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Topic: computer vision: video camera alternatives (Read 2547 times) |
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exclamationmark period
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computer vision: video camera alternatives
« on: Jan 27th, 2005, 7:36am » |
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what low cost electronic sensor alternatives are there to video cameras?
ie
photosensitive transistors?
essentially i would like to be able recognize the area of an object (hand, paper cutout) placed directly above an array of sensors, and display a low res image (silhouette) of the object.
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| « Last Edit: Jan 27th, 2005, 5:17pm by exclamationmark period » |
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st33d
 
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Re: computer vision: video camera alternatives
« Reply #1 on: Jan 27th, 2005, 9:17pm » |
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Actually your cheapest alternative is a web cam. It's also the least grief. I discussed this with a tutor and he tipped me that you would need a micro-controller as a go between for your light sensor and the PC. I recently got a micro-controller for £20 (for christmas) that feeds from USB, I hope to build a pen-on-wheels robot this year. But I still have to learn how to program the micro-controller with PIC-Basic and find the right port and the right signals to send to the PIC. It's worth the hassle to make a robot though.
But a web-cam will probably plug straight into the PC and there's already a lot of motion-tracking software and image recognition software that can deal with the web cam signal with out any of the silly mucking about with micro-controllers or a sensory go-between.
Google tells me you can pick one up for £15.
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I could murder a pint.
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exclamationmark period
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Re: computer vision: video camera alternatives
« Reply #2 on: Jan 27th, 2005, 9:48pm » |
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sorry. i meant video cameras including webcams.
and also i want to learn about sensors, actuators and microcontrollers. i want to program a microcontroller to function independent of a computer. so a webcam would not be suitable. i have browsed the various links on tom igoes blog. i couldnt find any helpful information. im not familiar w/ physical computing so i mayve overlooked something.
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| « Last Edit: Jan 27th, 2005, 9:53pm by exclamationmark period » |
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st33d
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Re: computer vision: video camera alternatives
« Reply #3 on: Jan 28th, 2005, 6:06pm » |
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I'm afraid I don't have an answer to that. Seeing as a digital camera is effectively a light sensor array I would have thought about trying to get the micro-controller to communicate with the camera. My line of thought is that the wiring is already there. Surely by creating a what already exists in a digital camera you would eventually wind up with what you're trying to avoid using. I have a couple of micro-contoller sources but I'm afraid I'm all out on the light sensors.
http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&node Id=74
http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/picaxe/
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I could murder a pint.
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