DVS, Dynamic Vision Sensor, based video cameras only update what pixels have changed drastically in a scene, as opposed to regular cameras that return a whole frame of information at a fixed rate per second. The DVS camera makes machine vision much easier to deal with in robotics, motion analysis, and other automation applications.
One use of the camera comes with the RoboGoalie, a robot that tracks and stops a number of objects from passing a certain point. In the following video, you'll see a number of balls trying to get past the RoboGoalie. Only one, at the very end of the video makes it past. Source code and more information on this self calibrating robot, built by Manuel Lang and Tobi Delbruck can be found at http://siliconretina.ini.uzh.ch/wiki/doku.php?id=robogoalie
A more recent use of the DVS camera come with this Pencil Balancer Robot. This time the device uses two DVS cameras to detect changes in the pencils orientation in two vertical planes. The information is then analysed, and servos are moved accordingly by a single NXP LPC2103FBD48,151LPC2103FBD48,151 32-bit Microcontroller running at 64Mhz. Impressed by the video? Read the entire project's report at http://www.ini.uzh.ch/~conradt/Projects/PencilBalancer/
Note, Tobi Delbruck co-creator of the Robogoalie, also have part in building the Pencil Balancer along with Jorg Conradt and Matthew Cook.
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