chili-epfl / qml-chilitags

QML plugin wrapper for Chilitags, a fiducial marker tracker, on desktop & Android

qml-chilitags

QMLChilitags is a QML wrapper for the fiducial marker tracker Chilitags. It works on desktop and Android.

The following is required for QMLChilitags to work:

• Ubuntu 14.04
• Qt 5.3.2
• OpenCV 3.0.0-alpha (Note: If you checked out OpenCV master branch, change cv::ITERATIVE to cv::SOLVEPNP_ITERATIVE in Chilitags3D.cpp when building Chilitags. At the time of writing, this API change in OpenCV is not yet in a tag, so it is not included in the Chilitags source.)

QML API

The QML API consists of the following:

• sourceImage : QVariant - Should contain the input camera image as a cv::Mat
• tags : QVariantMap - Output detected tag poses as a map from QString to QMatrix4x4
• projectionMatrix : QMatrix4x4 - Output matrix that transforms from the camera frame to the screen frame
• tagConfigurationFile : QString - qrc file that contains the tag configuration, must begin with :/

To use qml-chilitags, present a new frame as a cv::Mat wrapped in a QVariant through the sourceImage property.

Desktop Build

1. Build and install OpenCV 3.0.0-alpha tag:

git checkout 3.0.0-alpha
cd platforms
mkdir build-desktop
cd build-desktop
cmake ../.. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr

At this point, OpenCV components other than calib3d, core, features2d, flann, highgui, imgcodecs, imgproc, video and videoio are not needed and can be disabled. Leave the options untouched if you are unsure what to do. Note: I had to disable WITH_GSTREAMER manually for it to compile without errors. It is not needed and can be disabled. These options can be accessed with ccmake ../...

make -j 5
make install

2. Build and install chilitags from https://github.com/chili-epfl/chilitags:

mkdir build-desktop
cd build-desktop
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
make -j 5
make install

3. Optional: Build and install qt3d from https://qt.gitorious.org/qt/qt3d:

This enables QML interaction between Qt3D and Chilitags.

mkdir build-desktop
cd build-desktop
/qt/install/root/5.3/gcc_64/bin/qmake ..
make -j 5
make install

4. Build and install qml-chilitags:

mkdir build-desktop
cd build-desktop
/qt/install/root/5.3/gcc_64/bin/qmake ..
make -j 5
make install

Now the Chilitags QML plugin is installed alongside Qt's QML plugins and can be used similar to any other plugin.

Android Build

In addition to the OS, Qt and OpenCV requirements, you need:

• Android SDK and Android API 14 (Android version 4.0)

• Android NDK r9d

These instructions assume armv7-a target architecture. For other architectures, adapt the instructions to your liking.

1. Export a standalone NDK toolchain:

cd /path-to-android-ndk-r9d
./build/tools/make-standalone-toolchain.sh \
    --platform=android-14 \
    --install-dir=/desired/path/to/android/standalone/toolchain \
    --toolchain=arm-linux-androideabi-4.8

Be aware that if you don't have write access to /desired/path/to/android/standalone/toolchain, the script fails silently.

2. Set up the following environment variables:

export ANDROID_HOME=/path/to/android/sdk/linux
export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=$ANDROID_HOME
export ANDROID_SDK=$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT
export ANDROID_NDK_ROOT=/path-to-android-ndk-r9d
export ANDROID_NDK=$ANDROID_NDK_ROOT
export ANDROID_NDK_STANDALONE_TOOLCHAIN=/path/to/android/standalone/toolchain
export ANDROID_STANDALONE_TOOLCHAIN=$ANDROID_NDK_STANDALONE_TOOLCHAIN
export ANDROID_ABI=armeabi-v7a
export ANDROID_NATIVE_API_LEVEL=14
export ANDROID_TOOLCHAIN_NAME=arm-linux-androideabi-4.8

3. Build and install OpenCV 3.0.0-alpha tag:

git checkout 3.0.0-alpha
cd platforms
mkdir build-desktop
cd build-desktop
cmake ../.. \
    -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../android/android.toolchain.cmake \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$ANDROID_STANDALONE_TOOLCHAIN/sysroot/usr/share/opencv/

At this point, enable BUILD_SHARED_LIBS.

OpenCV components other than calib3d, core, features2d, flann, highgui, imgcodecs, imgproc, video and videoio are not needed and can be disabled. Leave these options untouched if you are unsure what to do.

The options can be accessed with ccmake ../.. after running cmake.

make -j 5
make install

4. Set up the following environment variable:

export OpenCV_DIR=${ANDROID_STANDALONE_TOOLCHAIN}/sysroot/usr/share/opencv/sdk/native/jni/

5. Build and install chilitags from https://github.com/chili-epfl/chilitags:

mkdir build-desktop
cd build-desktop
cmake .. \
    -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$OpenCV_DIR/android.toolchain.file
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$ANDROID_STANDALONE_TOOLCHAIN/sysroot/usr/

At this point, disable ANDROID_INSTALL_LIBRARIES and WITH_JNI_BINDINGS since you won't be using Chilitags inside an Android project directly.

make -j 5
make install

6. Optional: Build and install qt3d from https://qt.gitorious.org/qt/qt3d:

This enables QML interaction between Qt3D and Chilitags.

mkdir build-android
cd build-android
/qt/install/root/5.3/android_armv7/bin/qmake ..
make -j 5
make install

Note: make install will try to install libraries to /libs/armeabiv7-a/. This is a remnant from ndk-build and should be avoided. Make sure you don't execute make install with sudo.

7. Build and install qml-chilitags:

mkdir build-android
cd build-android
/qt/install/root/5.3/android_armv7/bin/qmake ..
make -j 5
make install

Now the Chilitags QML plugin is installed alongside Qt's QML plugins and can be used similar to any other plugin.

Note that you still need to bundle the required OpenCV libraries with ANDROID_EXTRA_LIBS in the project that uses Chilitags. See samples/detection/detection.pro for an example.

Running Samples

See samples/README.md.