Camera Options?

Lynxmotion
1

I’m building a robot system, with the new lynxmotion tracked wheel system (Johnny 5 tracks) and I’m looking for a camera system that I can use to stream video and or audio back to my computer. I’ve thought about just buying one of those cheaper security video cameras that are on Ebay all the time, but was unsure of the quality of them. If I were to spend the money on a CMUCam or similar setup and use it in the future to actually do autonomous work, can I use it temporarily to stream data to a pc?

I am planning on using an zigbee pro interface for wireless communication, but am not sure if there max speed of 250,000 kb is enough for video transmission, or if the cmucam even supports the option. Any else play around with using a small cmos camera for their robot. Have any example pictures or video? If I buy a small cheap wireless camera, is there a model/brand/vendor that you would recommend?

Thanks for your help. I’m looking forward to getting started on my robot. Just waiting on the base and some other parts. I just need to learn now how to program the propeller chip that I purchased!

Matt

2

medelman,
I have a robot that streams video to my PC. I use a small b/w board camera and transmitter/receiver from matco. The receiver is connected to a Happauge! TV board. You could easily use a small color camera, although the b/w picks up the infrared from sensors, which can help debug…the camera and transmitter (12v) are powered by the robots batteries.
You can use the CMUcam 2’s raw b/w only output but you need the OV7620 camera for NTSC (North America standard) video.
To use zigbee, bluetooth or 802.11 you would need a digital camera module or digitize the signal first.
I posted a video here. The robot is navigating autonomously…until it gets hung up on a chair leg. :cry:

-Drew

3

medelman,

You might want to consider this wireless camera: boostervision.com/boostervision/default.asp

I have one of the above and so does Robo Dude.

or this wireless camera: servocity.com/html/2_4ghz_color_video_system.html

Regards,
TCIII

4

youtube.com/watch?v=84qWLfoib3U
CMUcam3 full proportional derivative 3D color tracking test
Thanks to cmu + lynx + atompro power:)