Quote:
|
Originally Posted by MikeDubreuil
We tested the camera with Kevin Watson's camera code last night. I was astonished to find that we could track the vision target from approximately 55 feet away. In fact it was so far that we didn't have a tape measure long enough and we had to go through several connected rooms to get to that distance. We were not able to test the maximum distance because we ran out of room. We even tested different lighting situations and it had no effect on the camera's performace. We were really floored last night and I have to hand it to FIRST Engineering because this is simply awesome.
|
While it is encouraging that we all recognize the contributions and value of the FIRST Engineering staff, I do feel that it is important to give full credit where credit is due for the camera system used in this year's Kit Of Parts. Like so many other things, the camera development was a collaboration of a lot of talents and resources. The camera design is obviously based on the CMUcamII developed by Illah Nourbaksh and Anthony Rowe from Carnegie Mellon University, and then reconfigured to fit within the physical constraints by the fine folks at Innovation First. The pan-tilt unit for the camera was designed by JVN at IFI. The software that allows the entire system to operate with the level of performance you are seeing was written by Kevin Watson at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab. James Rahaim at FIRST, Peggy Caserto and Marcis Jansons at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and Sean Witte all helped with the testing and validation. If you like what you see with the camera system, please thank each of these folks for their efforts. If you don't like it, you can blame me.
-dave