5MP Camera
Jay Kickliter
Posts: 446
Someone at the DIY UAV site brought this up. It looks like a pretty interface-able camera module. To the experts out there, since this thing has I2C control, parallel or serial out, would the Prop be able to move the data fast enough from the module to an SD card? Anybody familiar with MIPI/SMIA?
robots.net/article/2755.html
Post Edited (Jay Kickliter) : 2/13/2009 3:24:06 AM GMT
robots.net/article/2755.html
Post Edited (Jay Kickliter) : 2/13/2009 3:24:06 AM GMT
Comments
-Phil
It is a 4 day weekend for me afterall...
Jay - the camera looks sweet. If you find pricing or a source let me know, it is worth experimenting with. I don't know that the frame rate would be high, but you want to capture an image every so often surely there is a way to do it with this device, especially if the Propeller is providing the clock or there is some way to capture the image in the sensors memory and get it out and into the propeller at your leisure.
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Timothy D. Swieter, E.I.
www.brilldea.com - Prop Blade, LED Painter, RGB LEDs, uOLED-IOC, eProto for SunSPOT, BitScope
www.tdswieter.com
One problem with imaging modules vis a vis the Propeller is the speed required to transfer the images out and into a storage device. The imagers themselves "store" the image data as tiny charges confined to potential wells in the chip. So it's incumbent upon the controlling device to read them out as quickly as possible before they discharge. Five megapixels is a lot of data. To read this out in even an eighth of a second would require a clock speed of 40MHz for parallel data, 320MHz if it were read out and/or stored serially (assuming raw, Bayer-encoded pixels at eight bits per pixel). Both are beyond the realm of the Propeller to mediate.
The speed requirement cited assumes that the sensor uses frame capture to snap and store an entire image at once. Some cheaper sensors use a rolling shutter, which captures an image line-by-line as the data are being read out. While this helps to alleviate the discharge issue, it creates problems of its own, such as image skew and artifacts, which are only aggravated by a slow readout.
-Phil
http://www.advasense.com/products_asio5.html
says that you can reduce resolution by either true binning... or by "skipping."
Would it true to say that this camera can be made to work with a Prop, without much else... but at a reduced resolution?
Jay,
No need to harass Chip. Depending upon Phil's answer, you can build it around a PropI... and then sell an "upgraded" version when the PropII come along[noparse]:)[/noparse]
What kind of autofocus do you need... what distances?
It doesn't say anything about the lens. The camera is probably in focus beyond a short distance... and if you want to focus any nearer... you just pop a plus lens in front of it and move it back and forth, measuring some statistics as you go...I have my favorites, but almost any statistic can work.
It looks like the lens is in a housing... so you might be able to just screw it in and out.
I have no idea about the serial protocols... but it also has what looks like 12 bit parallel output and I2C for control.
If you have the option, order it without the filters or lens... then you have a good scientific camera as well as one for robotics...
Rich