modify the function EnableToolPorts() in vtkPlusNDITracker

[acc2024]

Hi!
I am reviewing the code the for the device vtkPlusNDITracker. At the end of the InternalUpdate() function, there is a call to the function EnableToolPorts() to "Make the newly connected tools available". Can anyone summarize how we may adapt this function for a non-NDI tracker? I am not sure to understand which Plus function that I need to call to make a tool available. I would appreciate your help/comments on the issue.
Thank you!

[lassoan]

This is an extra required for NDI trackers to configure tools. Other trackers typically don't need it, because tools are configured when the connection to the tracker is established.

[acc2024]

Hi Adam,
Thank you for the review of the issue. Below are the answers/clarification:

If you can confirm that your code is definitely putting transforms into the different tool buffers (yes, via ToolTimeStampedUpdate, >correctness of numbers doesn't matter for now),

Acc: In the code before adding the transforms using ToolTimeStampedUpdate, I logged their values using the LOG_INFO. I checked the logs, the values are printed for each transform in the log file. Is this the confirmation that it is needed?

and that fCal is correctly set to look into a channel that combines those transforms (looks like TrackerStream from your config file,

Acc: I used the name TrackerStream for the output channel in the config file because it was named that way for the ndi config file. This is the only location where I used TrackerStream

I >think the drop down is in the top left?), then it should be able to calculate StylusToReference, and let you proceed.

Acc: I am not sure to understand this question, please see below an image of the tabs for fCac

Please let me know if you need any additional clarification.
Thank you!

[acc2024]

When I run the TrackingTest.exe application (source code located in PlusLib\src\PlusDataCollection\Testing\TrackingTest.cxx ) with my config file, I get the error
Tracking is not enabled!

However, from the device file (vtkPlusYourDeviceNameSource.cxx), in the ReadConfiguration function I was able to read all the tracker tools available in my config file using the following code:

ReadConfiguration(vtkXMLDataElement* config) 
{
    XML_FIND_DEVICE_ELEMENT_REQUIRED_FOR_READING(deviceConfig, config);
    XML_READ_CSTRING_ATTRIBUTE_OPTIONAL(IPAddress, deviceConfig);

    XML_FIND_NESTED_ELEMENT_REQUIRED(dataSourcesElement, deviceConfig, "DataSources");
    for (int nestedElementIndex = 0; nestedElementIndex < dataSourcesElement->GetNumberOfNestedElements(); nestedElementIndex++)
    {
	    vtkXMLDataElement* toolDataElement = dataSourcesElement->GetNestedElement(nestedElementIndex);
	    if (STRCASECMP(toolDataElement->GetName(), "DataSource") != 0)
	    {
		    // if this is not a data source element, skip it
		    continue;
	    }
	    bool isEqual(false);
	    if (igsioCommon::XML::SafeCheckAttributeValueInsensitive(*toolDataElement, "Type", vtkPlusDataSource::DATA_SOURCE_TYPE_TOOL_TAG, isEqual) != PLUS_SUCCESS || !isEqual)
	    {
		    // if this is not a Tool element, skip it
		    continue;
	    }
	    const char* toolId = toolDataElement->GetAttribute("Id");
	    if (toolId == NULL)
	    {
		    LOG_ERROR("Failed to initialize Mytool: DataSource Id is missing");
		    continue;
	    }
	    igsioTransformName toolTransformName(toolId, this->GetToolReferenceFrameName());
	    std::string toolSourceId = toolTransformName.GetTransformName();
	    vtkPlusDataSource* trackerTool = NULL;
	    if (this->GetTool(toolSourceId, trackerTool) != PLUS_SUCCESS || trackerTool == NULL)
	    {
		    LOG_ERROR("Failed to get the tool: " << toolSourceId);
		    continue;
	    }
	    else 
	    {
		    LOG_INFO("Mytool: " << toolSourceId);
	    }

...
}

The output of this is:

Mytool: ReferenceToTracker
Mytool: ProbeToTracker
Mytool: StylusToTracker

Any hint/comments on why I can read the tools from the device file but not from the TrackingTest.exe? The test does connect successfully to the device, but it doesn't find the tools.
Thank you!

[adamrankin]

The device has tools, but the channel might not. Does your device have only one channel?

Edit: The Tracking is not enabled! error indicates the channel has no tools, but ReadConfiguration is checking the device tool list.

[acc2024]

Thank you for the clarification!

Yes, the tracker sensors have multiple channels. Also, I have TrackerStream and VideoStream.

In the config file above, I added a device TrackerVideoDevice:

    <Device Id="TrackedVideoDevice" Type="VirtualMixer">
      <InputChannels>
        <InputChannel Id="TrackerStream" />
        <InputChannel Id="VideoStream" />
      </InputChannels>
      <OutputChannels>
        <OutputChannel Id="TrackedVideoStream" />
      </OutputChannels>
      <Parameters />
    </Device>

This does not seem to fix the error Tracking is not enabled. Are there other changes that I should make to the config and/or the device files (vtkPlusYourDeviceNameSource.cxx) to handle multiple channels?
Thank you!

[adamrankin]

TrackingTest just grabs the first channel, are you sure it's the right one? I would test with Slicer to see if your device is properly sending transforms. If it's properly sending transforms, then we can diagnose your device a bit further.