How to implement face recognition in an image in .net 3.5? - c#

I need to implement face recognition like in orkut album.
In my website when a user uploads a photo and checks the photo in album I need to implement the feature and place rectangles over the faces in photo like in orkut album like in this link.
Please help me to implement this.
Thanks in advance.

You need to use OpenCV, or more specifically, a C# wrapper library for OpenCV.
I think you can implement some (very) basic face detection using OpenCVDotNet, although you should be aware that I don't think it's actively being developed. I just noticed I'm still on the list as a project committer, but I haven't done any work on it for a long time (if ever, can't remember why I got added in the first place).
You should probably go with Emgu CV, which is a much better C# wrapper for OpenCV. It is actively developed, and is compatible with OpenCV 2.0, and has a wider community surrounding it, and the documentation is good enough that you can easily get face detection working pretty quickly.

Related

Kinect 2 skinning a model

I am looking at using the Kinect version 2 for PC to control an avatar, i.e. apply a skin to the body basics example provided by Microsoft.
The avatar isn't to be used in a game or anything at this point. I simply plan to be able to control the avatar using the Kinect 2 and record to .avi. I have already implemented a demo where I can record the Kinect footage of the skeleton directly to .avi.
After searching I found that it was possible to control an avatar with the original Kinect using XNA game studio. As XNA game studio seems a bit out dated now and I'm unsure if it would be compatible with version 2, would there be an alternative approach? Does anybody know of a project where someone has done this already? Or can anyone suggest a good approach to take to do this?
I have also seen some articles referring to a plugin that lets you use Unity with Kinect 2 but from what I can see I don't believe this is publicly available?
Many thanks for any help.
Yes, the unity plug in works great and its the best out there. the creator its call rumen, he will help you if you need it help but ofcourse you have to pay the plugin 1st. its worth it, it makes kinect way simpler.

Dynamic user-interface, WPF or not?

I'm currently working at a application that helps people understand how to do there job. You can see it as a personal coach that guides them trough all the steps they need to do that no normal person could keep remembering.
In my previous application we had the ability to show the user up to 4 pictures (what proves to be more then enough). The application would load the data and see how many pictures where in every instruction and then sort out the picture in the best fitting way without messing up the scale and resolution of the pictures. This all was done with GDI+ and worked very well.
Ofc, change is something that always happens, my bosses came up with some great ideas. So they want to be able to see movies on the screen, animated gif's, 3D models that can rotate or animate. So I think we had pushed GDI+ to it's limits and it's time to look for something different.
I have heard and readed about WPF but have no experience with it. Is it even possible to do all what I ask in WPF? And what about the old picture-merging thing I wrote, can we also get it done in wpf? I tried to make some things working but I didn't went as smooth as I hoped.
I'm also concerned about the fact that the interface needs to be dynamic, the one moment it should be showing picture with some text above it, the other moment it should be showing another text with a video under it.
I would love to hear some opinions here and if you got some other suggestions I should look into pls tell me. Thnx in advance
PS: If WPF is the choice, should I convince my boss to change to .net 4.0?
Although my answer can be termed subjective, I find WPF better than GDI+ anyday. You can do everything you can in WPF which you have done/could do in GDI+ (apart from pure games/game engines). If you can afford the steep learning curve of WPF, I think it will be better investment as this technology is not going anywhere soon.
As for .Net 4.0, WPF 4.0 does introduces some important functions in 4.0 (specially easing functions for animations) but there is nothing you cannot do without if you are using 3.5. I won't recommend 3.0 though mainly because of performance in animations.
WPF is up to the task, but you could also check other options.
You could go web based, and have either an XBAP (WPF in the browser), or Silverlight/Flash app.
Silverlight/Flash doesn't require that much from the client (to install), and is easily updatable, and both can do the job.

How should I start playing with 3D?

I'm a developer for just about 6 months now, and since I enjoy programming I've started little programs such as encripters, calculators, tools, stuff to play with DropBox (hehe), stuff that play with bitmaps, drawing graphics, and even a program to update the MSN display image according to the artwork of the music you're listening yo on iTunes.
One of my other hobbies is 3d modelling (completely amateur) and I'd like to mix these hobbies together! So I've read a little about it and figured I'd have to have good notions on geometry, math, point spacial position (which I do, from my 3d modelling experience), but I don't know how to use API's for it, so I've 'simulated' simple 3d with a simple program I've made (a spinning cube).
Here are some questions:
1) What would be a nice 3d development tool for a .NET programmer like me?
2) Is there a way of using 3d models made in 3DS Max ? (I intend on modelling characters)
3) What knowledge should I have in order to render it, and move it around ?
4) Which API should I use ?
NOTE: Not a dupe, I'm asking for directions specific for .NET development possibly using 3ds MAX, and there were no questions about it so far
EDIT:
I've got three answers that seem quite nice, so let me specify a little and maybe you can tell me what's the more appropriate tool.
What I'd like to build soon would be like:
portable (click'n'run, no need to install, and (hopefully) no need to send DLL's along)
"3D embedding" in winforms application, like a picturebox you could render in.
Real winforms application-like (having all System api's like IO, Drawing and etc)
The development enviroment would be nice if it:
Had the possibility to import existant 3D models (not a must, but a plus)
Had the ability to create 3d models programatically (a must)
Possibly has a tool for materials and textures (that would be a huge plus)
Is Well known (high availability of tutorials, questions in S.O., forums..)
And it would be really nice if I could use C# all the way :)
I'm going to provide another vote for XNA. The comment that it's too "game centric" is a non-starter - it provides a rendering loop with feedback on how fast everything is running so you can adjust your rendering to try to maintain a specific framerate (if you want). This isn't particularly game-centric as it's something that most 3D applications should worry about. The only thing that's really unusually game-centric about it is that it provides easy access to game controllers. Feel free to ignore that bit if you don't want to use it.
The only downside for you using XNA is your requirement that it be click'n'run, XNA has a redistributable that you have to worry about. Note that Win7 has this installed by default, but Vista and earlier don't.
EDIT:
XNA is made for applications that are strictly 3D. As such it doesn't natively support using typical windowing controls inside of an XNA project. But, there are ways around this...
A few useful links. Embedding XNA in a winform : http://forums.xna.com/forums/p/6471/34180.aspx#34180
WPF controls directly inside an XNA project : http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/iersoy/256/Default.aspx
Personally, I found XNA a little too "Game Centric" for my tastes. I was more interested in design/architecture type uses.
You may find SlimDX more to your liking.
Even though there are great suggestions in this post already(such as SlimDX and XNA), I'd just like to mention OpenTK.
OpenTK is closer to OpenGL than Direct3D, but it might be the best solution for cross-platform 3D .NET applications.
Since you are using C#.Net, the XNA library will be excellent for you. It is free off the Microsoft website and integrates into the VS IDE. A lot of available tutorials around to help get started.
Also, if I remember correctly. to use a 3d model in XNA, simply export the completed model as (.X). It can then be loaded into your work.
I vote you try Blender. www.blender.org
It's free, open source, and has a great community both on forums and IRC. Progress on the app is pushed forward by major community projects every year, some of which are movies and games and have won some awards. It is gaining industry acceptance as a way to model extremely fast.
Downsides: It's not considered as "pro" as Maya or ZBrush, and it has a very different brain about interface. Learning curve can be interesting, depending on how you learn and how much help you receive.
Upsides: It's free, great community, updated regularly, many tutorials and community projects to work on.
Community:
Blender channel on IRC
Blenderartists forums
Previous community Projects:
Elephant's Dream
Big Buck Bunny
My vote goes for Povray. It is a 3d renderer with a c-like syntax language. It doesn't satisfy your .net needs, but if cool non the less for 3d rendering. If you any kind of interactivity XNA is probably your best best. But I'm interested in your finds.
Re: "Has the ability to create 3d models programatically (a must)"
A few pointers:
Polygon Triangulation
(Dr. ?) Jonathan Richard Shewchuk's Triangle library
Dr. Hang Si's TetGen library
Constructive Solid Geometry
GNU Triangulated Surface Library
There are no .NET libraries I am aware of that allow you use the above mentioned libraries/techniques. You will have to use PInvoke or C++/CLI in order to make calls to these libraries from the managed world.

C# tutorial for "listening" to the line in device

I know the obvious answer is "try google..." but i have and I either end up with graphics or cmd-line tutorials, so...
Can anyone point I in the direction of a c# tutorial for "listening" to the audio line-in? Or is it straight forward with the right namespace included? Is it even possible without using directx or some such.
I want to detect external audio activity and report it on screen.
Cheers,
This code sample looks like it has everything that you need: VolumeMeter
Presumably you just need to change the code so that instead of rendering the current volume levels you could return a flag indicating whether "something" is going on.
It's using the Managed DirectX library, which is a managed code wrapper for the native DirectX APIs.
You need an external library to do that. These have .NET bindings:
FMOD is widely used in games, and has an opensource license (and a paid one).
BASS Audio Library is another choice. It's a bit more lightweight.
IrrKlang I haven't use this one, but I was told it is worth the money
NAudio I found just now, because I forgot the IrrKlang's name, and had to google for it. This one looks promising.
OR MDX can do this I think.
check out the VoiceRecorder sample application on Codeplex which shows how to do this using NAudio. This Coding4Fun article explains it in more detail.

C# Grab frame from wmv file

Does anyone know if it is possible to grab a frame/image from a video (.wmv) on position X using C# without installing DirectX and working on Windows 2008 (a webserver I would like to install as less as possible).
Or even a simple solution with directx could be nice.
Henk
What you'll actually need to look into is DirectShow, the general-purpose media (both audio and video) library for Windows. It used to be part of DirectX but several years ago it branched off and became part of the Windows (Platform) SDK. I should also point out here that it's now been deprecated since Windows Vista in favour of Media Foundation. From what I've read it's a much better library (DirectShow is hell for complex tasks), but unfortunately it's not really feasible to only target Media Foundation at the moment because of the lack of support for XP and earlier...
The best I can really do is point you to DirectShow.NET, a .NET wrapper library for DirectShow, which is rather stable and well tested at the moment. It includes various samples which should help you get going, but by no means will it be a straightforward solution. Also, I strongly recommend you take a look at this CodeProject article/sample application. It deals with both webcam video capture and video playback from files (including WMV). A bit of playing around with that, and learning how to do frame seeking/single frame capture (I think that project might even some code to do that) should get you what you need. Perhaps you'll even find the precise solution somewhere within the DirectShow.NET samples of that CodeProject app.
Of course, I would suggest an easier solution if I could here, but you're pretty much stuck with the horribleness that is DirectShow for the moment. Good luck anyway!
You should try FFmpeg.
Take a look at the Windows Media Format SDK, which is designed to give you pretty direct access to the frames inside a WMV (/WMA/ASF) file.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd757738(VS.85).aspx
In particular, you're interested in the synchronous API for reading these files (IWMSyncReader is the interface name). There are some pretty decent samples in the WMFSDK; I believe the most interesting one for you here will be WMSyncReader, which will show you how to dig through a WMV file and get frames, starting at position X.

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