Posted by Frank Cates on February 27, 2008 at 4:37pm
http://www.centeye.com/Guys, check out this site, they are doing some very interesting things. They have a chip that mimics the vision of insects using optical flow. This is mounted in a free flight model plane and keeps it from flying into obstacles. Here is the thought I have though. If this were mounted on the underside of a helicopter and pointed straight down, could it be adapted to provide a stable hover regardless of altitude? What I am thinking is it would be similar to the old range-finder style camera, where you slide two images until they match up and that puts the lens in focus. If you are looking down vertically there will be straight edges on streets, sidewalks, buildings, and such. Once activated this system would 'memorize' these lines and angles and then use the optical flow analysis to maintain the position until you took it back offline. If you watch some of the videos and read the description of optical flow analysis you should get an idea of what I am thinking of. Regardless, some of the videos are a hoot and the description of optical flow is fascinating.
You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!
Very cool. We've seen optical flow used before, especially in blimps, but it's interesting to hear that the sensors, optical processors and code might be available as a product. The slightly cobwebby nature of that site and the "Coming in 2007!" promises are a little worrying, however ;-)
Replies
www.ee.byu.edu/faculty/beard/papers/preprints/GriffithsSCMB05.pdf
contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd1167.pdf
and a very cool video -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB80l5UwR3U
The sensors themselves cost about $1. I bought a batch of these from Digikey, and hope to start working with them in the next 1-2 months ...