Things I Learned From Learning Mode

Post date: Apr 23, 2012 5:26:55 AM

Ok, first that makes it sound like the software learns on it's own which it doesn't Really 'Data Collection' is more accurate since I'm collecting images of him going in and out the door which I will then later use to train a real haar cascade file.

But learning mode sounds so damned cool doesn't it?

Now on to the lessons!

The first was as expected the tap light batteries dried up quickly. I don't think they made it through the night.

The second, and more important was that I need to figure out how to make my code run as a daemon or whatever android calls running constantly. Plugged the phone in to my computer the next morning, navigated to the vkp pictures folder and found...

Nothing

That's right, nothing. The vkp code hadn't been running at all. Some how when plugging the phone into the power adapter the night before I managed to close the app. I collected nothing. I'm guessing it will be a permission I add to the app xml file but I still have to look it up.

I learned some other interesting things. One is that a lot of sunlight gets into the box at its current dimensions. I could make it longer and enclose the door a bit but I don't think I want to. The problem it creates is that during the day the camera is going to see the cat in full color. At night it will get the shadow profile the way I designed it to. I need it to see the same thing for all samples. Rather than try and force it to be dark enough that I can see the shadow profile I think i'm going to move the light over to the same side as the camera and just do a ull color comparison 100% of the time. The OpenCV library and android platform are powerful enough to handle it.

The other option I played a little with is IR. I like this idea because while it provides enough light for the android camera to see it isn't visible, and thus annoying, to humans. I'd prefer not to have the light from the cat door leaking in to my bedroom. Trouble is the same as previously stated thoug. Day time light provides a different image. In order to do it I would need to block viisible spectrum light.

I played a little by blacking out a section of paper w/ a marker and taping it over the lens. This works blocking out most of the visible light but it doesn't seem like I can get the ir quite bright enough. I put together three IR LEDs scavanged from remotes but they only show through when almost pressed directly against the lense/paper.

Which, ultimately, I think makes shooting in color easier. I'm sure I could find some substance that does a bettter job of only blocking visible light but that means extra cost and is effort that I don't think would return proportional reward.

So tonight I soldered together four ultra bright LEDs. Why four? Well I was planning on putting them into the taplight as a super bright backlight when I got out the soldering iron. Then 1/2 way through I decided I'd be front lighting him. I should be able to get by wiith two or potentially even one. I'll pull a couple off when I rework them and mount them properly. Right now they're just jammed under the lid.