Summary
In this blog post, we outline the newest TMBatch features introduced through the upcoming Theia 2024 software release.
Continuing our blog series on the Theia3D 2024 release, we’re back with another post to highlight some of the exciting features that have been introduced within TMBatch. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts in the series, we highly recommend checking them out! So far, we’ve provided an update on our validation results, model definitions, and degrees of freedom testing on our model, and outlined some of our favorite new features added to Theia3D.
Similar to TMBatch itself, we’ll keep this post simple, straightforward, and useful. Let’s dive in.
Open into…
In preparing data for batch processing it’s often necessary to review the intended batch data structure itself, typically in Windows File Explorer, to make sure all of your data is accounted for and organized properly. For Theia3D 2024 we have added new functionality to very easily open the selected batch directory, or an individual trial folder, directly from TMBatch. This means you won’t have to open a File Explorer window and navigate manually to your data location, but can instead be taken there directly by TMBatch.
This functionality has been added in two places: under the File dropdown menu where you can select Open into > Open Root Folder in Explorer, and within the Trials list itself where you can select an individual trial in the list and right-click > Open into > Open Folder in Explorer. The first option will take you directly to the selected batch directory, while the second will take you to the specific trial directory.
Figure 1: Using the File > Open into > Open Root Folder in Explorer takes you quickly and easily to the selected batch processing directory.
Figure 2: Using the right-click > Open into > Open Folder in Explorer takes you to the selected trial’s folder.
Save JSON
We have introduced a new pose file output option with a lot of exciting potential: .json pose files. The JSON file format is a human-readable file format that makes use of key-value pairs to represent data, making it simple to read and interpret, from the perspective of both humans and computers. Within Theia3D and TMBatch you are now able to select this file format for exporting the pose data for tracked people within movement trials, which will be especially useful for Theia users who prefer custom scripting approaches for data analysis, reporting, and visualization.
These output JSON files contain information pertaining to how they were recorded (frame rate), produced in Theia (version, preferences, etc.), as well as the raw pose data for all tracked segments and segmental parameters. We’re excited to introduce this new output option and see where you take it!
Figure 3: A sample of the JSON pose file output contents, including metadata regarding Theia version and processing. Segment poses are represented by 4x4 pose matrices.
Save multiple pose file types
Another useful new functionality within TMBatch is the ability to output pose files in any combination of the available file formats: JSON, C3D, and FBX. Up until now, the pose output file options were limited to C3D and FBX file formats, which could not be output simultaneously while batch processing. Now, with the Theia3D 2024 update, it is possible to output any combination of the available output pose file formats simultaneously!
This may be necessary for only a limited number of users, however it eliminates the need to perform separate batch analyses to output C3D and FBX file formats as was previously required. However, as FBX files require a single full-body skeleton model, selecting FBX file outputs in combination with either C3D or JSON outputs will necessitate using the Full Body Model option. As you might expect based on the historical output data structures for TMBatch, all of the output files will be separated into their own folders as shown in Figure 4 below.
Figure 4: TMBatch output file selections (left), and the output file folders (right) alongside the original batch directory.
Search/filter by state
The Search bar in TMBatch is a great tool for filtering among the trials within your batch directory, and now it has an additional feature: filtering by trial state. This feature allows you to quickly filter for trials that have been processed but failed, trials that were previously skipped, or trials with warnings associated, as a few examples. Any of the available trial states can be used to filter, including: success, fail, warning, cancel, skip, already done, and crash.
To access these filter options, simply use the ‘@’ symbol in the Search bar, and select from the available options that appear. We hope this functionality will be useful for those users who have ongoing studies or data collections where new data is added to and processed within an existing batch data folder, where this can simplify the process of looking for trials that meet specific criteria.
Figure 5: TMBatch Search filter options available using the ‘@’ symbol.
New Details columns
Along with the Details columns that were previously available to communicate information about the trials in your trial list, there are two new additions: Excluded Cameras, and Tracking BBox. These columns can be displayed by right-clicking on the header row of the Trials table. As you would expect, these two columns provide information about any cameras to be excluded from the analysis, and the analysis bounding box parameters applied, if either of these options have been enabled for any trials in the list. These columns therefore make it easy to spot where these settings have been enabled (or not) and to make sure that your batch processing settings are consistent.
While the analysis bounding box can be enabled and adjusted from within the preferences window in Theia3D or TMBatch, the camera exclusions need to be enabled using the Toggle Views tool under the Tools dropdown menu within Theia3D while video data is loaded. With the required views toggled for exclusion, saving a new preferences file will include those camera view exclusions.
Figure 6: TMBatch Trials list showing Excluded Cameras and Tracking BBox columns in use.
Conclusion
We hope these new features for TMBatch help your processing go even smoother than before! Here is a quick list of the features and changes covered in this post:
“Open into…” functionality
Introducing JSON pose files
Saving multiple pose file types simultaneously
Search/filter trials by state
Improved Details columns
With the beta version of Theia3D 2024 now released, we hope beta customers are enjoying all the new quality of life features added with this version. To catch up on all the exciting improvements you can check out the last four blog posts covering different aspects of the new release including validation results, model definitions, and degree of freedom testing on our model, and also some of the new features added to Theia3D. To learn more about Theia, click here to book a demo.
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