Head tracking help - Wii Camera ?

[CdRsKuLL]

I would like to build the ability to have my bot move it's head towards an object.. sadly there isnt enough room to mount one of them compound eyes so I will have to code something up myself.

I think my design would include 2 or 3 IR LED.. (the brightest ones I can find) and mount these on each shoulder. Then have 3 or 4 IR receivers (with daylight filters on).. again two mounted on each shoulder and one or two mounted on the head..

would this work ? I've never played with IR before so no idea. I guess I would be looking for the brightest spot.. or the spot that matches one of the bottom IR's

Any help would be greatly appriciated. :-)

thanks

Steve

[CdRsKuLL]

I've just done a bit more reading.. would it be possible to have a couple of bright IR Leds on each shoulder and a wii camera in the bots head ? My idea being that the camera would pick up the ir light as a reflection off the object  and centralise it's position (turn it's head towards it) ?

Is the wii camera that sensitive it would work ? Has anyone played with it yet ?

thanks,

[Soeren]

Hi,

I've just done a bit more reading.. would it be possible to have a couple of bright IR Leds on each shoulder and a wii camera in the bots head ? My idea being that the camera would pick up the ir light as a reflection off the object  and centralise it's position (turn it's head towards it) ?

Is the wii camera that sensitive it would work ? Has anyone played with it yet ?

I saw a guy using two power LEDs for projecting two IR spots (replacing the IR bar) onto a wall where he used a projector for playing a Wii directly off the wall, It was a white, fairly reflective wall though, but all it comes down to is power vs. reflectivity to IR and well, how much you're willing to pay.

Roitner (Germany) has got both high power narrow beam (4°) IR LEDs and IR LASERs, although the latter is way too dangerous to use like you intend (almost instant blindness if you look at it) and even a high power LED needs extreme caution, as the eye don't see it, hence the closing reflex is null and void to IR.

I'm not sure what you wanna do - shine the LED's somewhere (position determined by what?) and then getting the Wii-Mote to track it - seems a bit pointless to me, as whatever determines where the IR shines it already knows where, so no tracking is needed as I see it.

[CdRsKuLL]

Hi ya,

thanks for your reply. I want to be able to just track an object say under 50cm around.. more for location so the bot knows where to put its hands. It was just a case of flooding the room with IR light which then would be reflected off a close object.

I did have a further idea of using a iphone 360º camera fishbowl type lens but instead put the LED underneath it. This would then only require a single IR LED which in theory would achieve the flooding of the room.Three IR sensors would then triangulate the object.

My other option I've found is just buy a cheap IP camera and have that feeding into a PC running Roborealm. From there talk back to a serverside program that then talks back to the bot via wifi and move the head. This then would maybe allow me to track much further away objects. The downside to this is it would mean it's tethered in relation to it's operation. Although if there is a Mic on the IP camera then this could also add possible voice recognition. ie.. bot is in standby mode... (sleeping) hears a sound, scans the area.. if roborealm picks up your face it then says Hello Steve etc.. although this would require a speaker on the arduino which I've not looked into... lol Thats for another day.

Steve

[Soeren]

Hi,

I did have a further idea of using a iphone 360º camera fishbowl type lens but instead put the LED underneath it. This would then only require a single IR LED which in theory would achieve the flooding of the room.

That would be a very modest "flooding".
An LED has a certain amount of radiated power. Use optics to make it into a 1° beam and you have a huge mCd rating (actually, IR LEDs cannot have a mCd rating as this is only valid for visible light, but you get the picture). Spread the same amount to a hemisphere (area: 3Pi*r^2 eg. at a distance of 2m, the light will be dimmed more than 20,000 times, relative to eg. a 40cm diameter spot), so you ever so bright LED will be too dim for anything useable.