Hi, I looked on google but couldn’t seem to find anything.
Does some software exist to calculate distance using only 2 camras?
Thanks
Do you mean like stereo vision software? Or Range Finding cameras?
Or do you mean the way humans are able to justify distance of objects because of the use of two eyes?
It’s the same thing…
I mean like the software with the input of both camera is able to find a pretty accurate distance of an object (like a red ball). So that the robot wouldn’t have to use a range finder (PING or IR).
The software would be able to mesure distance with normal cameras (like 2 good webcams).
It looks like it exist with some stereo vision products 
I don’t know, but I do have a suggestion: You could try to make your own Software. Depending on how good you are a Developing software, it shouldn’t be too hard.
yeah, that’s what I wanted to do originaly. but since it exist I can’t do it, I was trying to find something that didn’t exist to do. This darn school project that you have to invent something… so hard to find an idea 
And when i find one it’s already been made 
Do some searching and reading on stereo vision research. I don’t think it’s something the average programmer would want to undertake. The extracting accurate distances out of it, I mean.
The idea is easy, but its deffinately not something that should be taken as an easy project, especially for the average programmer. Whoops, evo beat me to that one 
You might be able to use the RoboRealm software. It appears to be able to track objects, so you might be able to be creative and employ it to what you need.
Roborealm doesnt support stereoscopic vision afaik.
You can do some rough distance measurement based upon the size of an object though
“Roborealm doesnt support stereoscopic vision afaik”
That’s where the creativity comes in. If roborealm can move a servo to center an object in the middle of a video frame, then move the cam between two distinct parallel positions (stereo vision positions) and see how much correction is applied to the cam servo to keep the object centered in the frame. The amount of correction would be a function of the distance the object is from the cam.
LOL!
Sam, not sure if this will help but like Zoomkat said “be creative”. you could come up with another way of determining distance with a webcam with a simple solution such as some kind of on-screen-ruler-thingy
Roborealm could have 2 video streams at the same time?
Anyway, actualy I wanted more to do it myself kinda thing, I don’t know why but I would prefere to do my own image processing software…
I know it would be very difficult, but I have about a year to do it, so if I choose this project, I’ll have time to work on it.
Of course I could go determining stuff with a huge databank of sizes of things. Like the aproximation of the human, how big a stove is. So if it’s able to regognize those things, it could tell how far it is. It could also see how big the paterns are (like the ripples in wood) to know what size it is…
It would demand a HUGE databank of sizes…
Why can’t you just use an IR to determine the distances and just have the camera for distances…
I guess it all depends on what level software you feel like writing. I know I learned about stereo vision and the algorithms behind it in junior year of college (thats when I began my AI/robot classes).
While the concept is kinda simple, the implementation is not. It has been done before, but I don’t know what libraries and projects have it. I do know that some companies do it commercially.
Maybe try this for a project idea:
Map the distance to an object using parallax displacement over time?
The basic idea being if your robot is moving, its tracking objects in a frame, and using it’s speed, figures out how far an object is based on how much that object has moved in the frame. I don’t know that this exists yet. Oh, only one camera allowed 
Make sure you handle the case where the object is moving parallel to the bot at the same speed (hence, it’s image isn’t changing).
Well, this is the purpose, To manage make the robot work with only human… stuff We don’t have something that mesures distance, it’s our eyes. It’s also a good chalenge.
That’s a good idea… But it would need more than only one camera… no? one on each side with a pan servo. The bot would also need to be able to move in all directions (without turning) so that it could be able to calculate the somethign in front of it. It would also need quite some space to be able to move sideways to get the distance of objects in front. If it can calculate fast enough, it could be a super way of seeing the distance of objects.
What do you other guys think?