3D Capture Using Fujifilm 3D Camera Copyright 201 4 Apis Footwear
Camera Settings Before shooting 3D images, please make sure the camera is set as follows: a. Rotate the upper dial to position the red camera at the tick. b. Push the 3D button if the top left corner does not show "3D". c. Push the flash button on lower dial to select Forced Flash mode. d. Press Menu button on lower dial, now the four sides of the lower dial serve as LEFT, RIGHT, UP, and DOWN buttons. d. Use the dial to set ISO to 400, Image Size to S16:9, and Image Quality to Normal. e. Push LEFT, then DOWN, to go to SET UP menu. f. Change the MPO 3DREC option from MPO+JPG to MPO. h. Tele/Wide thumb is pushed to the left. Once the camera has been setup, it should remember the settings, you don't need to do this every time. However, if the camera is left without battery or without charging for a long period of time, the settings will be lost, and have to be reset again. In addition to the above settings, we recommend that you use the self timer for every shot. The self timer is not remembered from shot to shot though.
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 2½ feet 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 2½ feet. 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 the flap of the foam box with a marker pen (ball pen is too thin to be picked up by the camera), or on a piece of paper 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. DO NOT USE ZOOM. 4. Check Picture a. Close your right eye and check the picture preview on camera with left eye only. b. Close you left eye and check with your right eye only. c. Make sure the foot and/or foam box are within the camera's preview frame. OBJECT NEEDS 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 You can capture the image of the foot or foot 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. 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. Placing Order You need an account with Apis in order to place order with 3D pictures. Please contact our cusomer service at 1 888 937 2747 if you don't have one. Once the MPO files are ready, you can place your order at http://www.apisfootwear.com. Please follow online instructions.
Casting for Custom Shoes (1 ) 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 dorsal aspect, the reason is that, if you shoot the medial after the lateral 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 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 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 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.
Casting for Custom Shoes (2) Another way to cast for custom shoes is to use sheets printed with tie dots. In this application, a marked foam impression box is not required. 1. Medial Aspect This step is essentially the same as with foam impression box. 2. Lateral Aspect This step is essentially the same as with foam impression box. 3. Boundary Points Because the foot may have moved since the first picture was taken, the two shots may not be aligned perfectly, and hence the foot width or length may not be accurate. If a foam impression box is used, we can adjust the alignment according to the foot impression. If taking the foot impression is not an option, you need to mark out 6 boundary points of the foot to serve the same purpose. See the illustration at right. If you are using foam impression box, please skip this to the next step. Here's how to mark the boundary points: a. find a ruler less than 2mm thick, such as stainless steel ruler. b. place ruler beside a boundary point, and make sure the ruler is perpendicular to the floor.
c. draw a line along the end of the ruler on the paper. See the above picture at left. Please darken the boundary lines with marker pen so that they show clearly in the 3D picture. When all done, take a 3D picture of the marked paper without the foot on it. See the above picture at right. 4. Plantar Aspect We recommend you use foam impression box to capture the plantar aspect. In case of no foam impression box available, you can capture the plantar aspect directly. See "Casting for Custom Orthotics" section. So if you are using foam impression box with the marked sheet, you only need 3 pictures for each foot. The procedure with foam impression box is not only simpler and easier, but also produce better 3D results. So we highly recommend that you use the foam impression box if it is available. Otherwise, you need take 4 pictures for each foot, and also you need to mark the 6 boundary points on the sheet.
Using ApisPortal Software If you don't have the software CD, you can use Apis web site to place your order. However, using ApisPortal software has these advantages: 1. Preview and resize 3D pictures 2. Save order form and picture for later processing. 3. Elliminate some browser cache problems. a. First copy the ApisPortal software folder from the CD onto your hard drive or desktop. Then open it from your hard drive or desktop. You will be prompted with user log in. You need to do this step only once, next time you can use the shortcut created on the desktop to open the ApisPortal software. b. Once ApisPortal is opened, you will see the order form as below: The same form is used for both custom shoe order and custom insert order. Please select either Custom Shoes option or Custom Inserts option and fill the form accordingly.
c. Once the order form is completed, click "Attach File" button to attach MPO pictures. First connect the camera to your computer and slide open the front cover. Then select "FinePix REAL 3D W3" camera from the drop down list. See picture at right. Then navigate to the image folder by selecting "External Memory" => "DCIM" => "104_FUJI". The last part can be different, for example, "101_FUJI" or "102_FUJI". d. Double click on the correct picture, at the bottom you should see a larger preview of images from both the left lens and the right lens. Click "Open" button to attach the picture. The thumbnail will appear at the right side of the order form. See picture on previous page. e. Once all pictures are attached, click "Place Order" button to submit your order. A sales order will be issued automatically, and your can print the order form for your own records.
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 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.