The Java console that ships with the Blackfin camera is obviously aimed at the 'entire' Surveyor robot.
For those of us who only have the 'camera' then it is of limited use. So I have written a new version of it - for us 'camera only' folk. This has been an interesting journey:- I have learned a lot and have also helped to track down some bugs in the blackfin code. So make sure you install a blackfin firmware release that is dated 10 October 2009 or later.
Download the latest firmware and then see
http://www.surveyor.com/blackfin/SRV_setup_bf.html#setup3 on how to install it.
How do you install my application
1. Well it runs as a Java application - just like the one from Surveyor does. So you need to make sure you have a copy of Java installed
2.- Download my 'zip' file, and unzip it to somewhere, and then run the 'blackfin.bat' batch file (ie Windows support for now!)
Setup:
1. - Once running you have to select a COM port and a baud rate
2. - By default the Blackfin uses 115,200 baud.
The console allows you to:-
1. change between 4 different screen modes
2. view the image seen by the camera
3. put the mouse somewhere on the image and then see the colour of that pixel (it takes a few seconds as downloading images is slow over a serial link!). So wait a few seconds
4. turn on/off various camera gain options
5. set the colour range of a colour bin and the code will draw rectangles around any matching 'blobs' on the image
I have used this to help test/debug my Blackfin support in WebbotLib and I am in-debted to Howard at Surveyor for his help, patience, advice, and quick turn around to help make this happen.
Of course if you only want to have your robot track blobs - then you can jump straight to the Blackfin support in WebbotLib - but I still recommend that you use this to 'visualise' what the camera can see.
I hope you find it useful and if you have any suggestions then let me know.