I'm looking for a way to track an artist (or actualy eight) on stage.
I'd like to use their position for triggering different speakers and delays via midi in my audio mixer.
There are eight artists on stage so visual tracking, by camera ie, is not an option because I won't be able to see the difference between the artists.
Tta-sound(.com) made a device that can do this, but I can't figure out how they're doing it.
I guess they mesaure the time difference between two, or more, radio transmitters around the stage. If I'm not mistaking radiowaves travel by the speed of light. So is an Arduino-kit able to measure such small time-differences? My stage is 17 meters wide.
Did anybody try something like this?
Does anybody have a (better) idea to track on stage.
just off the top of my head, I would look into directional antennae( 8 ) and RFID or some other kind of xmitter which just sends some kind of ID string. This could work because you said you have 8 artists and certain locations on stage( x marks the spot ) where these events/triggers are to occur.
another option, if the artists wardrobe permits, maybe some IR reflective ID's placed on the artists shoes so and IR camera and image processing could pick it up.
I'm thinking outside the box and not just what Arduino can do. Sounds like an interesting project too.
I've been thinking of using RFID tags too.
The only problemm is the maximum distance between transponder and receiver.
It are not just on x-marks where I need to know the location.
I'd like to know where they are on the whole stage.
So I can fade from one speaker to another.
Because the stage is very wide and the audience is very close to the stage I need to fade the wireless microphones from one speaker to another so the direction of the sound still makes sense.
Does anybody know how the tta-sound guys did this?
With only one receiver above the stage they can detect where a transmitter is...
directional antennae can increase the range of the RFID system as this article shows: http://tinyurl.com/9xackd
It looks like 6m(18ft) at a quick glance but still, this would require a directional antenna for each position of the artist. There would also need to be software to "watch" movement from one location to the other for the fading you mentioned.
As far as TTA-Sound goes, it looks like they use some kind of RF xmitter on each artist and a receiver antenna. The system seems to use received signal strength and some other triangulation system to determine artist location. Signal strength is important in this system as it mentioned preferring the use of 2 antennae to increase accuracy effects diminished by the artists body getting between the xmitter and the antenna. The info I read also talks about signal differential signal strength so that too leads me to believe they have a very accurate triangulation system based on xmitter-to-antenna signal delays based on distance. At those distances, something faster than an Arduino is probably required and one very very stable frequency wise.
They, TTa, have a really nice system. Quite impressive and probably not cheap.
you could try ultrasonics or use a camera with the correct lens mounted above the stage, or a combination of that and ir transmitters and receivers. It's not going to be easy any way you do it.
Dougl might be rigth on the RFID tags.
I just found out there is something like active-RFID who have a range of 5 - 15 meters. Those might just do the trick.
An other option I found on the internet is Wifi RTLS tracking.
Tomorrow I'll try to contact a dealer in the Netherlands and ask if I could use one of their systems for my purpose. And if its affordable offcourse.
As for the Wifi RTLS option I found out this system is only used by one or two manufacturers. And they made this way to expensive to use it on stage.
The active-rfid option is still open.
Although many people warn me about the acuracy because of reflections of the building I still think it's possible to get a good enough idea where the actor is on stage.
Unfortunately did the project I was building this for get canceled.
So I'm not working on it at the moment.
But I'm still planning go on with this once I get the time (and money) to build a test rig.
I was thinking about using it in a room for the speaker balance and lighting (more light where it's needed).
If you find something for active RFID let me know! I think the receiver are expensive... can it be used simply with the Arduino?
I'm currently undergoing a similar project and have come accross the same problem! I have tried IR but due to drop outs and differentiation between actors when the exit and re-enter the stage it did not prove accurate enough to use. I am currently looking into the RFID option by using the tags as reference points on stage with a bluetooth RFID reader transmitting the information back. TTA really have an excellent system but the price tag is outrageous! If anyone has had any progress please post the solution.
I want to do something similar but I don't need the accuracy.
All I need todo is detect weather an object comes within, say, a 20m radius of the receiver.
Arduino seems to be the obvious choice for a project like this, but I can only seem find implementations that are passive systems that are required to be very close to the receiver.
Does any one know of any active RFID implmentations using arduino or similar?
You divide the stage into two parts, use one Wiimote for each part (which can track 4 points each) and differentiate each point with different modulation. Since a wiimote is basically a IR-optimized webcam with 1024x768 resolution, you can't use a fast IR modulation like the one used by remote controllers.
You could build each IR transmitter with a Arduino Lilypad or just a 555 timer.
Wiimotes than connect to a Bluetooth-equipped laptop with appropriate software. There are alredy homebrew software like Wiimote Whiteboard