# OpenMV M7 Cam Latency

**URL:** <https://forums.openmv.io/t/openmv-m7-cam-latency/866>\
**Category:** OpenMV Boards\
**Created:** [August 18, 2018, 4:48pm UTC](https://forums.openmv.io/t/openmv-m7-cam-latency/866 "2018-08-18T16:48:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jenga\_jesse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@jenga\_jesse](https://forums.openmv.io/u/jenga_jesse)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2018, 4:48pm UTC](https://forums.openmv.io/t/openmv-m7-cam-latency/866/1 "2018-08-18T16:48:29Z")

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Hello,

I am part of a robotics team that tracks an orange ball. We are looking into using the OpenMV camera but our issue last year was oscillating when the robot was moving to the ball. Because of this, our deciding factor of whether to use the OpenMV M7 Cam would be to run a latency test, that is the time it takes from the moment the color appears in the camera’s view to when it recognizes the color. I ran a latency test that lights an orange LED and starts a timer. When the color is recognized, it stops the timer. At 320x240 resolution with the frame buffer disabled, I measured a latency of around .015s. So that’s the time it takes for the image sensor to capture and transmit the data plus the time it takes to run find\_blobs() on one blob. I immediately stop the timer before doing anything else, like drawing a circle around the color. Does that seem about right?

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![iabdalkader](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forums.openmv.io/iabdalkader/32/1169_2.png) [@iabdalkader](https://forums.openmv.io/u/iabdalkader)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2018, 12:06am UTC](https://forums.openmv.io/t/openmv-m7-cam-latency/866/2 "2018-08-19T00:06:52Z")

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Hi,

Sounds about right, @QVGA you get 84FPS so a frame every ~12ms. Worst case scenario 12ms + time to detect the blob. If you can lower the exposure the max time will be less, ex. sensor.set\_auto\_exposure(False, exposure\_us=4000) outputs about ~100FPS (10ms+ blob time should be 13ms total).

> [@](#):
>
> Hello,
> 
> I am part of a robotics team that tracks an orange ball. We are looking into using the OpenMV camera but our issue last year was oscillating when the robot was moving to the ball. Because of this, our deciding factor of whether to use the OpenMV M7 Cam would be to run a latency test, that is the time it takes from the moment the color appears in the camera’s view to when it recognizes the color. I ran a latency test that lights an orange LED and starts a timer. When the color is recognized, it stops the timer. At 320x240 resolution with the frame buffer disabled, I measured a latency of around .015s. So that’s the time it takes for the image sensor to capture and transmit the data plus the time it takes to run find\_blobs() on one blob. I immediately stop the timer before doing anything else, like drawing a circle around the color. Does that seem about right?
> 
> Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Estabrook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@Estabrook](https://forums.openmv.io/u/Estabrook)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 11:14am UTC](https://forums.openmv.io/t/openmv-m7-cam-latency/866/3 "2018-09-03T11:14:43Z")

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I’m guessing it’s not possible to lower the latency under 10ms in total?

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**Author:** ![kwagyeman](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forums.openmv.io/kwagyeman/32/4_2.png) [@kwagyeman](https://forums.openmv.io/u/kwagyeman)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 5:42pm UTC](https://forums.openmv.io/t/openmv-m7-cam-latency/866/4 "2018-09-03T17:42:38Z")

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Um, if you set the exposure to nothing you’ll have no latency but you’ll need very bright lights to see.