.

In the “Save Data(count)” tab, you can set the number of alignment images to be saved, and click  to start saving images. Default image storage location: /installation path/output/sn/DepthToColor folder.

You can also use the button above the preview window to store original data (raw format) and rendered screenshots (png), as well as aligned data tables.

4.3 Record-Playback

The recording-playback function includes the recording and playback functions of the ROS bag. Click “Start” under the “Record:” option to start recording a bag. When you need to end it, click the “End” button.

When playing back the ROSbag package, you need to select the path of the playback file first, and click  to import the local file. Click the “Start” button to start playback; click the “End” button to end playback.

Note: OrbbecViewer can only play back the ROSbag recorded by Orbbec device.

5. More Function

5.1 Device Info

Click the ” ” icon on the left to enter the “More” interface. Device information can be obtained on this interface.

The first part is product information and log level. Log levels are divided into: DEFAULT, DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL. Detailed information can be found in the document.

The second part is the module’s temperature information, “Heartbeat “, and reboot function. In the second part, you can intuitively obtain the temperature information of key components of the camera; you can also reboot the device through the button; you can also open the “heartbeat package” to obtain device connection information regularly.

5.2 Hardware Upgrade

In the “Firmware Upgrade” option, you can check the firmware that supports online upgrade, which will be displayed at the top of the interface;

You can also click the button to read local files for upgrade. Note that when upgrading, all data streams need to be closed. After the upgrade is completed, you can click the “Yes” button on the prompt to complete the device restart. After restarting, the device will automatically connect.

In addition to the above two methods, it can also be upgraded through the firmware upgrade tool of OrbbecSDK. Please refer to the usage document. “Hardware Upgrade”.