Hi all,
I am taking part in a project involving teams who are designing electronic components to be used in a small racing car. Our task is to design and build an optical speed sensor, which has to measure the absolute speed of the car relative to the ground. We researched optical mouse sensors, and understand the basic principle: a camera takes 'pictures' of the surface, which are then brought into a microcontroller where analysis on individual pixels is performed. A speed can then be calculated in the software, by observing the time taken for a pixel to 'move' from one area of an image to a different area of a new image.
Of course, with mouse sensors and computers, two dimensions are being measured. For our purposes, we find it suitable to only measure across one dimension. I was wondering if anyone on this forum has had any experience with this sort of technology. A mouse sensor takes roughly 1500 of these pictures a second, which might not give a high enough sampling rate to accurately measure up to 100 miles per hour. Is there a better way to do this, perhaps only using one dimension? We are also finding it difficult to research how exactly the software reads in the data from the camera, and how it can identify a lighter or darker pixel based on the pixels around it. There doesn't seem to be enough information on the web about that in particular.
Any help in getting us pointed in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!
Mark.
I am taking part in a project involving teams who are designing electronic components to be used in a small racing car. Our task is to design and build an optical speed sensor, which has to measure the absolute speed of the car relative to the ground. We researched optical mouse sensors, and understand the basic principle: a camera takes 'pictures' of the surface, which are then brought into a microcontroller where analysis on individual pixels is performed. A speed can then be calculated in the software, by observing the time taken for a pixel to 'move' from one area of an image to a different area of a new image.
Of course, with mouse sensors and computers, two dimensions are being measured. For our purposes, we find it suitable to only measure across one dimension. I was wondering if anyone on this forum has had any experience with this sort of technology. A mouse sensor takes roughly 1500 of these pictures a second, which might not give a high enough sampling rate to accurately measure up to 100 miles per hour. Is there a better way to do this, perhaps only using one dimension? We are also finding it difficult to research how exactly the software reads in the data from the camera, and how it can identify a lighter or darker pixel based on the pixels around it. There doesn't seem to be enough information on the web about that in particular.
Any help in getting us pointed in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!
Mark.