I have a project I need some help on. I am putting two cameras on a boat and I want the computer to be able to stabilize the video or images that I take using the camera. My idea so far is to have it read the coordinates of the picture and do a shift of the image either up/down or left/right. Doing this at a rate of x times per second.
Do I need motors on the camera to be able to move it? I was going to add a 3-axis gyro on the boat so that it can detect the angle at which it must correct the image. What other components will I need?
Does anybody know if this has been done before? Is there something that I can work off of rather than start from scratch. This is my first Arduino project and I am learning C# as I go.
So you have a boat that is pitching bow to stern, and also rolling port to starboard. And could also be yawing (?) side to side.
Ships do this all the time to track things like communication satellites.
Cost varies by the sea state to be tolerated, the size of the dish to be moved, the speed to be moved, accuracy needed to be maintained (geosynchronous vs low earth orbit for example).
This is not a beginner's project.
You can probably get a gyrostabilized platform - they are built into RC helicopter platforms for example.
Here's a camera related example
and a pivoting mount to put it on
Think of it as mounting one Segway on top of another with the wheels perpindicular to each other, and your camera on top.
Is there a way I can use something like this to create a somewhat stable video feeding back to the computer? Instead of having the camera tilt in the same direction as the gyro, I would have it calculate what angle it needs in order to counteract the pitch/roll/yaw.
Can you help me out with the components I would need in order to build this?
If you can get a hold of elektor magazine, the July/Aug 2009 edition, pololu.com will send old issues for free with an order, there is an article on a DIY Segway, the Elektor Wheelie, which uses an ATMega32 to read an Invensense gyroscope and an Analog device ADXL320 accelerometer to sense balance and drives motors via PWM.
Schematics are shown, code is downloadable.
Start with getting a copy of the article. The sensor platform would be simlar, the motor drives can be much smaller (theirs controls two 500W motors and had battery charging circuit etc), the functions to read the angle, process the movement needed, etc, would be similar.