Oculus Documentation

Oculus 2.5.5
Oculus Documentation

Main Window
The Document Window
Oculus is a program which allows you to capture video frames, caption them in a variety of ways, and deliver them via the world wide web.

Oculus has options to transmit an image to a remote ftp site or save a file locally, if you have a web server running on your video capture machine. Oculus can capture images into both Photo and Movie formats.

Oculus has a flexible captioning architecture which allows for text and picture captions to be randomly or sequentially applied. This can create very dynamic WebCam pages.

Oculus uses features of QuickTime 3.0 to apply filters to picture captions or to the final image itself.

The Document Window
The Document window is primary to Oculus. It shows the last picture sent to the web, status about uploading, and allows manipulation of captions directly on the surface of the picture.

Clicking on the Document Window draws all of the captions, the selection state, and a new picture. This can be used while adjusting the orientation of the camera for proper positioning of the image and captions. It is also used to allow proper positioning of transitional captions with respect to each other.

Oculus has several options to control the size of the document and the display of the preview image. You can change these via the Document dialog.

The Status Bar
The status bar at the bottom of the window shows progress towards the time when the next picture will be taken. The bar starts off grey, and turns yellow as it comes close to the time for uploading. It flashes red and the picture updates just before uploading. When the bar turns green, the picture is compressed and transmitted to the FTP site specified in the FTP dialog or the file is saved into a document that you specify using the Photo or Movie dialog.

Below the progress bar is displayed the amount that the current image is different from the previous image, if you have turned on the "Motion Detection" trigger option. When the bar is above the gray area, the image is different enough to cause a picture to be taken.

The status bar also shows the current sound level when the Sound Level is set. If the sound level reaches the specified level (indicated by the red range), a picture will be taken and sent to the target destination.

The video settings can be adjusted using the standard QuickTime video settings dialog.

Captions
Captions can be created from menu selections or by drag-and-drop. To drag-and-drop, select an image or text file from the Finder, and drag it into the Document Window or the Caption Window. You can also drag text selections from applications (such as Stickies) into Oculus.

Clicking on a caption in the document window selects the caption. Double-clicking on a caption will bring up the caption dialog to edit the caption. Pressing the return key will bring up a caption dialog to edit each of the selected captions.

The arrow keys move selected captions by one pixel. Shift and an arrow key will move selected captions by five pixels. Clicking and dragging captions allow arbitrary movement of selected captions.

Pressing the delete key will delete all selected captions. If a set of captions all reside in the same place, clicking on a caption will select the topmost one. To select other captions below it, use the Caption Window.

Dragging and dropping a text selection will create a text selection with the same attributes as the first selected text caption. Dragging and dropping a text file will create text captions in the same way. Text dropped into a document window will be split at carriage-returns or at the length of 255 characters. As many text captions as necessary will be created to satisfy the drop.

Caption Lists
A Caption List is a container for other captions. Each Oculus container has a main caption list which contains all other captions, including other caption lists.

A caption list can be set up to display all of it's contents, each item of it's contents one at a time in sequence, or each item of it's contents one at a time randomly selected.

New captions will be created in the same caption list as the first selected caption. If there is no selected caption, the new caption will be created in the top level caption list.

The display method of a caption list can be adjusted when it is created, or when it is double-clicked from the Caption Window.

Captions Window

The Caption Window
The Caption window can be brought up by selecting the Captions... menu item.

The Caption window shows a list of the captions for the document. You can also drag text and image files into the Caption window as you would the Document window in order to add new captions.

Text Captions appear in the list with their contents, Picture Captions appear with their given name, and List Captions appear with their given name. List Captions also have a disclosure triangle next to them, so that they may be collapsed to see more of the list of captions.

List Captions contain text, picture and other list captions. The List Caption allows you to display one of a set of captions, either randomly or in sequence.

Clicking on a caption will select that caption. Double-clicking on a caption will bring up the caption dialog to edit the caption. Pressing the return key will bring up a caption dialog to edit each of the selected captions.

The arrow keys move selected captions by one pixel. Shift and an arrow key will move selected captions by five pixels.

Pressing the delete key will delete all selected captions.

Destination - Where does the file go?

With Oculus, you can specify a local file to save the picture or movie to. You can also specify a file server and target file path to send the file to.

The model for the Oculus setup is that you have a web site with a picture or movie in a html document. When people read that document, they will see the picture or movie that Oculus is sending to this site. If you have a local http server or are running personal web sharing, you just need to specify where on your machine you want the file to go. You use the Photo dialog or Movie dialog to specify the location for both local and FTP files.

If you have a web page on a remote machine, then it is very likely that you can send files to the machine where the web page is via FTP.

To find out exactly where you want to put the document on a remote site, log in to your web site with an FTP program such as Fetch. Navigate to the location where you wish to put the picture and not the path that you had to take. For many web sites, a user has a public_html directory in their user account. If you want to put the picture right there with the name of picture.jpg, you would put "public_html/picture.jpg" in the FTP path: portion of the Photo or Movie dialog. You can specify a full or relative path from your user account. Note that the path will probably be slightly different from the http:// path that you type into your web browser.

If you're having problems with getting your file where it needs to go, you may find some information in the FTP Log window. The FTP Log window holds a record of the communication between Oculus and your specified FTP host.

Getting Started with Oculus
Oculus Documentation
Oculus How To
Oculus Reference
What's New?
Oculus Webcams
Oculus FAQ
Oculus Home
Home

Copyright 1998-99 Poubelle Software and International Web
Comments? oculus@poubelle.com

Oculus 2.5.5		Oculus Documentation



		The Document Window Oculus is a program which allows you to capture video frames, caption them in a variety of ways, and deliver them via the world wide web. Oculus has options to transmit an image to a remote ftp site or save a file locally, if you have a web server running on your video capture machine. Oculus can capture images into both Photo and Movie formats. Oculus has a flexible captioning architecture which allows for text and picture captions to be randomly or sequentially applied. This can create very dynamic WebCam pages. Oculus uses features of QuickTime 3.0 to apply filters to picture captions or to the final image itself. The Document Window The Document window is primary to Oculus. It shows the last picture sent to the web, status about uploading, and allows manipulation of captions directly on the surface of the picture. Clicking on the Document Window draws all of the captions, the selection state, and a new picture. This can be used while adjusting the orientation of the camera for proper positioning of the image and captions. It is also used to allow proper positioning of transitional captions with respect to each other. Oculus has several options to control the size of the document and the display of the preview image. You can change these via the Document dialog. The Status Bar The status bar at the bottom of the window shows progress towards the time when the next picture will be taken. The bar starts off grey, and turns yellow as it comes close to the time for uploading. It flashes red and the picture updates just before uploading. When the bar turns green, the picture is compressed and transmitted to the FTP site specified in the FTP dialog or the file is saved into a document that you specify using the Photo or Movie dialog. Below the progress bar is displayed the amount that the current image is different from the previous image, if you have turned on the "Motion Detection" trigger option. When the bar is above the gray area, the image is different enough to cause a picture to be taken. The status bar also shows the current sound level when the Sound Level is set. If the sound level reaches the specified level (indicated by the red range), a picture will be taken and sent to the target destination. The video settings can be adjusted using the standard QuickTime video settings dialog. Captions Captions can be created from menu selections or by drag-and-drop. To drag-and-drop, select an image or text file from the Finder, and drag it into the Document Window or the Caption Window. You can also drag text selections from applications (such as Stickies) into Oculus. Clicking on a caption in the document window selects the caption. Double-clicking on a caption will bring up the caption dialog to edit the caption. Pressing the return key will bring up a caption dialog to edit each of the selected captions. The arrow keys move selected captions by one pixel. Shift and an arrow key will move selected captions by five pixels. Clicking and dragging captions allow arbitrary movement of selected captions. Pressing the delete key will delete all selected captions. If a set of captions all reside in the same place, clicking on a caption will select the topmost one. To select other captions below it, use the Caption Window. Dragging and dropping a text selection will create a text selection with the same attributes as the first selected text caption. Dragging and dropping a text file will create text captions in the same way. Text dropped into a document window will be split at carriage-returns or at the length of 255 characters. As many text captions as necessary will be created to satisfy the drop. Caption Lists A Caption List is a container for other captions. Each Oculus container has a main caption list which contains all other captions, including other caption lists. A caption list can be set up to display all of it's contents, each item of it's contents one at a time in sequence, or each item of it's contents one at a time randomly selected. New captions will be created in the same caption list as the first selected caption. If there is no selected caption, the new caption will be created in the top level caption list. The display method of a caption list can be adjusted when it is created, or when it is double-clicked from the Caption Window. The Caption Window The Caption window can be brought up by selecting the Captions... menu item. The Caption window shows a list of the captions for the document. You can also drag text and image files into the Caption window as you would the Document window in order to add new captions. Text Captions appear in the list with their contents, Picture Captions appear with their given name, and List Captions appear with their given name. List Captions also have a disclosure triangle next to them, so that they may be collapsed to see more of the list of captions. List Captions contain text, picture and other list captions. The List Caption allows you to display one of a set of captions, either randomly or in sequence. Clicking on a caption will select that caption. Double-clicking on a caption will bring up the caption dialog to edit the caption. Pressing the return key will bring up a caption dialog to edit each of the selected captions. The arrow keys move selected captions by one pixel. Shift and an arrow key will move selected captions by five pixels. Pressing the delete key will delete all selected captions. Destination - Where does the file go? With Oculus, you can specify a local file to save the picture or movie to. You can also specify a file server and target file path to send the file to. The model for the Oculus setup is that you have a web site with a picture or movie in a html document. When people read that document, they will see the picture or movie that Oculus is sending to this site. If you have a local http server or are running personal web sharing, you just need to specify where on your machine you want the file to go. You use the Photo dialog or Movie dialog to specify the location for both local and FTP files. If you have a web page on a remote machine, then it is very likely that you can send files to the machine where the web page is via FTP. To find out exactly where you want to put the document on a remote site, log in to your web site with an FTP program such as Fetch. Navigate to the location where you wish to put the picture and not the path that you had to take. For many web sites, a user has a public_html directory in their user account. If you want to put the picture right there with the name of picture.jpg, you would put "public_html/picture.jpg" in the FTP path: portion of the Photo or Movie dialog. You can specify a full or relative path from your user account. Note that the path will probably be slightly different from the http:// path that you type into your web browser. If you're having problems with getting your file where it needs to go, you may find some information in the FTP Log window. The FTP Log window holds a record of the communication between Oculus and your specified FTP host.

Getting Started with Oculus Oculus Documentation Oculus How To Oculus Reference What's New? Oculus Webcams Oculus FAQ Oculus Home Home		Copyright 1998-99 Poubelle Software and International Web Comments? oculus@poubelle.com