QA
[ Home Page ]

Q: What is the best way to get started with the CMUcam ?

A: Probably the best way to get started using the CMUcam is to work with it on your PC. Seattle Robotics includes everything you need to get started using the camera from your PC. This includes a printed manual, a CD-ROM with software, serial cable to connect the camera to your PC's serial port (typically Com1 or Com2) and a "wall wart" power plug type power supply with the correct connector to plug into the camera.

Q: Why is testing the camera on the PC the best way to start ?

A: Once you get beyond calling the automatic color blob tracking function it gets a little difficult to understand all of the other powerful things you can do with the CMUcam. Using the PC you can call the different camera functions from the PC then view the results on the screen of your PC. This makes it easy to understand what the camera can do for your robot. Once you figure out on the PC the things you want the camera to do it is much easier to port these over to your robot microcontroller.

Q: What PC software is included ?

A: The CD-ROM includes the test software developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). CMU has a very nice software application for the Linux operating system. It is written in Java and includes all functions. CMU has also ported the Java application to run on Windows 95 and higher versions of Windows. We have tested this program with good results on Windows XP and Windows 98. We also include a Visual Basic program to use on any Windows PC.