Oct 1 2015
Today Charmed Labs announced a new version of their popular Pixy camera, which provides affordable object tracking capability to robot builders around the world. Thousands of Pixy cameras have been sold worldwide since its successful Kickstarter debut in early 2014. The new version of Pixy connects directly to LEGO Mindstorms controllers and integrates seamlessly into the LEGO programming environment.
Unlike most cameras, Pixy handles all image processing on-board, freeing up the host microcontroller for other tasks. You can quickly "teach" Pixy to detect new objects with the press of a button. The built-in firmware is capable of detecting and tracking hundreds of objects simultaneously.
The standard version of Pixy supports a wide variety of microcontrollers, including the popular Arduino platform as well as Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black. Pixy LEGO connects directly to LEGO Mindstorms EV3 and NXT robot controllers with the supplied cable. Fasteners are included that make integrating Pixy with LEGO parts simple.
"You often want your LEGO robot to do something like chase a ball or pick up an object," said Charmed Labs President Rich LeGrand, "but that's very difficult without the right sensor. Pixy allows your robot to accomplish these kinds of tasks because it can see objects in the environment."
Charmed Labs released a video that demonstrates many of Pixy LEGO's capabilities:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ_0qk7Yd7A
Pixy LEGO is available now through RobotShop:
http://www.robotshop.com/en/pixy-cmucam5-image-sensor-lego-version.html
Source: http://www.charmedlabs.com