Skip to content

Multicamera and Stereo Data

DIVE supports multicamera and stereo datasets on both the web version and DIVE Desktop. A multicam dataset groups two or three synchronized camera views under one parent dataset. Stereo datasets are a special two-camera case that also require a calibration file (.npz).

Capability Web Desktop
Import stereo (2 cameras + calibration) ✔️ ✔️
Import multicam (2 or 3 cameras) ✔️ ✔️
View and annotate across cameras ✔️ ✔️
MultiCamera Tools (link/unlink tracks) ✔️ ✔️
Run stereo / multicam VIAME pipelines ✔️ ✔️
Run single-camera pipelines on one view ✔️ ✔️
Glob / keyword pattern import ❌ ✔️
Export full multicam dataset as one .zip ✔️ ✔️

See Loading MultiCamera data below for platform-specific import steps. The rest of this page describes behavior that is shared between web and desktop.

Loading MultiCamera data

Web version

Multicam import is available from the standard upload dialog on viame.kitware.com or any self-hosted DIVE web deployment.

  1. Open the DIVE Homepage and navigate to the Data tab.
  2. Open your Public or Private folder (or create a new folder).
  3. Click Upload in the toolbar.
  4. Click the dropdown on either Add Image Sequence or Add Video.
  5. Choose one of:
    • Stereoscopic — exactly 2 cameras and a calibration .npz file.
    • MultiCam — 2 or 3 cameras; no calibration file required.
  6. In the import dialog, assign a source folder or video file to each camera. All cameras must use the same media type (all image sequences or all videos) and must have the same number of frames (or matching video duration).
  7. Optionally attach a per-camera annotation file during import.
  8. Enter a dataset name, choose the default display camera, and click Begin Import.
  9. When upload finishes, DIVE opens the new multicam dataset in the annotator.

Note

Web limitations: glob/keyword pattern import (desktop's advanced folder layout options) is not supported on web yet. You can export the full multicam dataset from the dataset browser download menu, or export annotations for the currently selected camera from the viewer (see Import/Export below).

For general web upload concepts (permissions, transcoding, zip import), see Uploading data.

DIVE Desktop

DIVE Desktop documents supported dataset types under Supported Dataset Types. From the home screen, click Open Image Sequence or Open Video , then use the dropdown:

  • Stereo — choose 2 videos or 2 image sequences and a calibration file.
  • Multi-Cam — name each camera and pick its source media.

Desktop additionally supports Image List and glob-based folder filtering for single-camera imports, and glob/keyword layout options for multicam import.

Info

Stereoscopic data requires a calibration file. Generic multicamera data does not.

Data/Track Organization

Data is loaded amongst multiple folders to create a multicamera dataset. In these cases trackIds will be linked if they are the same across the cameras. Selection of a trackId that exists across multiple cameras will be linked together in the Track List.

Example: If Camera 1 and Camera 2 both have annotation files with TrackId 1 they will be automatically linked together and selecting one will select them in both cameras.

Camera Selection

Editing and interacting with a camera requires that you select the camera first. There is a dropdown in the upper right of the screen which contains the name of the currently selected camera. Also the currently selected camera will contain a dashed light blue outline. Left or right clicking within a camera will cause that camera to be selected.

Creating Tracks/Detections

Track creation for a single camera works much in the same way it does for single camera datasets. Using the New Track button or N key to create a new track and draw. To quickly create a track on another camera and have it link to the current cameras can be done using the "MultiCamera Tools" or by selecting the desired base track and right clicking on the new camera to add the track. This will put the annotation tool into creation mode for the current TrackId on a new camera. Alternatively the MultiCamera Tools panel can simplify this by clicking on the Edit button.

MultiCamera Tools

Next to the dropdown for the camera selection is a camera settings icon. Clicking on that will open the context menu. Within this menu is a dropdown menu entry for MultiCam Tools. These tools provide a quick view of the selected track across all cameras. When a track is selected it will easily show the existing detections and tracks across multiple cameras.

MultiCam Tools

  • Editing — Clicking on the or edit button for any camera will select that camera and edit an existing track or allow for the creation of a new track which is linked to existing tracks.
  • Deleting (Detection/Track) — deleting the detection will leave the track for the camera (if it exists on multiple frames) or will remove only the detection for the current frame. If it is the only detection left on that camera a prompt will ask if you want to delete the track. If you delete the track it will remove all detections associated with that TrackId across all of the frames.
  • Unlinking — will split off the track for the camera into a new trackId.
  • Linking — will select the new camera and place it into Linking Mode. This requires selecting a track that is only on that camera to link to the currently selected track. Attempting to link a track that exists across multiple cameras will prompt to split off the track before linking. To exit linking mode use the Esc key.

Import/Export

Importing and exporting of data works similarly to a single dataset except that it occurs on the currently selected camera. Selecting the "Starboard" camera and clicking export will only export the annotations for the "Starboard" camera. Similarly importing annotations will only occur on the selected camera as well.

On web, a full dataset export zip (from Download → Everything) can be re-imported with the standard zip upload flow; DIVE detects multiCam.json and restores each camera folder before finalizing the multicam parent dataset.

On web, use the data browser Download menu on a multicam parent dataset:

  • VIAME CSV, DIVE TrackJSON, and COCO JSON each download a zip with that format for every camera (plus multiCam.json at the dataset root).
  • Everything downloads all camera media, all camera annotations, calibration (stereo), and metadata in one zip.

Per-camera export from the viewer still exports only the active camera.

Running Pipelines

Single Camera Pipelines

Single camera pipelines can be used by selecting the camera and then running the pipeline from the pipeline menu.

Note: it is suggested that single camera pipelines only be run on empty datasets that don't have annotations already. When the pipeline finishes it will create tracks with TrackIds that may conflict with the other cameras. So it is recommended that all tracks be removed before running single camera pipelines.

MultiCamera/Stereo Pipelines

There are specific pipelines that can be used on multi-camera or stereo datasets. These pipelines are related to the type of dataset (multicamera vs stereo) and the number of cameras that exist. On web, run these from the Run Pipeline menu in the viewer; the menu filters available pipelines based on dataset type and camera count.

Pipeline Category Type Cameras Description 
gmm
 measurement stereoscopic 2 Stereo pipeline used to compute fish length measurement 
X-cam
 X-cam multicamera 2 or 3 Multiple pipelines that can act on either 2 or 3 camera datasets.