Low Cost Embedded Vision Module

[Brijesh]

Hello,

I recently stumbled upon this community and my current project is a perfect match. I am working on a low cost vision module, in the opposite end of the spectrum from CentEye.

Currently there are not many good options if you want a low cost vision module. CMUCam4 looks promising but as of now has limited availability and is expensive. Plus it uses Parallax Propeller processor, if you want to work on it you have to learn a new processor architecture and language.

With recent release of STM32F4 microcontrollers it is easier than ever to interface with cmos image sensors. The processor has hardware peripheral which supports camera interface. Plus it is has DSP functionality with hardware Floating point unit. Camera module is Omnivision  OV7670, which is 640x480 pixel sensor.

I have been working on this project for couple of months now. I have finished the schematics and PCB layout. In fact the PCB is being fabricated and parts are on order as of yesterday.

Here are few links about the project

Project Presentation

Schematics and BOM

Here are couple of images of 3d model of the board.

I am hardware/embedded software guy, I have no experience in image processing. I hope this project is of interest to you guys and you participate in it. The software has not been developed at all so any suggestions and advice on the software design and image processing would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Brijesh

*The project has been released under Creative Common Share Alike license.

[marcio]

hello Brijesh, do you know if it is possible to replace the cmos image sensor with an oled display?

[Brijesh]

Well, I am DCMI peripheral to interface with camera. This peripheral cannot be used with display of any sort. I believe FSMC peripheral can be used to interface with LCD displays. I am not sure though.

If your OLED display has uart interface then you can most certainly use one of the uarts to interface with the display.

[marcio]

thank you!

[nesdnuma]

Hello Brijesh, this is a very interesting project. Do you plan to sell built units ?

[Brijesh]

yes I do plan on selling the units. Currently fabricating and assembling 10 boards. Out of which 6 are spoken for. The cost of components is coming to be $37, without including the shipping costs from digikey, PCB fabricator etc. This first batch I am offering literally at cost for $40. All the parts of the board has arrived, waiting for PCB now. They are supposed to shipped tomorrow. So by next weekend should have one of the boards assembled and fired up.

There is a thread at Sparkfun about this project. That is where I initially started the project.

Sparkfun Forum Thread

If you want a board let me know I will reserve one for you.

Cheers

[Geoffrey L. Barrows]

This looks like a cool project and one that will certainly find use. It reminds me a bit of the upcomging PX4FLOW optical flow sensor by the PixHawk group. Actually I see that board, and yours, as complementary to the sensors we are making.

A little secret: We are also prototyping our own optical flow sensor using a Stonyman chip and an STM32F4 microcontroller- it should weight about a gram when prototyped. (We'll let you know- we should be getting the boards back in a few days...) This way anyone with experience programming one of these three boards will be able to program another.