OpenMV cam for motion direction detection?

Hello everybody,

Just asking before buying… Theoretically, could OpenMV camera be programmed to work as motion sensor that detects direction of movement (more or less like computer mouse) when moved over some surface like floor or tarmac?
It would be installed beneath of an vehicle and it should detect if the vehicle is moving forward or backwards. It should work as standalone unit, only getting 5v and giving out two signals to activate/deactivate two relays according to moving direction. No PC etc. would not be connected when once set up.

Thank you!
T

See the blog. On the first page you’ll see a video about optical flow phase correlation. This does exactly what you want.

Hi,

Thank you very much! That’s good to know I might have found what I was looking for :slight_smile:
There are also few other things I haven’t found info about yet…
What are the dimensions of the board? EDIT: Just found the dimensions :slight_smile:
Is there any overload/short protection to outputs?
Can the camera see in low light or even in darkness? With help of some ir?

Thank you!
T

You can control the exposure and use an IR lens to see in pitch black. I’ve tested this and it works. The image is grayscale only though, but, that’s fine for motion detection.

The outputs are 5V tolerant. Nothing else. They are 3.3v I/Os directly connected to the MCU.

Thank you! What do you mean by IR lens? Sorry I’m used to little bit larger cameras where IR cut filter is directly on the sensor not in lens…
Have you tested how does it work when lightning changes? I mean if you go from dark room to sunlight does it overexpose?
Sorry for dumb questions, just have no experience with that type of equipment and it’s sometimes faster to ask than google :slight_smile:

T

The auto gain/exposure algorithm continually updates the camera settings to deal with this. That said, vastly changing lighting conditions will ruin most systems. Note that the current sensor isn’t a global shutter sensor.