Parts Procurement Update #2 - 15/05/15

There is still no sign of the webcam this week and I'm starting to lose hope of it arriving as it has been nearly a month now since I have originally ordered the item.

However, I have come across a sale in Dick Smith for the same camera! This time it would only cost $16 for the exact camera and it is new.  I am going to pick it up sometime early Monday.  For the mean time though, since the blog last week, I have found an old universal webcam which I have been trying to use to replicate the SparkFun project mentioned the week prior.

After a week and a half of trial and error, we have found that the SparkFun object tracking project is a dead end because of missing, outdated files and software versions.  Crucial to this project is the use of OpenCV or Open Computer Vision Library.  It is a library of visual algorithms that other softwares use for projects like ours which involve pictures, video, cameras and object tracking.  The OpenCV library must be installed into an integrated development environment (IDE) which in this case is Processing.

Processing is made for building, programming and developing applications for everyday computers.  This IDE has a similar structure and operating environment as Arduino.  In fact, Arduino is based on Processing IDE.

However, the versions suggested by the tutorial are unavailable and the Processing files are unavailable as well.  This consequently does not allow OpenCV to be installed correctly into the Processing IDE and would therefore not work.  Other avenues will now be explored. One such avenue is the OpenCV with the use of openFrameworks.  The link to the project is found below:

http://www.creativeapplications.net/tutorials/arduino-servo-opencv-tutorial-openframeworks/

As for the parts procurement, I have found the breadboard and have gotten the servos and all the parts required for the initial project.  These include:

- Buzzer
- 6x Super-bright LED
- Wires
- Generic Camera (while the actual camera is being ordered)
- Servos

So far the running cost is at $70.  This is still under our initial target of producing the lane departure system for under $250.

While we recognise that the lane departure system that we are building does not require pan and tilt servos, our focus is to get object tracking working on a webcam and to eventually modify and take out the servo programming in the code.  In addition, once the servos have been factored out, the costs involved with it will be removed from the total cost of the project to give an accurate account of how much it costs to produce a lane departure warning system.