INTRODUCTION:

The Artvertiser is a small platform designed to track and substitute an image in
a video stream (here defined as an 'advert'), live or archival, with another
image or video ('artvert'). It has been designed primarily as a 'Product
Replacement' application, designed for susbtituting advertisements in the street
with art.

The Artvertiser code was initially developed by Julian Oliver but has since been
significantly improved by Damian Stewart - now running on low spec devices such
as the Intel 'Atom' Core Duo boards alongside improvements to the tracking.

The code builds heavily upon BazAR <http://cvlab.epfl.ch/software/bazar/> and
was authored on a Debian Linux system. It is known to compile and run just fine
on a 3D capable Ubuntu or Debian system. It should however compile on any Linux
system with little effort. 

BUILDING

Here are the basic dependencies:

	OpenCV-1.1 	<http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/files/>
	FTGL-2.1 	<http://sourceforge.net/projects/ftgl/files/>
	GLUT		(consult your package manager for the glut headers)

To build The Artvertiser on Linux, just type 'make' in the top level directory.

To build The Artvertiser on OS X, be sure you've satisfied the pre-requisites in
the 'osx_prereqs.txt', then copy the 'Makefile.osx' over the 'Makefile' in each
directory (monitor the build errors for clues if stuck).

TRAINING

The Artvertiser requires a database of feature points before it can detect an
image. This database is generated in a training phase.

Training is divided into two parts, beginning with Classifier Training.

To train and create a database called 'BurgerKing', using the default capture
device on your computer, cd into the 'artvertiser' directory and run:

	./artvertiser -t -g -m BurgerKing.bmp

(NOTE '.bmp' suffix!)

To capture on a second webcam on your computer:

	./artvertiser -t -g -vd 1 -m BurgerKing.bmp

Now place a planar image in front of the camera. It should be flat, have plenty
of detail and should take up as much of the captured area as possible while
still being in focus. 

While keeping it still hit SPACE on your computer. With the mouse, drag the
corners of the green quadrangle to match the corners of your image. The green
quadrangle defines the parts of your image you wish to track. When ready, press
SPACE again. The red quadrangle defines the part of the image you want the
augmentation (video, image) to appear. Move the corners into position and hit
SPACE again.

There will now be a pause as you see the software working hard to find all the
interesting feature points in the image. 

When this process is complete the training will move into the Geometric
Calibration phase (switch '-g') and you'll see the camera capturing again. Here
you need to wave the image in front of the camera a few times until enough data
has been aquired. 

Once done the software will move immediately into Tracking and you can test the
results by moving the image around in front of the camera.

RUNNING

To capture from the third video capture device on your computer using the
classifier BurgerKing:

	./artvertiser -vd 2 -m BurgerKing.bmp

To capture from archival video (eg a hollywood movie) featuring some product
placement from Budweiser, using the Classifier you've trained called 'Bud',
substituting it with an image 'nippedBud.png':

	./artvertiser -b SomeAwfulMovie.avi -m Bud.bmp -i /path/to/nippedBud.png

To do the same, but substitute the Budweiser product placement with a movie
you've made:

	./artvertiser -b SomeAwfulMovie.avi -m Bud.bmp -i /path/to/nippedBud.avi
	
See the usage information for more switches by reading the code or with a bad
switch, like so:

	./artvertiser -u

RUNNING WITH MULTIPLE ARTVERTS (EXHIBITION MODE):

The Artvertiser can be told to resource an XML file with a list of all the
Classifiers to be used, alongside their substituting artverts. This is known as
'Exhibition Mode' and is great for augmentations in the street. See 'models.xml'
for a guide as to how this all works. To use your own XML file, execute The
Artvertiser as follows:

	./artvertiser -ml myModelFile.xml

CONTACT:

Problems, questions, answers, feel free to contact Julian on
julian@julianoliver.com or Damian on damian@frey.co.nz.

Have fun!

http://theartvertiser.com