Acquiring images from an Analog Camera using Arduino and LabVIEW

[cagell]

This is a project I worked on for the last two weeks (on and off).

An Arduino able to acquire an image from an Analog Video source and send it back to a PC running LabVIEW!!

Check the details and all the source code and schematics in this link.

Carlos

[Kristoff2]

Carlos,

This is an awesome project.  I'd love to see this integrated into LIFA.  What prompted you to work on this project?  Do you have a project in mind using this code?  Do you plan on continueing your work with analog cameras, Arduino and LabVIEW?

Well done,

-Sam

LIFA Developer

[cagell]

Hey Sam,

As stated on the Tutorial I have some things in mind. First of them is making the Arduino code on the tutorial better performing. Second making a Processing code that allows the non LabVIEW people to be able to use the hack. Third is provably making it display an image on a touchscreen.

Down the road I will code some basic machine vision on the thing (multi level) including integration of more memory to store images (maybe SD card, maybe SPI flash).

Keep in mind I do that on the free time so it is going to take long, but I definately want to push for video on embedded for the masses. That makes the whole thing evolve so much quicker!!!

Let me know if you have something in mind with analog cameras and Arduino and I can see if it fits my plan !!

Carlos

[Kristoff2]

Carlos,

Sounds good.  I was mainly just curious what your plans were.  I love the wide variety of things people are doing with the Arduino and I love embedded systems in general.  At NI we make a Compact Vision System (CVS) and Smart Camera which are basically industrial versions of what you are working on.  Vision on embedded systems is hard due to the large memory requirements and need for a high end CPU to perform vision algorithms in a timely manor.  That being said if you can use a desktop PC to perform the computation and the Arduino for IO it generally works pretty well (this is my favorite benefit of LIFA, processing power of a desktop PC, IO of an embedded system).  If you can use a 'wireless tether' (ie xbee / bluetooth) things really start to get fun.

-Sam

LIFA Developer

[cagell]

Sam,

Yeah, I am fully aware about all NI vision related products. I work for MoviMED and I have experience integrating vision solutions with your hardware and third party's. We even developed the AF-150x framegrabbers for cRIO that basically extends the range of NI-vision able equipment to the RIO. That is by the way a really good solution for embedded as it can combine motion control, vision and IO in the same platform. It overcomes the problems of the SmartCamera and the CVS to embed them in a system (not enough I/O, not able to do complex tasks, etc).

My whole target with the Arduino though is to have fun. I am fully aware that the performance on the Arduino is not that great for vision (I am a Vision Integrator) but that is exactly why it is a challenge to get video going on an arduino. Besides arduino + analog camera make for a supercheap solution for all the low-budget geeks making little robots for fun (I include myself in the group).

Thanks for the tips though,

Carlos Agell

[Arun59]

I working in a project of quadcopter.i need to do image processing by getting image from camera which is in quadcopter.how can i interface wireless camera with labview.?which camera i should buy?tell some model number.it is helpful for me to finish the project