Camera Light

[apalrd]

Originally Posted by BJC

While our programmer was experimenting he found that a wider beam light (think shop light) gave a much cleaner image over the camera then a narrower beam (like a flashlight).

Hope this helps.

Being the programmer, I have some more input and more detail:

1. The vision code is very very slow, and can cause great control lag to other systems. Think about this while manipulating your images.

2. The light source I used first was a 12v drill flashlight. It didn't really work at all, because the code would just find a white circle (including the vision target, the wall, and the PVC) and nothing else. It might get the target if it wasn't in the direct beam of the light, but not work very well.

3. The light source I used second was a 60w incandescent bulb in a shop light (with a half-sphere reflector, you know what kind I mean, right?). It worked very well, sorta. The image detection worked fine, but nothing else did (the driver complained about lag, even at 2hz, and the control loops freaked out because of lack of consistent loop time).

4. We haven't decided what light to use yet. We might try colors, but colors require processing of the image in RGB or HSL mode, while white can be processed in greyscale.