That’s correct— all modifications you make to parameters in the Configure dialog (e.g. “Brightness”) will be saved to flash on the Pixy. (and used the next time your power up Pixy)
Thanks for the confirmation on having the brightness setting saved to flash. Is there any prospect for a more dynamic method of brightness control? For example, using a histogram analysis, or something similar to set exposure. Ideally, I’d like to have the Pixy be able to automatically adapt to different lighting conditions. Or, lacking that, is there anyway an Arduino program could adjust the exposure, perhaps using an ambient light sensor, or light meter to gauge lighting conditions and then adjust the brightness setting in the Pixy.
Wayne
Hi Wayne,
That’s a good question. Changes in the brightness of a given object in the image change based on 2 things— 1) the ambient light changing or 2) the exposure of the camera changing-- ie taking into account a change in the average brightness caused by, for example, a window in the image that wasn’t there before or a darker object appearing in the image, etc. We can’t do much about (1), but for (2) A smarter thing would be to adjust the exposure based on the regions of interest. We have some good ideas on this, and hope to have something released in the coming months.
We can also add the ability for the Arduino to adjust the aggregate brightness. But it then becomes a problem of when to adjust-- how will your Adruino program know? We trade one problem for another.
Can you describe your application? Are you moving between two different lighting conditions? (e.g. outdoor and indoor?)
Can you describe your application? Are you moving between two different lighting conditions? (e.g. outdoor and indoor?)
My application is a mobile robot where I want to use the Pixy for obstacle and marker detection. My robot will be typically operating outdoors in blue sky conditions. The main concern I have is dynamic shading from cloud movement. My thought was that it might be fairly easy to a light meter chip, such as the BH1750, and use the value it computes to adjust the Pixy.
In outdoor conditions, certain portions of the image are always going to “blow out” due to overexposure. The problem is that these areas tend to cause the camera to darken the image way too much in compensation. So, ideally, if the Pixy could be set to ignore these blown out regions, the resulting brightness setting might allow better hue tracking in the portions of the image that remain visible.
Wayne
Hi to all,
as I can see, it is several months after your last post. I am also very interested in outdoor robotics application of Pixy.
Could you share some results of your testing of Pixy outdoors? For instance video of outdoor performance would be very helpful.
Also: how is it possible to use the Pixy for obstacle detection??
Thanks in advance!
Jarda
Using the latest firmware (0.1.44), I’m getting a very washed out image (see attached). The trees are gray and the sky is a gray-blue. Is there something I can do to correct this?
I’ve played with all of the controls I could find: cam_setBrightness, cam_setMode, cam_setLightMode, and it doesn’t get any better than this.
Thanks,
Ag Primatic
This may be a solution that would work for your outdoor application.
bit.ly/IR-LOCK
Best,
Thomas
Ag Primatic,
your picture looks bizarre. A couple questions:
Are you using the lens that came with Pixy? (it looks like your lens isn’t blocking IR light)
Do you see the same effect indoors? (can you include a picture?)
Hi Rich,
As a matter of fact, no I’m not using the lens that came with Pixy. I ordered a 25mm lens from M12 Lenses because I needed a narrower field of view.
Now that you mention it, yes it does look like the lens is passing IR. I tried an indoor capture with the original lens and the 25mm lens, and the 25mm lens image looks all gray while the original lens image looks ok.
So I take it that the original lens has an IR filter incorporated. Can you recommend a source for a 25mm (or larger) lens that incorporates the IR filter? Or a way to add the IR filter to my 25mm lens?
Thanks,
Ag Primatic
P.S. I would recommend putting a note in the FAQ regarding this issue when you suggest different lenses for the Pixy.
done!
There hasn’t been too much interest in other lenses — Googling around for “M12 lens IR cut” is a good starting point. Here’s one:
http://www.electronics123.com/new-products/?search=lens+filter
They are out there, but they need to be tested. Has anyone tried anything and gave decent results?