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CMOS camera chip + microcontroller = Home made camera

H

Hugo Muccho

Jan 1, 1970
0
I am studying digital electronics and I need to build a low-resolution
camera unit which can transmit the captured frame over an RS232 comm
channel.
I will use a CMOS camera chip and a low cost microcontroller (ATMega or PIC)
because of limited student budget.

Can you tell me if you can see any design tricks/pitfall on this project
that I need to be aware of?

Where can I order a low-res CMOS camera chip in Australia?

Hugo
 
P

Padu

Jan 1, 1970
0
I am studying digital electronics and I need to build a low-resolution
camera unit which can transmit the captured frame over an RS232 comm
channel.
I will use a CMOS camera chip and a low cost microcontroller (ATMega or
PIC) because of limited student budget.

Can you tell me if you can see any design tricks/pitfall on this project
that I need to be aware of?

Where can I order a low-res CMOS camera chip in Australia?

Hugo

Do you have to make one or use one? If the second apply, then take a look at
the CMUCam, they have exactly what you described for an excellent price
(less than $100 if I'm not mistaken).
 
J

jro

Jan 1, 1970
0
I am studying digital electronics and I need to build a low-resolution
Hi Dave,
I developed the AVRcam last year that fits this exact specification:
CMOS image sensor mated to an Atmel mega8 microcontroller. It is
capable of tracking up to 8 objects of 8 different user-defined colors
at 30 frames/sec. It can also spit out a complete color image over a
serial port. Check out:

http://www.jrobot.net

for more details. There is also a forums section there that discusses
what people are doing with the system, and what issues arise with such
as system.

Feel free to post any questions you have over at that forum (or here,
though I check this less frequently). Embedded image processing is
certainly a fascinating topic (especially when you're trying to do it
on an 8-bit micro), and it will provide a fun and exciting challenge to
you.

Good luck,

John Orlando
www.jrobot.net
 
J

jro

Jan 1, 1970
0
Interesting !
I see you use a resolution of 88 * 144,
wouldn't then an optical mouse (I think 64*64) also bee enough ?

An optical mouse may be usable for some rudimentary vision tasks, but I
have no idea how it would actually work for capturing full-color images
that could then be processed. The 88 x 144 is due to the fact that the
OV6620 provides a 176 x 144 output format, and then I am decimating the
data in each row so there is less to process.

John
 
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