CMUcam2

h1. Wiki

!http://cmucam.org/attachments/355/cmucam_with_servos.jpg!

h3. *Quick Links*

* [[FAQ]]

* [[Downloads]]

* [[People]] 

* [[CMUcam1:]]

* "Toy Robots Initiative":http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~illah/EDUTOY/

* [[Legal Information]]

h3. *Typical Uses*

One of the primary uses of the CMUcam2 is to track or monitor colors. The best performance can be achieved when there are highly contrasting and intense colors. For instance, it can easily track a red ball on a white background, but it would be hard to differentiate between different shades of brown in changing light. Tracking colorful objects can be used to localize landmarks, follow lines, or chase a moving beacon. Using color statistics, it is possible to monitor a scene, detect a specific color or do primitive motion detection. If the camera detects a drastic color change, then chances are something in the scene changed. Using “line mode,” the CMUcam2 can act as an easy way to get low resolution binary images of colorful objects. This can be used to do more sophisticated line following that includes branch detection, or even simple shape recognition. These more advanced operations would require custom algorithms that would post process the binary images sent from the CMUcam2.

h3. *Typical Configuration*

The most common configuration for the CMUcam2 is to have it communicate

to a master processor via a standard RS232 serial port. This “master processor”

could be a computer, PIC, Basic Stamp, Handy Board, Brainstem or

similar microcontroller setup. The CMUcam2 is small enough to add simple

vision to embedded systems that cannot afford the size or power of a standard

computer based vision system. Its communication protocol is designed to

accommodate even the slowest of processors. If your device does not have

a fully level shifted serial port, you can also communicate to the CMUcam2

over the TTL serial port. This is the same as a normal serial port except that

the data is transmitted using non-inverted 0 to 5 volt logic. The CMUcam2

supports various baud rates to accommodate slower processors. For even

slower processors, the camera can operate in “poll mode”. In this mode, the

host processor can ask the CMUcam2 for just a single packet of data. This

gives slower processors the ability to more easily stay synchronized with the

data. It is also possible to add a delay between individual serial data characters

using the “delay mode” command. Due to the communication delays,

both poll mode and delay mode will lower the total frame rate that can be

processed. Frame resolutions are not affected by delay mode or baud rate as

they were in the original CMUcam.