Face tracker with servos

[rawdp293]

Hello everyone, I was thinking of some ideas to start working on a project to improve my knowledge. And I came up with the idea of ​​making a face "tracker" so to speak, where using some algorithm/database previously "trained" with faces of my choice, I could identify that face already saved and follow it with the help of servos for the "X" and "Y" axes.

For example: A situation where there are two faces in the camera and one of them is already saved, then, therefore, it would recognize it and follow that face within the limits of the servos.

I would start working on this situation, leaving for later the situation with the "what would happen" in the moment that for example there were two faces already registered in the camera.

Regarding the design, well, it would be like a small fixed station, as a first prototype.

I know that this is a very general description of my thinking and the project and maybe I am ignoring many things, that is why I also hope that you can guide me in a better way.

Now, knowing this, I have some questions where I would like you to help me:

1. If I'm not mistaken, the Arduino could only be used for the movement of the servos, right? In that case, would I also need a PC? A Raspberry? Knowing what a fixed station would be, what would you recommend me to use based on your experience?

2. What type and what camera would be advisable to use, in the sense that it is not too expensive?

3. In general, what components would you recommend me to use and where should I start?

Also, anything you could share with me to read and to start with this project would be greatly appreciated, because as I said, I want to improve my knowledge because I only recently started in this challenging world. Thank you all very much for reading me, I will gladly answer your comments!

[jremington]

A place to start would be to buy an ESP32-CAM and follow one or more of the on line tutorials to set up facial recognition, which will also indicate the position of the recognized face in the image. You will need a laptop or PC to program the ESP32-CAM,

With all that working to your satisfaction, you will be in a good position to start thinking about how to implement the rest of the project. Since the ESP32 can command servo movements, you shouldn't need anything else, except a servo and servo power supply.

[Grumpy_Mike]

I would recommend you get hold of a Husky Lens. It is a combined camera and intelligent built in, fast, easy to train, system, recognition system. It is much faster than the Pixi or Pixi2 systems. That is according to a friend who has both, and then saw my Husky Lens.

See this:-
Husky Lens

I got mine from the main stream U.K. distributor Farnell (in the U.S. they are called Newark - https://www.newark.com/)

Also look on line for various videos and demos.

It returns the x/y position of a recognised object. Which can be any sort of Arduino, even the humble Uno.

Note that with any project using servos you need to power them with and external power supply for them to work correctly as the Arduino can't supply enough current to work correctly.

Not the cheapest of things, but I believe it is worth it for your project.