Release Notes

• What's New

  Jan 18, 2018

  ZED SDK 2.3 includes several new features and improvements. It introduces support for ZED Mini, new ULTRA depth mode, visual-inertial technology for camera tracking and a new Unreal Engine plugin. Stereo pass-through is now supported in both Unity and UE4 along with our new Video Async Reprojection (VAR) technology for reduced latency.

  The 2.3 release also includes support for CUDA 9.1, JetPack 3.2 along with general SDK improvements and bug fixes.

• 2.3.3

  Depth

  • Fixed right disparity values being over filtered when using enable_right_side_measure.

  Tools

  • Fixed a bug in factory calibration reset that could lead to loading an old calibration file from cache.

• 2.3.2

  SDK

  ZED SDK installer

  • Removed a registry key that could prevent from loading Windows Mixed Reality headsets on a system.
  • Fixed CUDA automated installation on Windows 7.
  • Fixed Visual C++ redistributable installation on Windows 10.

  SDK

  • Fixed crashes due to camera disconnection.
  • Improved overall input stability.

  Depth

  • Improved depth map edges in ULTRA mode.
  • Reduced depth estimation holes on the floor in STANDARD mode.
  • Updated confidence map to add more steps when tuning the confidence parameter in PERFORMANCE and ULTRA modes.

  Tools

  • Fixed several bugs in ZED Explorer leading to unexpected crashes.
  • Updated point cloud preview in the Depth Viewer.
  • Updated Diagnostic tool to detect additional issues.
  • Updated firmware update mechanism in Windows 10 to allow downgrading.

  ZED World

  • Fixed Video Async reprojection (VAR) for Vive. Latency mitigation and image projection have been improved to offer a better pass-through experience.
  • ZED World can now run without installing CUDA.

• 2.3.1

  Performance Improvements and Bug Fixes

  • Improved ULTRA depth performance by up to 200% on desktop and Jetson when depth stabilization is enabled.
  • Reduced memory usage of ULTRA depth mode by 50%.
  • Optimized confidence maps for ULTRA and PERFORMANCE modes. Confidence values are now more linear and accurate.
  • Fixed an issue where exposure and gain settings were applied on the left image only.
  • Fixed an issue when retrieving normals in VGA resolution with the ULTRA mode.
  • Fixed tracking behavior during the playback of an SVO recorded with a ZED Mini.

• 2.3.0

  New Features

  Added support for ZED Mini

  • Updated SDK and plugins to support ZED Mini.

  New ULTRA depth mode

  • Introduced a new ULTRA septh mode. Depth maps can be now be extracted at the native resolution of the video, improving significantly depth sharpness, accuracy and range in both STANDARD and FILL modes.
  • In ULTRA mode, ZED can perceive depth up to 40 m and ZED Mini up to 20 m.

  New visual-inertial tracking for ZED Mini

  • New hybrid positional tracking technology is introduced for the ZED Mini.
  • By taking advantage of ZED Mini integrated IMU, camera pose estimation is improved and drift is reduced.

  New Unreal Engine plugin

  • Introduced plugin for Unreal Engine 4. The plugin allows developers to create mixed-reality applications in UE4 with ZED and ZED Mini.
  • Released custom UE4 engine to support stereo pass-through with ZED Mini along with Video Async Reprojection (VAR) that reduces perceived latency.
  • Source code is available on GitHub.

  Introducing stereo pass-through in Unity and UE4

  • Added support of ZED Mini camera in Unity.
  • Added stereo passthrough feature for mixed-reality applications in VR headsets.
  • Introduced Video Async Reprojection (VAR) technology in Unity for reduced latency in MR applications.

  SDK

  Added ZED Mini support

  • Updated SDK modules to support ZED Mini.
  • Added Camera::getDeviceList() static function to know which devices are connected.
  • Added DeviceProperties structure to store information about connected devices.
  • Added MODEL enumeration to differentiate between ZED Mini and ZED.
  • Added camera_model information in the CameraInformation structure.

  Added IMU support

  • Added Camera::getIMUData() function that gives access to the quaternion and raw IMU data in ZED Mini.
  • Added IMUData structure to store the IMU values filled by getIMUData() function.

  Updated Depth API

  • Added DEPTH_MODE_ULTRA for the new ULTRA depth mode. It significantly improves depth estimation of both STANDARD and FILL sensing modes.
  • Improved normal map estimation.
  • Fixed depth map bug in Flip mode on Jetson.

  Updated Positional Tracking API

  • Introduced new visual-inertial tracking algorithm for ZED Mini.
  • Reduced positional tracking time on Jetson when Spatial Memory is not activated.

  Updated timestamp functions

  • Timestamp functions have been updated to simplify camera and IMU data access and synchronization.
  • Introduced Camera::getTimestamp() that replaces previous timestamp functions.
  • Changed timestamp reference form PC uptime to epoch format.
  • Deprecated Camera::getCurrentTimestamp(), replaced by Camera::getTimestamp(TIME_REFERENCE_CURRENT) which returns the current timestamp.
  • Deprecated Camera::getCameraTimeStamp(), replaced by Camera::getTimestamp(TIME_REFERENCE_IMAGE) which returns the latest image timestamp.
  • Updated getCameraFPS() function to return the actual camera FPS and not the requested FPS. This is helpful to detect USB bandwidth bottlenecks on certain platforms.

  Tools

  • Updated Depth Viewer to support ULTRA depth mode.
  • Updated tools and samples to support ZED Mini.
  • Added a graphical interface for the Diagnostic tool.
  • Updated Diagnostic tool tests and messages.

  ROS

  • Added ZED Mini support.
  • Added the possibility to select a ZED camera from its serial number in ROS. This helps when using multiple cameras.
  • Updated timestamp to epoch format.
  • Fixed occasional crash when closing the wrapper.
  • Fixed baseline units.
  • Fixed raw parameters value.

  Unity

  Plugin

  • Added support for ZED Mini.
  • Introduced stereo passthrough feature for mixed-reality applications in VR headsets.

  Prefabs

  • Added ZED_Rig_Stereo prefab, with stereo capture and passthrough rendering in VR headsets (beta version).
  • Renamed ZED_Rig_Left into ZED_Rig_Mono, for better monoscopic/stereoscopic prefab distinction.

  Scripts

  • Updated ZED Manager with new settings to control real-world brightness and enable/disable AR occlusions using depth.
  • Added ZEDSupportFunctions.cs to help users retrieve depth and normals at screen or world position. Some of these functions are used in the Object Placement sample.
  • Added ZEDMixedRealityPlugin.cs to handle stereo passthrough in Oculus Rift and HTC Vive Headset.
  • Renamed ZEDTextureOverlay.cs into ZEDRenderingPlane.cs.
  • Fixed bugs.

  Examples

  • Added Planetarium scene to demonstrate how to create a solar system in mixed-reality. This is a simplified version of the ZED World app built with Unreal Engine.
  • Added Object Placement scene to demonstrate how to place an object in the real world without using Spatial Mapping.
  • Added Dark Room scene to demonstrate how to decrease the brightness of the real world using the Camera Brightness settings in ZEDManager.cs.

  Known Issues

  • On certain configurations, VRCompositor in SteamVR can freeze when using HTC Vive and ZED. Disabling Async Reprojection in SteamVR can fix the issue.
  • To maintain an optimal stereo pass-through experience, the camera needs to run consistently at 60FPS and Unity at 90FPS.

  Unreal Engine

  • Released plugin for Unreal Engine 4. The plugin allows developers to create mixed-reality applications in UE4 with ZED and ZED Mini.
  • Released custom UE4 engine to support stereo passthrough with ZED Mini along with Video Async Reprojection (VAR) to reduce perceived latency.
  • Added several blueprint content examples to demonstrate how to use the plugin in MR.
  • Source code is available on GitHub. Users need to have a GitHub account linked with UE4 account to access the custom engine code.

  Platform Support

  • Added support for CUDA 9.1.
  • Added support for JetPack 3.2 for Jetson TX2.