A Second Generation Low Cost Embedded Color Vision System

In this paper we describe a low cost embedded vision system, the CMUcam2. The CMUcam2 is the second generation of the CMUcam system and attempts to overcome the shortcomings of the original system as well as improve upon and add to its functionality. The goal of the system is to provide simple vision capabilities to small embedded systems in the form of an intelligent sensor. The system utilizes a low cost CMOS color camera module, a frame buffer chip and all image data is processed by a low cost microcontroller. The system includes the original functionality of color blob tracking, but improves upon it with tracking speeds of up to 50 frames per second. New functionality includes frame differencing, edge detection, and color histogramming. Other improvements were also made to facilitate communication with slower speed processors, as is often the case in a variety of robotics applications, including miniature robotics, hobby robotics and aerial robots.