rtab on macOS X using iPhone camera ?

[eyertab]

Hi,

I understood there's no rtab version for iOS right now.
Any way to use the app on High Sierra hooking up an iPhone to my macbook (lightning cable) and using the iPhone camera with rtab?

[matlabbe]

Hi,

Indeed, there is no iOS port right now. Note also that if you don't have a depth camera on the the phone, it won't work with rtabmap. You would need a depth camera compatible with iPhone like the Structure sensor. Even then, I'm not sure if you can get easily the position data and depth data out of the phone. If the iPhone (arkit) + Structure sensor could be compatible with ROS, we could use directly rtabmap_ros without modifications (similar to what I did for Google Tango). However, I think the best option is still to write an iOS app (similar to android one).

cheers,
Mathieu

[eyertab]

Hi,

any suggestions then concerning a depth camera for macOS ?
I guess it should be a RGBD cam right ?

Would it be difficult porting the app to iOS (I mean Macos and iOS are very similar after all)?
As far as I know, there's nothing comparable with ARkit right now...

[matlabbe]

Hi,

You can use openni2 compatible rgbd camera and usb/firewire stereo cameras on MacOS X with the current desktop binaries. See darwin DMG here and tutorials here.

The code is written in C++, so yes only an objective c front end would be required for iOS, and maybe camera drivers and arkit integration as well. I just don't own an arkit compatible iphone + structure sensor to try porting the app yet :p

On android, you could have ARCore which is similar to ARkit. I personally prefer Google Tango (even if its future is uncertain) as there is already a depth camera integrated.

Cheers,
Mathieu

[eyertab]

ok, will try out with a Kinect.

Last question : would it be a hard thing to dot to make a .dmg or .pkg installer for Mac Os for the non-tech savvy guys like me ?

[matlabbe]

See https://github.com/introlab/rtabmap/releases, is it kinect v1 (xbox 360) or v2 (xbox one)? Currrently the binaries have only kinect v1 support. See also this tutorial for your first mapping: https://github.com/introlab/rtabmap/wiki/Kinect-mapping

[matlabbe]

Note that a beta test is open for a new iOS port: http://official-rtab-map-forum.206.s1.nabble.com/Beta-testers-wanted-for-iPhone-iPad-with-LiDAR-td7842.html