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Originally Posted by Kevin Watson
The optical mice are going to have a problem because one blurry patch of grey FIRST carpet is going to look like the next. I agree that this is a cool idea, but think it'll be hard to get it to work (but I'm willing to help nonetheless <grin>).
-Kevin
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By zooming out (demagnifying) with the optics we are going to see more of the surface underneath the robot. This can cut both ways - more surface may give us the chance to see more variation. On the other hand, zooming out means we will see less detail in whatever it is that we do see.
My experience with testing various surfaces under my prototype optical system seemed to support that it will work OK. But I didn't have any of the FIRST carpet to test with so I can't say for sure that the modified mouse will work well with that. Time will tell...
The other thing that can really help is the angle of the light. Think about how an optical mouse works. The light is shining not directly down but at a very low angle to the surface. The idea is to cast as many shadows from surface variations as possible in order to give the chip something "interesting" to look at.