3D Capture Using Fujifilm 3D Camera Copyright 201 3 Apis Footwear
Assembly and Settings 1. Assembly If your camera came without the projector attached, then you need to do it yourself. First remove the 4 screws from camera's mounting hole. Then, mount the projector using the 4 screws found in a plastic bag. The projector lens should be in front of the camera's flash. The second picture shows what it looks like after the projector is mounted to the camera. 2. Camera Settings Before shooting 3D images, please make sure the camera is set as follows: a. Tele/Wide thumb is pushed to the left. b. The shooting mode is set to Auto. c. The image format is set to 3D. d. The flash option is set to Forced Flash. e. Press Menu button, set ISO to 400, set Image Size to S16:9, set Image Quality to Normal. f. The self timer is set to 2 seconds. To set the timer, press the Self timer button and then select 2s.
Lighting In order to get the 3D data of the object to be casted, we need to use the camera flash to project stripes onto the object. And the environmental light will affect directly the contrast of the projected stripes. If the environmental light is too bright, the stripes will be whitened out if the environmental light is too dark, the camera can not get a good focus. However in practice, we found out that as long as your eyes can see the darkest area of the room, the camera focusing will not be an issue. So you may need to dim the office light in order to get good stripe contrast, and the foot bottom or foot impression should face the opposite direction of the environmental light. If your office has a window, you can turn off the office light completely. The lighting condition can be checked this way: a. Set the camera flash mode to "No Flash" b. Place a piece of letter size paper in front of the camera at a distance of 20 inches c. Depress the shutter button half way Look at the displayed shutter speed at the bottom left corner of the screen, see the picture at right. If the displayed shutter speed is under 20, then the environment light is not too bright. The ideal number is around 10. But remember to set the flash back on after testing. TOO BRIGHT If you can not dim the office light to bring it to the acceptable brightness, you can turn off the ceiling light completely and use a low powered (10W 25W) desk lamp instead. The two pictures at right show are the examples of the stripes over exposure and correct exposure. DIMMED LIGHT
Image Capture 1. Camera Position TOO FAR The distance between the camera and the foot or the foam box should be approximately 20 inches. If you don't have a ruler handy, your arm length will serve the purpose just fine. The picture at right shows an example when the shooting distance is too far. A tripod is highly recommended. 2. Labeling If you are casting more than one patient at a time, it is highly recommended that, you write the patient's name/id on on a piece of paper with a marker pen (ball pen is too thin to be picked up by the camera), and place it besides the foot or foot impression, so that it can be captured together. Later when you submit your pictures, you know which one is which. 3. Object Framing Because the brightness, contrast, and sharpness of the projected stripes are not very good around the edge areas, so the object in the camera's display should occupy 1/2 3/4 of the display. You need to check the preview with only one eye open at a time to make sure the object is within 3/4 range of the window with either eyes, see the red rectangle in the OBJECT NEEDS picture at right. When capturing a real foot, the camera preview should be centered at the foot ankle, so that the camera can capture more of the posterior aspect of the heel. TO BE WITHIN THIS AREA
Image Capture 4. Focusing When it is ready to capture, remember to set the self timer to "2s", see Camera Setting section at the beginning. Press the shutter button half way and wait while the camera focus is being adjusted. If the camera is able to focus with both lenses, it will beep twice and the indicator lamp will glow green, otherwise the focus frame will turn red, and "!AF" will be displayed. But do not fully reply on the beeping sound, you can tell whether the focus is good by looking at the displayed image. If the preview image is sharp and clear, then the focus is good. If the preview is fussy or blurry, the focus is not correct. Try to press the shutter half way a few times and compare, you will know what the picture looks like when a good focus is achieved. Sometimes the camera has difficulty to determine the focus, when that happens, you may try to focus at an area with big contrast, e.g., the edge of the foam impression, or the toes of the real foot. After a good focus is achieved, keep holding the shutter half way, re center the scene, and then press the shutter all the way down to shoot the picture. BLURRY STRIPES SHARP STRIPES The two pictures at right are examples of incorrect focus and correct focus respectively. 5. Capturing Push the shutter button all the way down and wait until the camera flashes. When done, remember to press the playback button to check the captured image to make sure that the stripes are sharp and have good contrast.
Casting for Custom Orthotics The 3D image of the foot can be captured either directly or through the foam impression. 1. Capture Foot When shooting an actual foot, please move the camera so that the foot ankle appears at the center of the screen. This way more of the posterior aspect of the heel can be captured. Also shift the camera to the medial side to capture more of the arch. As you may notice, with the patient's foot on a stand, it is difficult for the patient to maintain a neutral and relexed foot position. Another easier way to capture the foot is to let the patient stand on one foot while the other leg kneels on a chair. It is also easier to capture the posterior aspect of the heel this way. 2. Capture Foam Impression When shooting a foam impression, please make sure that on the camera screen you can see the whole bottom of the foot impression, i.e., the top edge of the foam is not blocking the bottom surface. You may need to move the camera or raise the far side of the foam box to fully expose the entire bottom. You may also try to place the foam box so that the medial side is facing down on the camera's display, because normally the medial side is shallower.
Casting for Custom Shoes When casting for custom shoes, we need shoot at least three pictures for each foot: the medial side of dorsum aspect, the lateral side of dorsum aspect, and the plantar aspect. We need to use a special designed foam impression box marked with tie dots, which later can be used to align the three shots together. 1. Medial Aspect The first shot is the medial side of the dorsum aspect, the reason is that, if you shoot the medial after the laterial side, the patient tends to move to give you space. Do not crush into the foam now. Besides the requirements for low environmental light, proper shooting distance, labels, and correct focus, we also need: a. Point the camera approximately at 45 degrees downwards from the medial side b. Shift to the heel a little bit so we Medial can capture more of the posterior aspect of the heel. c. Make sure all 6 dots are visible to both lenses, i.e., you are able to see them all with either left eye only or right eye only. 2. Lateral Aspect Lateral After shooting the medial aspect, it is very important to keep the patient's knee still without moving. The procedure is the same as with the medial side. 3. Plantar Aspect Plantar Keep the foot in the same position without moving horizontally, now push the patient's foot into the foam impression as you do with regular foot impression to simulate semi weight bearing condition. Then take out the foot from the foam box and shoot the foot impression.
Submiting Your Orders 1. Resizing MPO Files For each shot, the Fujifilm camera saves the pictures in both MPO and JPG formats. The file you need to submit with your order is the MPO file. The minimum image size of the Fuji 3D camera is 1920x1080, each MPO file is approximately 1.5MB. So two files for one patient will take 3MB. This is very big for uploading, so resizing is necessary. You can use the free software MPO Viewer to resize all captured images before sending. a. Copy the MPO files from camera to your computer first. b. Double click the MPO Viewer program on the CD which came with the camera. c. Click "Open" from MPO Viewer's menu. Browse to the to an MPO file and double click on it. d. Click "Save" from MPO Viewer's menu. e. Click "Save" button to overwrite the original file. If you want to keep the original file, you can change the file name before clicking the Save button. 2. Sending Files You need an account with Apis in order to submit your order online. Please contact our cusomer service at 1 888 937 2747 if you don't have one. Once the MPO files are ready, you can submit your order at: http://www.apisfootwear.com through the following steps: a. Log in using your account ID and password b. Click the Custom Shoes tab, and choose Custom made Custom made Shoes or Custom made Orthotics accordingly c. Fill out the web order form d. Attach the MPO files and click the "Submit" button. A sales order will be issued on the fly, which can be tracked later.
Frequently Asked Questions 1. Why are there no stripes in my picture? The stripes are produced by the camera flash through the projector lens, so when there are no stripes, it could be one or more of the following: a. The projector lens is not mounted. b. The lens cap of the projector is not removed. c. The camera's flash mode is not set to "Forced Flash". See "Camera Setting" section for details. 2. What files do I need to submit with my order? For the minimum, you need to submit the 3D pictures of the patient's feet, i.e., the MPO files. But generally speaking, you can submit any files which you consider necessary for your order. For example, 2D pictures of any foot conditions, scanned order form, etc. 3. How can I download/copy the pictures from my camera to my computer? There are two ways to do that: a. Pull out the memory card from the camera, and load it into a memory card reader if your computer does not have an SD card slut b. Use the supplied USB cable to connect the camera to your computer directly. Please read the camera's manual for more details. 4. How can I tell which files are MPO files because they all look the same? For each shot, the Fujifilm camera saves the pictures in both MPO and JPG formats, you will end up seeing two files with the same name, because the JPG and MPO parts of the file name are hidden by Windows. Windows heavily relies on the file name extensions (file extensions for short) to distinguish different file types. For example, the extension name "EXE" means an executable file, and "JPG" means a JPEG picture file, and so forth. Microsoft assumes that you know nothing about the file extensions, actually it does not want you to know anything about the file extensions, so by default, Windows hides them that you won't mess up with them.
Normally this is not a big problem. However, in our case, we need to know which are JPG files and which are MPO files, so it is necessary to change the "Folder Option" in order to see the file extensions: a. Click "Start" button from Windows task bar and choose "Computer". b. Click "Organize" from the menu and choose "Folder and search options". c. Click "View" tab and uncheck the "Hide extensions for known file types" option. d. Click "Apply" button. From no on, you should be able to see the file extensions. 5. Why are there only JPG files but no MPO files? That's because the shooting mode dial on the camera is not set to "Auto". See "Camera Settings" section for more details. 6. Why do I see one big picture and one small picture when I open the MPO file in MPO Viewer? That's because the shooting mode dial on the camera is not set to "Auto". See "Camera Settings" section for more details.
7. What can I do if error occurs while running MPO Viewer? If you see any error messages when running the MPO Viewer, that means your computer does not have the correct version of Microsoft.NET installed. Just double click on "dotnetfx35.exe" found on the CD to install it. 8. How can I pack multiple files into one ZIP file? We recommend that you pack all files pertinent to your order into one ZIP file so that you don't have to upload multiple times for each order. You don't need any special software to do that, and here's how: a. Click the files you want to pack while holding the "Ctrl" key. This allows you to select multiple file in any order. b. Right click on one of the selected files. c. Choose "Send to" option from the pop up menu. d. Choose "Compressed folder" option from the sub menu. e. Enter a new name for it if you want to, or just f. press "Enter" key to accept what is there.