Sorry, I wasn’t sure where else to post these questions or if this was the right sub forum. That being said, if this isn’t the right place please just let me know and ill move it.
Anyway, I’ve been planning a larger project and needed to incorporate a couple cameras and needed some suggestions. There just seem to be a lot of cameras out there (some pretty steep in price) and I wanted to make sure I didn’t end up getting the wrong thing (because I know some of the third party hardware doesn’t include a ram chip so can’t used on an uno, etc).
And hardware aside, I was curious to know how else they vary by performance on the software side (cuz I couldn’t seem to find too much detail about how any of them work). As for my project, I was hoping to incorporate something with real-time motion tracking (to control a motor), but also didn’t want to have to send the data to a pc, if possible (and can supplement the pc with a raspberry pi instead, if necessary).
And hardware aside, I was curious to know how else they vary by performance on the software side (cuz I couldn't seem to find too much detail about how any of them work). As for my project, I was hoping to incorporate something with real-time motion tracking (to control a motor), but also didn't want to have to send the data to a pc, if possible (and can supplement the pc with a raspberry pi instead, if necessary).
Use a Raspberry Pi with a Pi camera and eliminate the Arduino completely. Arduinos (especially the AVR models) are not suited to handle video data.
Not even just for the data collection? I was hoping to use arduinos to gather data (video and sound) to be sent to a pi for processing, etc... only because I’m fairly proficient with arduinos but don’t know any python yet and never used a pi (was actually looking to use this project as a stepping stone to learning python), and because I wanted the project to show interoperability between systems/languages (so I could use it as a portfolio for a job down the road)... but I also don’t know anything about how video data is actually collected and I’m not opposed to just using a pi if I have to, was just wondering.
Arduinos are too slow and have too little RAM and don't have a way to get the data to the Pi fast enough. Look at the video format you're going to use and see how many bytes per frame it's going to be and many a second are produced. The math should quickly convince you that any Arduino would be woefully underpowered.
Arduinos are too slow and have too little RAM and don't have a way to get the data to the Pi fast enough
I knew that, I just also knew that some cameras have a ram chip on them as well (and they were required to use the cameras with an arduino). I just didn’t know what it was for... if it’s not for that, what is it for? Not trying to debate it (because like I said I don’t know) just asking cuz I’m genuinely curious
You could use a still camera and have the Arduino tell it when to take a picture and then pull the bits making the picture from the camera and pass them to a Pi. There's no point though, There's no value add from the Arduino and the Pi could do the same thing by itself.
If you're talking video and audio though, there is no way.
That’s fair, so pretty much an arduino can only handle as much as a still imagine. I was just thinking of using two arduinos- one for sound and one for video, but if it can’t handle the video I’ll migrate that to the pi
An Arduino can't even handle a still image - unless it's really small (an Uno has 2 kB RAM).
It can read image data from the camera and pass the data on. That's it. No processing, no changing format, not even holding a complete image in memory.
In case of video + audio it won't even be able to read and pass on the data stream fast enough to be useful.
It can read image data from the camera and pass the data on. That's it.
That’s exactly what I was looking to do.
In case of video + audio it won't even be able to read and pass on the data stream fast enough to be useful.
But speed would be a concern for sure. I was planning on using two arduinos though- one for audio and one for sound. But if sending video data from one would be too slow then I can scrap that idea
Why do you need the Arduino then? It does nothing except forwarding a data stream to another device.
But speed would be a concern for sure. I was planning on using two arduinos though- one for audio and one for sound. But if sending video data from one would be too slow then I can scrap that idea
You cannot use video with Arduino only still images at a rate of about one image every 5 seconds. If you use an Arduino for audio you won't be satisfied, the quality is about the same as phones had in the 50ies of the last century.
Only reasons why I was thinking to incorporate an arduino were because I don’t know python/pis yet and was looking to do that part as minimally as possible (in order to ease the learning curve). That and I’m already proficient in c++/with arduinos and wanted to have a project that involved interoperability between systems (so I could use it as a portfolio to find a job- only knowing/using one language isn’t enough to get a job nowadays). But I wasn’t set on it and will just move everything to a pi if that is more realistic (which apparently it is). Was also just curious about cameras with arduinos in general too though, hence why I asked more questions. Thanks!
Python is really easy to learn - it's meant to be easy to learn, and often used in teaching for that very reason. If you know C++ (and preferably another language or two) already it's very easy to pick up.