[oopic] The OOPic, Computer Vision and Remote Control

From time to time a user will post something about wanting to do an
OOPic project with computer vision. Equally often, some of us just
groan! Well, I do...

Things are changing. If you haven't played with RoboRealm, you may
have missed the best thing to happen to robotics in a long time.

Briefly, RoboRealm is about computer vision. It can take input from
wireless cameras (hence the application to OOPic and robotics) via a
translator (RGB -> USB), process the image (find the blue ball), move
the 'bot, grab the ball, find the orange cone, move to it and drop the
ball. See http://www.roborealm.com/tutorial/ball_picker/slide010.php

It also uses USB cameras or other sources like the network camera of
the Surveyor (www.surveyor.com).

The only piece missing is the link between RoboRealm and the OOPic.
This can be ANY serial link such as BlueTooth, Zigbee or any other
scheme. The communication protocol is simple: at each frame scan,
RoboRealm sends a sequence to the OOPic containing commands for the
next frame period while the OOPic sends back a sequence containing the
state of local sensors. See http://www.roborealm.com/help/Serial.php

I haven't had time to work on the interface because I am too busy
getting up to speed on USB and wireless cameras with the idea of
buying the Surveyor. OTOH, there is that tutorial for the Lego NXT
which I already have!

There are other input devices such as the keyboard or a joystick that
can be used to command the 'bot. There is a great tutorial about
interfacing with a USB Missle Launcher! In fact, it would be easy to
add tracking of a moving part of the image, get the CG (center of
gravity) and fire!

I have only been playing around with this for a few days but I really
think it is the most important vision software available.

Watch the movies for each tutorial to get an idea of the capabilities.

And, it's free!

Richard

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