Camera

[thomdaley]

Hi,
Has anyone successfully set up a camera to use for image detection? I was looking at this HiTechnic product and maybe cannibalizing a web camera to hook it up.

Thanks,
Thom

[mightor]

Which HT product are you referring to?

- Xander

[haydenstudios]

Yes, you can buy a camera sensor for the NXT here http://www.mindsensors.com/index.php?mo ... PAGE_id=78
But like mightor said, I am not farmiliar with which HiTechnic procuct you are referring to.

Also, if you have an RCX, you can use a vision command set, but as I understand it you don't have an RCX and only have an NXT. I hope this helps.

[HaWe]

the mindsensors cam is for color blob detection, but...
...aahmmm... and ...
...it's room for improvement...

...actually...
...to be honest...

...lot of room...

[thomdaley]

I was actually referring to the solderless breadboard you can buy from HiTechnic to maybe hook up a camera for blob detect. I was wondering if someone had custom built one.

[mightor]

I am not sure the Hitechnic protoboard is suitable to do that kind of thing. How exactly were you thinking of hooking up the camera?

- Xander

[haydenstudios]

the mindsensors cam is for color blob detection, but...
...aahmmm... and ...
...it's room for improvement...

...actually...
...to be honest...

...lot of room...

Ok, it does make sense that the NXT wouldn't be able to handle 30 full-color bitmap images every second, and that it could only do blob detection. I guess that I wouldn't have known exactly how well it works since I don't have one.

[thomdaley]

I am not sure the Hitechnic protoboard is suitable to do that kind of thing. How exactly were you thinking of hooking up the camera?

- Xander

I was looking to do blob detection and didn't want to spend the $147! I was exploring alternatives. Thanks, looks like I don't have much of a choice.

[HaWe]

Ok, it does make sense that the NXT wouldn't be able to handle 30 full-color bitmap images every second, and that it could only do blob detection. I guess that I wouldn't have known exactly how well it works since I don't have one.

not the NXT makes the image processing (blob detection) but the cam board processor.
the only things the NXT gets are the localizations of some detected color spots, but the color recognition itself is very poor (e.g., blue and green can hardly be distinguished, and there's no way to detect just all 6 colors e.g. of a Rubik's Cube correctly.)
BTW, I got a mindsensors cam v.3

[gloomyandy]

The Mindstorms camera can be used to do a lot more, but you need to be prepared to work at it. The firmware on the board can be replaced (it is open source), and with this you can do lots of other things...
http://lejos.sourceforge.net/forum/view ... ight=video
http://mightor.wordpress.com/2010/03/02 ... blob-v0-1/

Doing this sort of thing is not easy (you are basically writing pretty low level firmware in a very limited environment for the NXTCam, in C and assembler), but if you are into that sort of thing it can be fun and you can make the sensor much more versatile...

Andy