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Setting up a BeaKon system

The BeaKon system is a UltraWide Band (UWB) localization system, which is composed of a set of anchors and tags. The anchors are fixed around the tracking zone and the tags are attached to the persons or object that need to be tracked.

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As the UWB localization technology is less precise than the vision technology used in the K SYSTEM, the BeaKon system is to be considered as a add-on to the K SYSTEM that provide a stable and durable identity of the person tracked. Thanks to the BeaKon system, the identity of the persons tracked is persistent even if the persons goes out of the field of view of the Kapta, allowing for a fully automated tracking of the persons during a whole show. We recommend to not used the BeaKon system alone, but in addition to the vision based system, to have a more reliable system.

System functionality overview

The system works like this :

  • When setting up the system, you associate each Target you want (called tagged Target) with a Tracker and one or more tag(s).
  • kratos will then patch the tagged Targets to their associated Trackers and lock this choice.
  • When assigning each person detected to a Tracker, the IA will automatically check if the position of the person detected corresponds to a tag's position.
  • If this is the case, the IA will assign this person to the Tracker associated to the Target which is associated to the tag.
  • The other persons detected (whose position do not correspond to any tag's position) will be associated by the IA to a Tracker not associated to any Target, as usual.

Write the config file

At the moment, you have to write a config file and then import it in Kratos to setup the BeaKon system. This file is a .yaml file and should look like this:

tags:
  - serial: 0x001211
    color: "#f44336"
    kit: "A"
  - serial: 0x001056
    color: "#9c27b0"
    kit: "B"
  - serial: 0x0017AC
    color: "#4caf50"
    kit: "A"
  - serial: 0x0010E8
    color: "#2196f3"
    kit: "A"
  - serial: 0x0017AD
    kit: ""

targets:
  - name: "1 - ARTHUR"
    tags: [0x001211, 0x001056]
    track_uid: 1
  - name: "2 - GEORGES"
    tags: [0x0017AC, 0x0010E8]
    track_uid: 2
  - name : "CAR"
    tags: [0x0017AD]
    track_uid: 3

The writing of the file is done in two steps:

  • Declare every tag of your system
  • Declare the Targets you want to one or more tag(s)

Declare a tag

For each tag, you have to declare :

  • The serial number of the tag, written on the front and back of the tag.
  • Its color that will be used to display the tag's position on the 3D Stage view. This parameter is optional, the tag will be black by default.
  • Its kit : You can have two kits of tags, A and B. This option can be used if you have two sets of costumes for example and need to switch from one kit to the other quickly between representations. You can select which kit to use in the BeaKon view or in the BeaKon tab of the Show explorer view. You can also not select any kit to make the tag activated at all time (whether you choose the kit A, B, or no kit in Kratos) by writing kit: "".

We recommend choosing a kit by default if you have one kit of tag

Even if you have only one kit, choose "A" for all your tags. This will allow you to monitor the tags status in the BeaKon view.

In the previous file example, you can see that :

  • The tags 0x001211, 0x0017AC, 0x0010E8 are in the kit A.
  • The tag 0x001056 is in the kit B.
  • The tag 0x0017AD is not in any kit.
  • the tag 0x0017AD has no color property and will be black in the 3D Stage view.

Declare a Target

For each Target, you have to declare :

  • The Target's name that have to be the same in Kratos and in the config file.
  • The tag(s) associated to the Target. You can have one or more tags associated to a Target, from the same kit or not : tags: [0x001211, 0x001056]
  • The associated Tracker Id, as a tag will always be the same person or object, it must be assigned to a Tracker that will always corresponds to this person or object.

In the previous file example, you can see that :

  • The Target 1 - ARTHUR is associated to the tags 0x001211 and 0x001056 that are from different kits (A and B). In this case it is because Arthur has two costumes, with one tag each on it, one for the first act and one for the second act.
  • The target 2 - GEORGES is associated to the tags 0x0017AC and 0x0010E8 that are from the same kit (A). In this case it is because Georges has only one costume, with two tags on it for reliability, and is not here in the second act (were the kit B is used).
  • The target CAR is associated to the tag 0x0017AD that is not in any kit. In this case it is because the car uses only one tag and is present in both acts, so its tag has to be without kit to be activated at all time.

Be careful to have named your Targets in the config file with the same name as in Kratos, otherwise the link between the Target and the tag(s) will not be done.

Configure the system in Kratos

After writing the config file, you have to setup the system in Kratos. To do so, go to the BeaKon tab of the Show explorer view and check the following parameters :

  • Import the config file by clicking on the "IMPORT CONFIG" button and selecting the file you just wrote.
  • Enable the connection to the BeKon server by enabling the "Enable BeaKon".
  • Enter the IP address of the BeaKon server in the "BeaKon Server Main Address" field.
  • Choose a BeaKon kit if needed (let the textfield blank if you don't have multiple BeaKon kit).
  • Make also sure that the "BeaKon tag" toggle is enabled in the Kore tab of the Show explorer view.
  • If you have an object to track, go the the corresponding Target and enable the tag positioning option.

Vision based tracking is more precise than the BeaKon system for positioning people.

We recommend to use the tag positioning function for objects only.

Monitor the system

To monitor the tags status, you can use the BeaKon view.

you can also monitor the position of the tags in the 3D Stage view.