SparkFun Forums

[UnforgiveNX]

Hi you all,

I'm trying to build a project. In this project, there will be a mobile robot. I'll put a camera on it and I'll transfer images to a nearby laptop. BTW I've TCM8240MD cmos camera in hand but I can use some other.

First question, what would you offer to use and where to begin?

Second question, if I want to process the images on board on robot, I should I use? Which controller? I think widely used PIC controllers are a bit slow for this project. What can I do?

Guide me please

[henryhallam]

Depending on your budget, the Surveyor Blackfin camera (www.surveyor.com) is a great fit. It is a 1.3 megapixel camera interfaced to a Blackfin processor which is more than capable of onboard image processing.

[UnforgiveNX]

I'm a student and I need a cheaper solution. May not exceed 50-60$

[stevech]

I'm a student and I need a cheaper solution. May not exceed 50-60$

X10 sells low cost analog camera transmitter/receiver for 2.4GHz. And a cheap camera w/transmitter.

Beware X10's spamming.

[UnforgiveNX]

I'm looking for a simpler one and with a wider range. It can be a DIY project with some cheap rf parts. Any suggestions?

[UnforgiveNX]

Can I use a XBee module to transmit image from a regular webcam to a nearby pc?

[henryhallam]

Not a regular webcam. Try something like the CMUcam

[UnforgiveNX]

I had an cmos color image sensor which is produced by toshiba (sold on SFE). How can I use it wirelessly?

[henryhallam]

See the thread in the new products forum, but the gist is that it's very difficult to interface to without an expensive fast processor with PPI or ISI, the datasheet is unusable and it's pretty much a big waste of time even before you get to the "sending wirelessly" part.

[UnforgiveNX]

Say that I could managed to get JPEG data out of it After that what route should be followed to send that JPEG wirelessly?

[henryhallam]

I think you're underestimating how hard it is to get JPEG data out of that camera without a serious processor.
If you can do it, then just stream it into an xbee or WiPort or other wireless module. That part is easy. Sub $60 is not.

[bigglez]

I had an cmos color image sensor which is produced by toshiba (sold on SFE). How can I use it wirelessly?

I think you are looking for "system Level" input here,
but most of the previous replies are "component level".

Let's see if we can help you. Basically, you need a
camera and a transmitter, plus a power supply at one
end.

The RF signal from the transmitter is detected by a another
part of the system, at the other end, which has a receiver
and a display.

The RF signal is always analog, but it is modulated by the
"message" (image) which could be analog or digital.
Moving pictures, color, and sound all add to the amount
of data you must carry. If the link does not have enough
bandwidth the images will be fuzzy, or update slowly.

Plain old television over the air is an example of an analog
signal over an RF link (transmitter at TV station to your
television set at home).

Alternatively, you could send the information as data,
which is how DTV and satellite TV work. Internet
video also uses data, which is encoded to look and
act like other digital traffic on the web.

A digital system is more complex in theory (as the
information must be encoded, transmitted by analog RF,
and decoded again), but may end up cheaper due to
the higher performance and smaller count of digital
electronic components.

If you have any pieces of the system in your hand today
it would be cheaper to use them first. However, if you
don't know how they work, or they need more complex
components to be useful, it would be easier to just
start over.

If all you want is to send images from one place to
another without wires it would be best to buy a system
for security or similar applications. Try eBay.

First, try to answer the question of what you want to
do, and how good does it have to be?

[UnforgiveNX]

@bigglez, thank you for your informing post
Lets answer your question.

I have TCM8240MD cmos camera from SFE. At first level, lets don't mind how to get it worked. Assume that I made it work with ARM7 or smt. else with high bandwidth and clock, and get JPEG data from that.

Now, I want to put this camera onto a mobile robot which will be approximately 100m away from me when it is operating.

At this level, I just want to get images from that cam to my laptop to see what the robot sees around. That's my only problem for now.

Later on I will try to process images on board before sending to pc on rf. But lets first solve this wireless image transfer issue.

BTW, I want a more involved solution i.e, not buying a complete set from ebay or smt. else.

Thank you very much

[bigglez]

I have TCM8240MD cmos camera from SFE.... and get JPEG data from that.

Now, I want to put this camera onto a mobile robot which will be approximately 100m away from me when it is operating.

What format is the JPEG data?
Does your camera capture stills or continuously
updated frames (MPEG)? At what rate are the
frames updated?

Does the link carry real time data or are images transmitted
at a slower rate, much like the images NASA recovers from
robots on other worlds?

An RF link has limitations. Firstly, analog bandwidth of
the link will determine the data throughput. Secondly,
the link is simplex (one way, no handshake) so either
the data is robust or the same data must be retransmitted
several times to get a high confidence of accurate
reception.

An analog video link is simple in comparision. All
analog images contain artifacts, the number and degree
determine the link quality. For broadcast TV this may
be very high quality (STL - studio to transmitter), or
of lesser quality (ENG - electronic news gathering),
where picture breakup or loss is an acceptable
trade off for live coverage.

I still think you should buy a pre-engineered analog
camera, Tx, and Rx package first to define your
performance limits and expectations.

JPEG (or MPEG) to RF to JPEG (or MPEG) is not trivial.

[UnforgiveNX]

Well, in datasheet, it says "JPEG encoded data (8 bit parallel) for full 1.3 Mega data" and "up to 15 fps for every resolution".. (http://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Sens ... _REV13.pdf).. of course it doesn't have to work at 1.3Mega. I can use smaller resolutions.

The images should be real time to be in control of the robot.

I don't want to buy a commercial wireless camera set because I'm planning to do some image processing on chip, later on