Resources to Help with Installation and Setup
This article describes how to use the Kaptivo Solo application for PC/Mac. Before using this article, you may wish to read these separate articles:
Installing Kaptivo Solo on your PC/Mac:
Hardware Setup for Kaptivo Solo:
Launching Kaptivo Solo
Once Kaptivo Solo has been successfully installed, the application can be launched by double-clicking on the Kaptivo Solo icon. To find the Kaptivo Solo icon on your machine:
- Windows 10 users may need to navigate to 'Program Files'.
- MacOS users may need to navigate to 'Applications' either via the LaunchPad icon or via Finder.
List of Functions / Screens
- Sign-In Screen
- Selecting the Camera
- Auto-Detecting the Content Area
- Manually Detecting the Content Area
- Viewing the Content
- Rotating the Camera View
- Flipping the Camera View
- Ghost Image (Transparent Image Overlay)
- Snapshot
- End Live View
- Change Settings
- Leave Feedback
Sign-In Screen
The Sign-In screen for Kaptivo Solo is shown below. If you already have a Kaptivo Solo account, then use your email address and password to sign in. If you don't yet have an account, click the Sign-Up link below the Sign In button.
If you prefer, you can sign in using an existing Google ID using the 'Login with Google' button
A separate article outlining the account sign up process can be found here.
Upon signing in, the user then finds themselves at the 'calibration' page of the application, as shown below:
Selecting the Camera
The Application will automatically select a camera from the list of cameras recognised by the computer OS. The name of the current camera will be displayed at the top of the image. To select a different camera, click the 'Camera' button and select from the list of available cameras by clicking on the camera you want. See below:
Auto-Detecting the Content Area
Auto-detection of the paper or whiteboard is triggered by pressing the 'Detect' button as shown above (in the blue bar, near the number 2).
Manually Detecting the Content Area
If manual detection doesn't work properly, or if you prefer to set manually, you can click the 'Manual' button and then position the corners of the detection area by clicking and dragging, as shown below:
Viewing the Content
Once the content area has been correctly defined, the next step is to click the 'Start' button in the 'View Content' section of the menu bar (next to the number 3 in the blue bar). Clicking on the 'Start' button results in the 'Live Content' window being shown (e.g. see below):
If the content is not orientated correctly, the user may need to rotate or flip the camera view (or both).
Rotating the Camera View
If the image looks to be rotated incorrectly, as shown below, then use the 'Rotate' button to change it.
Flipping the Camera View
If the image looks to be flipped (left-to-right) incorrectly, as shown below, then use the 'Flip' button to change it.
Ghost Image (Transparent Image Overlay)
By default, Kaptivo Solo runs with 'Ghost Image' enabled, which means that in addition to displaying the processed image, with text enhanced, a live view of the camera is shown overlaid as a semi-transparent layer. This has two useful benefits; firstly, it allows writing to seen instantaneously, rather than waiting a couple of seconds for the image enhancement to complete; and secondly, it allows the user to point to things on the screen without the finger or pointing implement to be part of the enhanced image. (See image below.)
Note: if the hand is held still for several seconds, then the system will assume that it is part of the created content and will attempt to enhance it. Removing the hand from the scene will cause any unwanted foreground artefacts to disappear within a few seconds.
To turn off 'Ghost Image', click the Ghost button on the lower toolbar. This will result in just the the processed view being shown (see below). Pressing he Ghost button again will re-enable 'Ghost Image'.
Snapshot
When Kaptivo Solo is in 'Live View' mode as shown in the image above. Moving the mouse cursor anywhere on the application window will cause the toolbars to appear. Clicking the 'Snapshot' button will cause the current processed view to be saved as a .PNG format image in local storage. The default location for these snapshot images to be stored is:
- For Windows 10: ~\My Pictures\Kaptivo Solo Snapshots\
- For MacOS: ~/Pictures/Kaptivo Solo Snapshots/
The location of the snapshot images can be changed by clicking on the 'Set Folder' button on the toolbar, next to the Snapshot button.
Snapshots are automatically and sequentially named based on the date of capture. See example below:
Pause Camera
There may be some circumstances where you wish to pause the camera in Kaptivo Solo. For example, if you want to leave Kaptivo Solo running, but temporarily use the camera for something else. In this case, you can pause the camera by clicking on the 'Live' button in the bottom left. This will change it to 'Paused' as shown below. Clicking it again will revert it to 'Live'.
End Live View
In order to exit 'Live View' mode, click the 'End' button as shown below. This will return the user to the 'Calibration' screen. At regular intervals, users will be asked to provide feedback on the application to help the team to improve the product. See next section on how to manually open the feedback page.
Change Settings
In versions 0.4.0 and higher, there is a settings menu, which allows various parameters to be changed. To access the settings menu, first click on your name in the top menu bar and then click the 'Settings' button.
Clicking the 'Settings' button will then show the settings menu. There are three categories of settings, accessed via the three tabs on the left hand side.
General Settings
In the 'General' category, the user can select whether or not to 'share experience data'. If selected, this will share performance-related data with Kaptivo, such as how many frames per second of performance is being achieved, as well as data about the hardware of the host machine (processor type and speed, memory etc). This information is used exclusively to help the development team to tune performance to different hardware platforms.
The 'General' category also allows the user to define the default location for snapshots to be stored.
Camera Settings
The default camera settings can be controlled via the 'Camera Settings' tab.
- If 'Ghost Camera' is ticked, then the application will default to having 'Ghost Mode' enabled.
- If 'Detect movement' is ticked, then the application will default to having 'Tracker' enabled, which corrects for movement of the paper or board in the camera field of view.
- The 'Specific Camera Settings' allows defaults to be set for individual cameras, as selected by the drop-down menu.
- If 'Mirror' is ticked, then the camera image is mirrored by default.
- If 'Rotate' is set to a non-zero value, then the camera image is rotated by that angle by default.
- The 'Field of View' setting is an advanced feature, which usually should be left at its default, but when changed, this has the effect of scaling the image in the horizontal plane.
About Settings
The 'About Settings' contains information about the current version of the application and about Kaptivo. It includes a link to the support website. This can also be accessed by clicking the question mark in the top menu bar.
Leave Feedback
Users are encouraged to leave feedback about the Kaptivo Solo application and overall user-experience. We are especially interested to learn what went well, what didn't work as expected and what is missing from a user's point-of-view. Clicking the feedback button in the top right corner of the tool bar will bring up the feedback screen. Users have the option of including their email address so that the product team can follow up with them to discuss potential changes and preview improvements.
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