The Engineering Projects

Introduction to Pixy Camera

Hello everyone! I hope you all will be absolutely fine and having fun. Today, I am going to give you an elaboration about Introduction to Pixy Camera. It is basically is an electronic device or sensor having fast vision. It is also known as fast vision sensor most of the time. Using this device we can teach to find objects in a very less time duration. It is an image sensor having a very powerful processor. Pixy is easy to interface with the micro-controllers e.g. Arduino. We can make different programs only to send the desired data from the device to micro-controller. In this way micro-controller can not overwhelm. Pixy camera is able to communicate with the micro-controller in several different ways e.g. serial communication, I2C protocol, digital out, analog out and SPI communication techniques. Using this type of communication between pixy camera and micro-controller we can also perform other tasks when camera is communicating with micro-controller. We can also attach multiple pixy cameras with a single micro-controller. Its normal mean of image detection is through RGB (Red Green Blue) color detection technique. Moreover, it can also detect different images using hue and saturation techniques. Light doesn't effect the image detection of this camera. Its a huge problem while doing image processing techniques. This module has an ability to find hundreds of objects simultaneously and it can remember seven different types of colors. It detects images with a very fast processing speed of 50 frames per second. It is a low cost and highly efficient device available in the market. The further detail about introduction to pixy camera will be given later in this section.

Introduction to Pixy Camera

Pixy camera is a fast vision electronic device. It can capture 50 frames per second. It can communicate with the mirco-controller using different types of communications e.g I2C protocol, SPI and serial communication. Its image detection technique is not effected by the light like all other devices. It cam remember 7 different colors simultaneously. Its a low cost device. It also uses hue & saturation technique for image detection. Pixy-camera is shown in the figure given below.

• Pixy camera has a particular software which is necessary to be installed before using it.
• I have share a complete detailed article on How to Install Pixy Camera Software - PixyMon.

1. Pixy Camera Pins

• It has six pins having assigned with different tasks.
• All the pins are given in the table shown in the figure given below.

2. Pixy Camera Pinout

• Pinout diagram tells us about the complete information of all the pins of any device.
• Pixy-camera pinout diagram is given in the figure shown below.

• If you are new to pixy camera you must have a look at Getting Started with Pixy Camera.
• After doing this the next, you must need to know is Upload Latest Firmware in Pixy Camera.

3. Pixy Camera Technical Specifications

• Technical specifications tell us about the efficiency and different tasks whether they can be performed by it or not.
• Pixy-camera technical specifications are listed in the table shown in the figure given below.

4. Pixy Camera Features

• Any device can become a lot popular only on the basis of its unique features.
• Pixy-camera features are listed in the table given in the figure shown below.

5. Pixy Camera Communication Techniques

• Pixy-camera has an ability to communicate with the micro-controller in different ways.
• Alla the communication mediums are provided in the table shown in the figure below.

6. Pixy Camera Result Visualization

• Its results can be visualized on an application named as Pixy Mon.
• Pixy Mon is an applications that is able to run on computer or MAC.
• Using this application we can visualize, that pixy-camera sees, in the form of either raw video or processed video.
• While using pixy camera, you must know about How to Train Pixy Camera with Computer.
• Pixy set the output port and manage colors.
• USB cable maintains communication between pixy mon and pixy-camera.

7. Pixy Camera Problems

• Each electronic device has its pros and cons, similarly pixy-camera has also some issues with it.
• The two major problems associated with the pixy-camera are listed in the table shown in the figure given below.

8. Pixy Camera Applications

• Pixy-camera has several different real life applications.
• Some of the major applications are provided in the table shown in the figure below.

  The tutorial Introduction to Pixy Camera has provided the detailed discussion on the basics of this module. I hope this tutorial is proved to be an informative for you and you will enjoy this tutorial. You can ask us if you have any problem. I will try me best to help out you. I will share different informative topics in my upcoming tutorials. Till my upcoming tutorial, taker care and bye :)

How to Train Pixy Camera with Computer

In today's post we are gonna have a look at How to Train Pixy Camera with Computer. We have yet posted three tutorials in the Pixy Camera series. In the first tutorial, we have seen How to Get Started with Pixy Camera in which we have studied the basics of Pixy Camera. After that that we have seen the Installation of Pixy Camera Software which is named as PixyMon and in the third tutorial we have covered How to Upload the Latest Firmware in Pixy Camera because its always the best strategy to deal with latest tools. So until now we have configured our Pixy Camera in all possible ways now the next thing is to train our Pixy Camera with Computer using PixyMon software.

Let's first discuss How the Pixy Camera works. Pixy Camera has on board NXP microcontroller which is used for image processing so what we need to do is to let our Pixy Camera remember some objects and whenever this object comes in the range of Pixy camera then it gives output to the microcontroller through SPI protocol. We can use any microcontroller like PIC microcontroller or Arduino etc. We will interface it with Arduino in the coming tutorial but in this tutorial we will have a look at How to train Pixy Camera with Computer using PixyMon. So, let's get started with it.

How to Train Pixy Camera with Computer ???

• First of all, connect your Pixy Camera with Computer using the Mini USB to USB converter cable which we have seen in the first tutorial.
• So, plug the mini USB side with your Pixy Camera and plug the USB in your Computer.
• Now, I suppose that you have already upgraded the Pixy Camera software to latest version.
• After pluging in Pixy Camera now open Pixy Camera software named as PixyMon, and you will start receving the live video for Pixy Camera in your PixMon as shown in below figure:

• So I am getting the live video from my Pixy Camera in PixyMon.
• I have placed a globe in front of the Pixy Camera which we are gonna select now.
• So, now what I am gonna do is to recognize this globe to the Pixy Camera.
• In order to do so click Actions and then Set Signature 1 as shown in below figure:

• Now when you click the Set Signature 1 then video will go static like it stopped and now you need to select a region which you want Pixy Camera to remember as shown in below figure:

• As you have seen in above figure, I have selected the blue region of globe and now this color is saved in Pixy Camera.
• After selecting this region, the video will again start but now whenever this blue color of globe comes in focus of Pixy Camera, it will detect this color as shown in below figure:

• Now you can see it has detected the blue region of globe completely and above it is mentioned s = 1 which means the signature is 1, now suppose you want to save any other color then you can save it in signature 2 or 3.
• But there's some problem in the image that we are also detecting small blue color in other parts of image as well and you can see at the left below corner it also mentioning s = 1.
• So, what we need to do is to refine our parameter so that it only detect the blue globe and ignore the other small objects.
• In order to do so, you have to click File and then Configure and a new Window will pop up which will have the Pixy Parameter range for all the signatures as shown in below figure:

• Now you can see in the above figure the range for Signature 1 is 2.02400 and we have many small blue blocks in the figure, so now let's reduce this range and check its effect on the video.

• Now you can see in above figure that our region got quite clear and now its detecting just the globe and all the other small detected regions are now gone.

So, that's how you train Pixy Camera with Computer using PixyMon. You can set other colors as well in other signatures. That's all for today. In the coming tutorial, we will see How to interface Pixy Camera with Arduino in which we will automatically detecting this blue region with Arduino and will be doing our task further. So, stay tuned and have fun. :)  

Upload Latest Firmware in Pixy Camera

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Hello friends, hope you are fine and having fun with your lives. Till now we have seen two tutorials on Pixy Camera module, in the first tutorial we have seen How to Get started with Pixy Camera and after that we have seen How to Install Pixy Camera software which is named as PixyMon. So, now I hope that you have installed the Pixy camera software and have the Pixy Camera module in hand along with USB to Mini USB cable. Because in this tutorial we are gonna plug our Pixy Camera module with moduter and will upload the latest firmware in our Pixy Camera Module, which isn't much difficult and would be a piece of cake if you followed all the instructions carefully.

Pixy Camera comes with some old firmware which is uploaded in it at the time of its manufacturing. But with the passage of tme, the firmware keeps on upgrading and hence in order to make the Pixy Camera module compatible with new software, we have to upgrade the Pixy Camera firmware as well, which we are gonna do in this post.We haven't yet connected our Pixy Camera module with computer so when we plug it with our computer for the first time, it will first install the driver for the usb of pixy Camera board and then we will be able to upload our latest firmware in it. So, before uploading firmware in Pixy Camera first let's have a look at How to install the driver for Pixy Camera module.

How to Install Driver for Pixy Camera ???

• Plug your USB cable in Pixy Camera from USB mini side and plug the USB side into your computer.
• Now when you plug your Pixy camera for the first time, a small pop up will open up in the task bar as shown in below figure:

• And you don't need to do anything and it will get installed automatically. I have tested it on Windows 8 and it works like magic, no problem at all.
• Now once you installed the driver for Pixy Camera, unplug your pixy Camera USB and now we will see how to upload latest firmware in Pixy Camera.

Upload Latest Firmware in Pixy Camera

• So, now I hope you have unplugged your Pixy Camera USB from computer.
• Now download the latest firmware of Pixy Camera by clicking the below button.

• At the time of writing this post, the latest firmware available was 2.0.17 but you can download the latest firmware by clicking here.
• Now I hope you have downloaded the latest firmware for pixy Camera, so now open your PixyMon software and first time it will look something as shown in below figure:

• Now press the white button on your Pixy Camera and plug the USB in your computer while keep pressing the button.
• Once the USB plugged in and USB got detected, then release the button and you will get something like this in your PixyMon.

• As shown in above figure, our Pixy Camera got detected and because we pressed the button so that's why it went in programming state.
• Soon after this a pop up will open up as shown in below figure:

• Now Browse to your downloaded firmware, which in my case is pixy_firmware-2.0.17-general.hex , so I selected this one and press Open.
• It will automatically install the firmware and will restart the Pixy Camera and you will get something like this in your PixyMon.

• That's all, now you will start getting your video from Pixy Camera and you can see in the output pane that it installed the firmware first and then for reset and now ready to use.

Now we have uploaded the Latest Firmware in our Pixy Camera and have also plugged it with our computer and got it working with PixyMon. In the next tutorial, we will see How to train our Pixy Camera using this PixyMon. I am quite tired now so I don't think I am gonna post the next tutorial today, hopefully will post it tomorrow. So, till then take care :)) [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="30px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text]<< How to Install Pixy Camera Software [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text]

How to Train Pixy Camera with PixyMon >>

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How to Install Pixy Camera Software - PixyMon

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In the previous tutorial, we have seen how to Get Started with Pixy Camera, which was quite a basic tutorial and we have covered just the basic cables required to set up pixy camera. Now along with cables we are also gonna need software for training our Pixy Camera. So in this tutorial we are gonna see how to install Pixy Camera Software which is named as PixyMon. As I explained earlier in previous post that first of all, we need to connect our Pixy Camera with Computer or laptop and then using its software PixyMon we need to train our Pixy Camera so that it can recognize objects present in front of it.

PixyMon is quite a simple software and quite easy to use. In this post, we are not gonna check How to use PixyMon software (which is the topic for net tutorial) but we are gonna see How to install pixy Camera software successfully without any errors. So now I hope that you have bought the Pixy Camera and have also bought the USB to mini USB cable because we are gonna need to it in order to connect our Pixy Camera with computer and make it work with PixyMon software.

I could have covered the whole tutorial in a single post but then its gonna be real messy because we need to cover quite a lot of things that's why I thought to divide it in parts so that we cover each and every thing in detail and even a begineer can easily follow these tutorials and could work on PixyMon Camera Module. After checking the installation of PixyMon software, in the next tutorial we will have a look at How to upgrade the drivers for Pixy Camera Module. So now let's get started with installation of PixyMon.

Note:

• Don't connect your Pixy camera with computer, first we will install the PixyMon software which will also install the driver for USB cable and then we will plug our Pixy Camera with computer.

How to Install Pixy Camera Software - PixyMon

• As I mentioned above, PixyMon is a software which is used to train our Pixy Camera module using Computer.
• So, first of all download the PixyMon software by clicking on the below button:

• At the time of writing this post, the latest version of PixyMon released is 2.0.9 for Windows so either download the software by clicking above button or visit http://cmucam.org/projects/cmucam5/files (Official site for PixyMon) to download latest version of PixyMon.
• Now after downloading the PixyMon, double click it to open and the first window will show up is shown in below figure:

• Now when this window pop up, click on the Next button.
• When you click the Next Button, the below window will open up.

• Now here Browse to your folder where you wanna install the PixyMon software and then click the Next button and you will get the below screen:

• Now here simply click the Next button again unless you wanna change the folder for the shortcut, which is not necessary.
• Now finally when you hit the Next button, it will show you all the configurations you set and will ask you to install the software as shown in below figure:

• Now hit the Install button and your software will start to install as shown in below figure:

• Now during installation, a new window will pop up as shown in below figure:

• Simply press OK button, this pop up is asking for the driver to install for the USB cable which we will plug in after installation of this software.

• Now that's the last window for installation of PixyMon software. Simple click Finish and you are done with the installation of Pixy Camera software.

Now we are done with installation of Pixy Camera software, in the next tutorial we are gonna have a look at How to install latest firmware for Pixy Camera. So stay tuned. :)[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="30px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text]<< Getting Started with Pixy Camera[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text]

Upgrade Pixy camera Firmware >>

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Getting Started with Pixy Camera

Hello friends, hope you all are fine and having fun with your lives. Today's post is about getting started with pixy camera. Now, the first thing comes in mind is what is Pixy Camera so let's first have a little introduction about Pixy Camera on which I recently worked. Pixy Camera is a small camera board which uses NXP microcontroller. Its a very powerful board and can get easily interfaced with simple Arduino UNO board. So, now we can do image processing even on Arduino UNO. Image Processing needs a powerful board that's why we can't interface simple webcam with Arduino UNO or mega etc. Before using pixy camera, when I need to do on board image processing I always used either Arduino YUN, Raspberry Pi or Arduino USB host shield but still it was quite tough to do the image processing even on such powerful boards like Arduino YUN. But now with Pixy Camera module, one can quite easily do the image processing even on Arduino UNO.

Now question arises what this module does ? Actually this Pixy module has a NXP microcontroller on it which does all the image processing and is controlled by a computer. (We are gonna cover this in coming tutorials) Once you set its parameters like color detection or object detection etc then you simply unplug it from computer and plug it with Arduino or any other PIC Microcontroller. Now whenever that object comes in front of Pixy Camera it will automatically recognize it and will send the command to your microcontroller and will also send the parameters like X, Y coordinates or size etc of the object and what you need to do is to apply your algorithm on Arduino i.e. what you gonna do if the object is infront of the camera. Sounds complex, don't worry we are gonna follow everything in detail in coming tutorials. So, now we are gonna have a look at how to get started with Pixy Camera.

Getting Started with Pixy Camera

• So, when I ordered for my Pixy Camera, I got the box within 10 days.
• As I received the box I opened it and I got two items from it, one is the Pixy Camera board itself and second is the Serial to SPI cable which is used to connect Pixy Camera with Arduino or PIC Microcontroller.
• The Pixy Camera is shown in below figure:

• The Serial to SPI cable which is received has 9 pins on one end which is inserted in Pixy board while six pins on the other end which is inserted in Arduino Microcontroller.
• This cable is also shown in below figure:

• The black side of this cable is for microcontroller while the white side is for Pixy Camera board itself.
• Next cable you are gonna need is the USB to mini USB cable, which is not with the package so you need to get it on your own.
• I got mine as well and is shown in below figure:

• This cable is used to connect your Pixy Camera board with computer.
• Using this cable, we train our Pixy camera and let it know about colors and objects.
• We actually set signature using Pixy Camera Software, which I am gonna cover in my next tutorial and using this software we make pixy do incredible things.

Now we have all the tools to get started with Pixy Camera so now in the next tutorial, we will have a look at How to install Pixy Camera software in Windows. Click the below button to move to next tutorial. If you having questions please ask in comments below. [vc_empty_space height="30px"]

How to Install Pixy Camera Software >>