What is it?

CMN_Binviewer is a tool that was developed by the Croatian Meteor Network (CMN) to allow camera operators to manually check through data. It is preinstalled on the Pi, but its quite slow to run and should never be used at night as it will impact data capture.

Installation

The easiest way to use it is to install it on your PC, Linux PC or Mac. There is a Windows package available here. For MacOS or Linux, you'll need to install the Python source from here.

You will also need to copy the ArchivedFiles folders to your PC or Mac, as explained here.

Basic Usage

Once installed, the programme is fairly easy to use. You can use it on any folder containing FF files and the corresponding FTP file, but normally you'll be using it on a folder in the ArchivedFiles area, which contains the images that RMS categorised as probable meteors.

From the File menu select a folder containing FF files that you want to examine The file-dialog will appear empty, but once you click Select the data will be loaded into the app on the left side.

Now you'll be able to go through the list viewing each file. Depending on your screen size you may need to select 1/2 size from the Resize menu. I also find Horizontal from the Layout menu is more usable.

On the right (in horizontal mode) you will see buttons to save images as Jpg or Bmp, or to create an animated Gif of the data. By default, all 255 frames in each image are exported. To restrict the export to just the frames with an event in, select Detected at the top left. You can set the video framerate by adjusting the number in the FPS box.

Confirming or Rejecting detections

Once you've become familiar with the app, you can try your hand at "Confirming" events.

• First select the folder in ArchivedFiles corresponding to the date you want to review.

• Now from the Confirmation menu, make sure that Edge Markers, Meteor Guidelines and Detection Centred video are selected.

• Then select Start from the same menu. You will now step through each detection, being given a chance to confirm or reject it.

• red edge-markers will appear on top and left of the image, indicating where the detection is. Don't be fooled by aircraft in the same frame, look for the edge markers.

• If your screen is wide enough, you will also see a small floating window showing a closeup of the detection.

• To confirm a detection press '''Enter''' (on Windows you can use the numeric keypad enter key). The entry will turn green.

• To reject a detection press '''Del''' (again on Windows you can use the numeric keypad). The entry will turn red.

• Sometimes an aircraft will create multiple detections in one frame (identified by sequential numbers). Press '''PgDn''' to reject an entire set but do check the whole frame to make sure there's not a meteor lurking somewhere!

Binviewer will automatically move to the next detection after you make a choice, however you can use the mouse or arrow keys to go back and re-confirm if you think you made a mistake.

Once you confirm the last image in the list, Binviewer will copy the confirmed images into the ConfirmedFiles folder. This may take a while, and the app may appear to have frozen, so wait a few minutes.

Whats next ?

Once you've confirmed you can use RMS utilities to for example stack the data, rerun shower associations, create MP4s etc. See this FAQ for more information about using the utilities.

The Binviewer Application