New tracking feature...

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I would like to know more details about the new "tracking" feature on the P4.

How good does it really work? I have seen the videos of people dressed in bright colors, over a dull floor and it seemed to work. But how well is it going to work in a realistic, or every day environment?

Tracking is one thing if everything works out, but what happens if the P4 loses track? I believe it will just hover, right? If that is the case, the whole tracking thing seems pretty stupid to me. Here is why:

Imagine you are riding your bike down a mountain trail. The P4 follows/tracks you. It loses track and just stops, hovering on one stop. How the heck am I supposed to know that it stopped? Am I supposed to look back every 30 seconds? Do I have to have a spotter riding behind me?

Same goes for any other scenario where the P4 is tracking you. Somehow one needs to be aware that tracking got interrupted, so you can go back and "get it". Maybe I should say "take over control again. Anyhow. Seems pretty useless and limited feature when doing it alone.

On the other hand, having someone follow you is not the worst thing in the world. Actually, JUST following someone on a bike is watt easier than following someone on a bike WHILE trying to film them as well, ha ha. So maybe the tracking feature is not that bad, useless and stupid after all? [emoji12]

What they should have done is, have a GPS on the person that is being followed, so that if tracking gets interrupted, or something gets in the way, the P4 can regain tracking and continue following...

Just a thought.

Thanks.
 
Do you really think the RC won't tell you lost the track? And it will lose the track.
 
Just to give you an idea of where we are with tracking right now and believe me, when I get home from dinner, I'll post some that will blow you away.

Software alone and a little computer power can do more than you can possibly imagine!

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Do you really think the RC won't tell you lost the track? And it will lose the track.
Sure it will... But isn't the whole point of "tracking", that you do not have to drag the transmitter AND/or GPS with you!?

I guess it all depends on how you do it. If you do it alone, you definitely want to drag the transmitter with you, as you will need it once you get to where you're going. If you do it worth someone else, they can drag the transmitter around... That way it won't be in the shot as well.

Thanks.
 
Sure it will... But isn't the whole point of "tracking", that you do not have to drag the transmitter AND/or GPS with you!?

I guess it all depends on how you do it. If you do it alone, you definitely want to drag the transmitter with you, as you will need it once you get to where you're going. If you do it worth someone else, they can drag the transmitter around... That way it won't be in the shot as well.

Thanks.
Right, the benefit of that is that the track-ee (person being tracked) doesn't have to hold a GPS receiver. This is a revolutionary function in aerial photography.

Here is a better tutorial to help you understand what happens when we track something. If you have the RC with you, you will know, if that person is in China, across the street or right in front of you whether they went out of range during the track, AND THEY WILL. Nothing tracks forever. Doesn't happen.

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Just to give you an idea of where we are with tracking right now and believe me, when I get home from dinner, I'll post some that will blow you away.

Software alone and a little computer power can do more than you can possibly imagine!

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
Cool. I assume the ipad camera is tracking his face, correct!? If so, I am not that impressed. Sure, it's cool, but to me it doesn't say anything about how good "tracking" is. The guy is not moving. His face is not changing. The background doesn't chance. All that helps keeping "track".

That said. I wait until people get their P4 and drive their bike down a single track. [emoji12]

Thanks.
 
Cool. I assume the ipad camera is tracking his face, correct!? If so, I am not that impressed. Sure, it's cool, but to me it doesn't say anything about how good "tracking" is. The guy is not moving. His face is not changing. The background doesn't chance. All that helps keeping "track".

That said. I wait until people get their P4 and drive their bike down a single track. [emoji12]

Thanks.
I posted another one that I found with a quick look so you can see how tracking works.

I'll show you some 3D frackers when I get home from dinner with my family that will amaze you.

You just hit "apply track" and it can 90% of the time figure out what is the people, what are walls, what degree the wall is at each pixel movement of the camera.

Of course we are bound to the hardware computer capabilities of the RC and the flight board and whatever is in there but with strong computation ability, tracking has become freaking amazing!!!!

I'll show you. And you should be more impressed with the iPad tracking. Right now anyway, I'm just trying to show you how it recognizes certain items and distinguishes them from others with crazy algorithms. You'll see. I'll find some for you when I get home.
 
I posted another one that I found with a quick look so you can see how tracking works.

I'll show you some 3D frackers when I get home from dinner with my family that will amaze you.

You just hit "apply track" and it can 90% of the time figure out what is the people, what are walls, what degree the wall is at each pixel movement of the camera.

Of course we are bound to the hardware computer capabilities of the RC and the flight board and whatever is in there but with strong computation ability, tracking has become freaking amazing!!!!

I'll show you. And you should be more impressed with the iPad tracking. Right now anyway, I'm just trying to show you how it recognizes certain items and distinguishes them from others with crazy algorithms. You'll see. I'll find some for you when I get home.
Copy that. Enjoy dinner.... : )

Thanks.
 
Copy that. Enjoy dinner.... : )

Thanks.
Okay, this one is sort of boring but it will let you understand how the computer looks at tracking and if you want, I'll continue down the road with you. I'll even be happy to get on the horn with you and teach you how to do real 3D tracking and not this BS.

The shot I was telling people about where I shot the Amazon into a person on a continuous shot was a drone shot with 90+ layers but only ONE of them was a drone shot. It was a shot of the Colorado Planes and then I added trees, waterfalls, birds, etc and then offset them to the track and it worked to perfection.

Watch how After Effects takes a 2d track of someones head to follow and then something is added to the "null object" which is the layer that holds the tracking info so you can apply that track to it.

Essentially what the Phantom 4 will do is treat the whole person as a tracking point. How well it will do remains to be seen but there have been MAJOR jumps in tracking technology in the last several years, especially last year. Google "Omote".

Watch this and try to understand it and we will go from there. Watch it a couple times. Do the tutorial. You can get a trial version of After Effects from Adobe.

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I would like to know more details about the new "tracking" feature on the P4.

How good does it really work? I have seen the videos of people dressed in bright colors, over a dull floor and it seemed to work. But how well is it going to work in a realistic, or every day environment?

Tracking is one thing if everything works out, but what happens if the P4 loses track? I believe it will just hover, right? If that is the case, the whole tracking thing seems pretty stupid to me. Here is why:

Imagine you are riding your bike down a mountain trail. The P4 follows/tracks you. It loses track and just stops, hovering on one stop. How the heck am I supposed to know that it stopped? Am I supposed to look back every 30 seconds? Do I have to have a spotter riding behind me?

Same goes for any other scenario where the P4 is tracking you. Somehow one needs to be aware that tracking got interrupted, so you can go back and "get it". Maybe I should say "take over control again. Anyhow. Seems pretty useless and limited feature when doing it alone.

On the other hand, having someone follow you is not the worst thing in the world. Actually, JUST following someone on a bike is watt easier than following someone on a bike WHILE trying to film them as well, ha ha. So maybe the tracking feature is not that bad, useless and stupid after all? [emoji12]

What they should have done is, have a GPS on the person that is being followed, so that if tracking gets interrupted, or something gets in the way, the P4 can regain tracking and continue following...

Just a thought.

Thanks.

No technology is fail proof. Your copter could just as easily have some kind of equipment failure. Though I realise it's not practical to have the remote control in front of you when you're riding a bike, it does make common sense to periodically look behind you. You should first get a good grasp of what the copter is capable of. By this I mean, there is a video by Tech crunch that shows the user running on a field and then deliberately taking a sharp left out of shot, the P4 loses track and then just hovers. He tries again, after a while he was beginning to learn the capabilities of the P4 and was able to have the copter track him successfully.

So it's worth understanding the capability first and (in your scenario) even going as far as to roughly plan out where you are going to cycle and how you're going to track if you're so worried about it. In any case, if the copter comes to standstill it would just be a case of you backtracking along the route you have taken.. And if it's hovering in the air then I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to spot! Common sense prevails in situations like this. I'm sure firmware updates will also make considerable improvements to the tracking capabilities.
 
I already use active tracking for my P3. Probably be the same I guess. Does have it's flaws but still get good results.

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