Laser Tracking System ECE 400

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Laser Tracking SystemECE 400

• Team 7
• Chad Drinnon, Jason Petroskey, Matt Rose,
• Darrell Frogg, Wes Williams

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Recap of Project

• LTS Laser Tracking System
• Use a pan-tilt-zoom camera to track a laser
  pointer.
• Similar to military applications such as smart
  bombs.
• An Axis 2401 video server is broadcasting the
  camera over the internet.

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Control of Camera

• Axis server has HTTP commands to move the camera.
• In the beginning the camera could be moved
  manually over the internet using the Axis
  controls.
• Have now developed software to automatically move
  the camera and center the laser on the screen.

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How to Track?

• Difference in image frames
• Color of laser
• Frequency of laser
• Intensity of laser
• Laser will normally be the most intense point

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Software Problems

• Attempted to use image library to read in the
  image from the camera. This file was a JPG, and
  was not compatible with the program.
• Resulted in a stack overflow and crashed the
  program
• Video server shut down, and had to be completely
  reconfigured

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Software Design for the Most Intense Point

• Used C to write the program
• What the program does
• Reads in the image from the camera as a bmp
• First 54 bits are a header, with the rest of the
  bits containing the RGB data

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RGB Data

• For each pixel there are 3 bits, containing R, G,
  and B (red, green, blue) values.
• Those values are used to obtain the intensity
  using the gray scale intensity equation.
• The gray scale intensity equation
• I (R G B) / 3

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Software Diagram
Get BMP
Get data from header
Locate most intense point
Center camera on that point
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Test Results

• The camera was tested to track both a laser and a
  flashlight in a pitch black room.
• For both, the software worked and the camera
  attempted to center on the beam.
• The movement by the camera was consistent, but it
  actually moved slightly too far.
• We also tested the camera in a lit room, and
  found that it would move to other sources of
  light, such as windows.

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Conclusions

• The reason for the overshoot when the camera
  attempts to center the beam, is because the
  camera has a preset distance it shifts for a
  single movement.
• For now, this system only works when the room is
  pitch black, and when there is light the program
  detects more intense sources from elsewhere.

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Budget

• Item Cost Donated?
• Panasonic CS-854A 1,900
  YES
• Power Supply 20 YES
• AXIS 2401 Video Server 700
  NO
• Laser Pointer 20 YES
• Tripod 30 YES
•  
• TOTAL COST
• TO DATE 2,670  
• TOTAL SPENT
• FROM BUDGET 700

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Future Work

• Use a different camera that does not have a
  preset distance of movement.
• Adjust software to work in a lighted area.
• An automatic search function to initially locate
  the laser is also an idea worth exploring.

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Any Questions?