Saving Depth and Image Data

All components of an image can be saved as individual files in a variety of formats.

This may be useful if you want to view the data in a different tool, i.e., point cloud data in a point cloud processing tool, or if you want to share an image with others, i.e., the depth map as a .png file.

Depth maps (color and gray values versions) and intensity images can be saved as .png and .tiff files. Point clouds (color and intensity versions) can be saved as .pcd and .ply files.

An additional benefit of the Save Depth and Image Data command is that it can automatically rotate a point cloud along the x axis by 180 ° when saving it. This is necessary because many common point cloud processing tools, e.g., MeshLab and CloudCompare, use right-handed coordinate systems, but with the y axis pointing up (the y axis of the blaze camera is pointing down).

Because of this difference in the orientation of the y axis, those tools show point clouds produced by the blaze camera backwards and upside down. To make the point clouds compatible with those tools, they need to be rotated along the x axis by 180 °. You can achieve this by selecting the Invert z-axis check box (enabled by default) in the Save Data dialog. The rotation is then done automatically when saving a point cloud to file.

To save image data in a different format:

1. In the File menu, click Save Depth and Image Data.
2. In the Save Data dialog, select the image component that you want to save.
3. (Optional) Select the Invert z-axis check box.
4. (Optional) Select the Current Device Settings check box if you want to save the current camera settings in a .pfs file.
5. Specify a base for the file name of the images.
6. Specify a folder where the images are going to be saved.
7. (Optional) Select the Append Sequential Number if you want to number the images consecutively.
8. Click OK.