stereo vision system with OV7620

[steveg]

Now that build season is over, I've been thinking about a fun little (or huge!) side project that would be a fun challenge. Since we've got two cmucams now, I was thinking that it would be fun to try to set up a stereo vision system for path finding not un-like that which is used on the Mars rovers.

A few days ago I hit the library and picked up a bunch of books on computer vision algorithms and have been pouring through them, and it definitely looks feasible except the CMUcam, as it is now, doesn't have nearly enough image processing capability to handle what I’m going to need to do to correlate points on the images, generate the 3d terrain, etc. I noticed that it's possible to reprogram the controller on the CMUcam with a parallax sx-key. Has anyone tried that?


Unless anyone has had great success reprogramming the CMUcam, I think I want to switch over to a different embedded controller to do my processing. Right now, I'm leaning toward using a Blackfin DSP running uCLinux (something similar to the stamp board Eldarion used for his sweet ball tracking system) or a Gumstix. Ideally, I'll do all the processing on the DSP, then pass instructions to the RC that will be basically acting as a PID controller for the drive train. Also, I want to integrate ultrasonic sensors to do proximity warning and collision prevention. A scanning LADAR system would be nice too. I'll have to ask the guys I work with here at Lincoln Laboratory about that, but it's probably out of my price range

So, I guess any insight or recommendations people could offer would be very much appreciated. Of course, I'll keep you all updated on my progress.