How to use an OpenCV rotation and translation vector with OpenGL ES in Android?

Question

I'm am working on a basic augmented reality application on Android. What I did so far is detect a square with opencv and then using cvFindExtrinsicCameraParams2() I calculated a rotation and translation vector. For this I used 4 object points, which are just the corners of a square around (0,0,0) and the 4 corners of the square in the image.

This yields me a pretty good rotation and translation matrix. I also calculated the rotation matrix with cvRodrigues2() since using this is easier than the rotation vector. As long as I use these to draw some points in the image everything works fine. My next step is however to pass these vectors and the matrix back to java and then use them with OpenGL to draw a square in an OpenGLView. The square should be exactly around the square in the image which is displayed behind the OpenGLView.

My problem is that I cannot find the correct way of using the rotation matrix and translation vector in OpenGL. I started of with exactly the same object points as used for the openCV functions. Then I applied the rotation matrix and translation vector in pretty much any possible way I could think of. Sadly none of these approaches produce a result which is anyway near what I hoped for. Can anyone tell me how to use them correctly?

So far the "closest" results I have gotten, was when randomly multiplying the whole matrix with -1. But most of the time the squares still look mirror inverted or rotated for 180 degrees. So I guess it was just a lucky hit, but not the right approach.

Answer 1

Okay after some more testing I finally managed to get it to work. While I don't understand it... it does 'work'. For anyone who will need to do this in the future here is my solution.

float rv[3]; // the rotation vector
float rotMat[9]; // rotation matrix
float tv[3]; // translation vector.


rv[1]=-1.0f * rv[1]; rv[2]=-1.0f * rv[2];
//Convert the rotation vector into a matrix here.

//Complete matrix ready to use for OpenGL
float RTMat[] = {rotMat[0], rotMat[3], rotMat[6], 0.0f,
                 rotMat[1], rotMat[4], rotMat[7], 0.0f,
                 rotMat[2], rotMat[5], rotMat[8], 0.0f,
                 tv[0], -tv[1], -tv[2], 1.0f};

As genpfault said in his comment everything needs to be transposed since OpenGL since OpenGL needs a column-major order. (Thanks for the comment, I saw that page earlier already.) Furthermore the y and z rotation angle as well as the y and z translation need to be multiplied by -1. This is what I find a bit weird. Why only those and not the x values too?

This works as it should I guess. But corners the don't match exactly. I guess this is caused by some wrong openGLView configurations. So even though I am still not a 100% happy with my solution I guess it is the answer to my question.

Answer 2

Pandoro's method really works! In case someone wondering "how to convert the rotation vector into a rotation matrix" here's how I did it. By the way, I've used these in OpenGL 2, not ES.

// use the rotation vector generated from OpenCV's cvFindExtrinsicCameraParams2() 
float rv[] = {rotation->data.fl[0], rotation->data.fl[1], rotation->data.fl[2] }; 

// use the translation vector generated from OpenCV's cvFindExtrinsicCameraParams2() 
float tv[] = {translation->data.fl[0], translation->data.fl[1], translation->data.fl[2]} ; 

float rm[9];
// rotation matrix
CvMat* rotMat = cvCreateMat (3, 3, CV_32FC1); 

// rotation vectors can be converted to a 3-by-3 rotation matrix
// by calling cvRodrigues2() - Source: O'Reilly Learning OpenCV
cvRodrigues2(rotation, rotMat, NULL);

for(int i=0; i<9; i++){
    rm[i] = rotMat->data.fl[i];
}

rv[1]=-1.0f * rv[1]; rv[2]=-1.0f * rv[2];
//Convert the rotation vector into a matrix here.

//Complete matrix ready to use for OpenGL
float RTMat[] = {rm[0], rm[3], rm[6], 0.0f,
             rm[1], rm[4], rm[7], 0.0f,
             rm[2], rm[5], rm[8], 0.0f,
             tv[0], -tv[1], -tv[2], 1.0f};

Good luck!