Multiple Orbbec devices at the same time

Hardware
1

Hello everyone,
does anyone used multiple Orbbec device in the same project at the same time successfully?

What I need is to obtain a point cloud of a wide area, so I’m planning to buy 3 or 4 cameras, place them side by side and blend point-clouds together.
Looking to the OrbbecTOP reference, there is this “Device” parameter. Its description says: “Use this parameter to select the serial number of the camera you wish to connect to. Only one Orbbec TOP can connect to any camera at one time. […]”

Does this setup need the sync cable to be connected for any reason? Or can I just take them in as separate streams?

Just to be sure it will work before I buy all those.

Thanks in advance,
Sergio

2

Hi Szerg, and welcome to the forum!

I’ve used several Orbbec cameras (Femto Mega and Gemini 2XL) over Ethernet (POE) without issues, but I wasn’t synchronizing them, as I didn’t need to, and they were in separate spaces. Depending on your requirements, you might want to synchronize the devices.

There’s quite thorough documentation here: Synchronize Multiple Femto Mega Devices - ORBBEC - 3D Vision for a 3D World as an example. Depending on your specific device, you might want to explore this further.

A few things to note: you can use it in either Kinect mode with Kinect TOP (USB or POE with config file modification) or Orbbec TOP (if you don’t need skeleton tracking). As far as I know, you can’t use both TOPs simultaneously in the same project.

Hope this helps point you in the right direction.

Best,
sh

3

Thank you very much Shandor!

Just one doubt: when you say “As far as I know, you can’t use both TOPs simultaneously in the same project” I assume that Kinect and Orbbec nodes can’t stay in the same project due to SDK issues right?

I should be able to place several Orbbec nodes (one for each camera) and can select the id/ip of the camera from the menu “Device”. Since you already done something similar, can you confirm this? :slight_smile:

Thanks again,
Sergio

4

Hi Szerg,

Indeed, while you can use Kinect Azure and Orbbec in the same project, you can’t use bodytracking with both hardware via Kinect Azure interface, but even that is not recommended. Derivative advises to use either/or as indicated in the documentation for Kinect Azure here: TouchDesigner Documentation (derivative.ca)

Yes, I can confirm you can have multiple orbbec sensors in the same project. I use POE connection though, not USB. Can try it later on today in my studio, I have right now 1x femto mega et 1x gemini 2xl.

sH