Kinect Azure camera was discontinued by Microsoft in October 2023. Obbec has a series of cameras they develop in collaboration with Microsoft and those cameras are commercially available and a good alternative to Kinect Azure. This package is a simple CLI tool that facilitates acquiring data using Obbec cameras on an Ubuntu machine.
As of December 2023, there are 3 cameras from Obbec that use the same technology as Kinect Azure. Femto Mega I, Femto Mega and Femto Bolt. Femto Mega works more stably across different hardware so this product is recommended for recording MoSeq data.
To setup the acqusition apparatus please follow the Kinect 2 depth camera setup. Please note that the recommended height for the camera is 23.5 inches (59.6cm) from the depth camera to the bottom of the apparatus.
You can follow the installation instruction to install Ubuntu 22.04 on your acquisition machine. If you are only using the machine for data acquisition, you can choose the minimal installation option.
Note: we have also tested this using Ubuntu 18.04. However, you need to update cmake to > 3.15. You can install it via anaconda in a later step.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install gitorbbec-acquire (this repository) contains the CLI and utility functions that record data compatible with MoSeq pipeline. pyorbbecsdk is the camera software development kit that facilitates the data acquisition on the camera. You can learn more about it here.
Clone orbbec-acquire repository from GitHub by running:
git clone https://github.com/dattalab/orbbec-acquire.gitClone pyorbbecsdk repository from GitHub by running:
git clone https://github.com/orbbec/pyorbbecsdk.gitMake sure these repositories are cloned into the same folder.
Navigate to the orbbec-acquire directory by running:
cd orbbec-acquireInstall the necessary packages by running the following script:
bash ./scripts/installation_setup.shCreate a conda environment called orbbec-acquire with python 3.10 or python 3.11 by running:
conda create -n orbbec-acquire python=3.11Activate the environment by running:
conda activate orbbec-acquireNavigate to the orbbec-acquire directory by running:
cd orbbec-acquireInstall this package and necessary requirements by running:
bash scripts/install_package.shIt will run pip install as well as copy a generated cmake file into the pyorbbecsdk folder.
Navigate to the pyorbbecsdk directory by running (assuming you are in the orbbec-acquire directory):
cd ../pyorbbecsdkInstall the package by running:
bash ./install_pyorbbecsdk.sh
# add python path to .bashrcConnect the camera via USB-C to the acquisition computer. If the camera was previously connected, disconnect and re-connect the camera. Optionally preview with the viewer or navigate to pyorbbecsdk/examples directory and run the example scripts to test the camera.
Activate the orbbec-acquire conda environment by running:
conda activate orbbec-acquire
Check the version of the package by running:
orbbec-acquire --version
Example acquisition command saving recording at ./data:
orbbec-acquire ./data --subject-name mouse1 --session-name saline --recording-length 20
Options for the acquisition command:
session-name: This field can be an indicator of the date, cohort, experimental condition and/or environment type.
subject-name: This field can be an indicator of the rodent strain, sex, age and/or additional identifiers. The subject name should uniquely identify each mouse.
recording-length: The length of the recording time. The default is 30 mins if this option is not specified. Alternatively, the option could be specified using -t 20.
MoSeq is freely available for academic use under a license provided by Harvard University. Please refer to the license file for details. If you are interested in using MoSeq for commercial purposes please contact Bob Datta directly at srdatta@hms.harvard.edu, who will put you in touch with the appropriate people in the Harvard Technology Transfer office.