Dawn of the Dead Chips

#include <opencv/cv.h> 
#include <opencv/highgui.h> 
#include <stdio.h>  
int main() {
   CvCapture* capture = cvCaptureFromCAM( CV_CAP_ANY );
   if ( !capture ) {
     fprintf( stderr, "ERROR: capture is NULL \n" );
     getchar();
     return -1;
   }
   cvNamedWindow( "mywindow", CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE );
   while ( 1 ) {
     IplImage* frame = cvQueryFrame( capture );
     if ( !frame ) {
       fprintf( stderr, "ERROR: frame is null...\n" );
       getchar();
       break;
     }
     cvShowImage( "mywindow", frame );
     if ( (cvWaitKey(10) & 255) == 27 ) break;
   }
   cvReleaseCapture( &capture );
   cvDestroyWindow( "mywindow" );
   return 0;
 }

Just for the sake of completeness, this is the command line to compile and what I had to get from repositories so it worked. Of course you have to have build essentials too, I suspect.

sudo apt-get install libcv-dev

gcc cvtest.c -lcv -lhighgui -o cvtest

./cvtest

Opencv can be used for numerous things and in this case I am using it with a camera, and a walking robot with arms and hands. It is to scavenge the bone yard of old chips and extract usable materials that conform to some kind of design or to locate what chips are available and their location so they can be extracted. It requires a temperature controlled soldering interface that uses a digital potentiometer to save hands for sensible things. It also incorporates blown heat at a controlled temperature to deal with those messy multi-pin chips that never seem to work with solder wick even when I do it by my own hand.

It is part of a generalized plan to have CAD and SPICE as well as assembly completely automated and independent. I thought it might be fun to add a little EMP generator of my own design as a robot cop. It would use EMP to subdue victims criminals so they can be safely disarmed and dissected for parts ( mostly brains, ooh, brains ). I will have a test bot that measures EMP from a remote site through [ wide ] opto-isolation [ IR xmit and receive located 3 feet apart ] so that it doesn't get kicked by a better path to ground.

The main goal is just to experiment with opencv and see if I can't use mouse image chips for recognition as well as inventory all the crap and maybe automate the extraction and sorting. I have designed robots for decades and the mechanical part is familiar so it is just the automatic control aspect and close work of de-soldering. I suppose it isn't any worse than pick and place bots with flow soldering, just kind of inside out. I will see how it goes.

The only odd thing is that I intend to introduce my knock-knock single path serial interface language as it serves to obfuscate like DaVinci's backward mirror writing and in this case I am not trying to purposely be obtuse or secretive, actually the contrary to see how easy it is to establish communication with a real framework like without known language to start with. It also serves to have NxN video easily or even 3D so I don't have to negotiate capabilities except by NAK.

The language part sounds like the most fun just to see how it might happen when the aliens arrive and I get stuck in Area51 with Brent Spiner trying to crack their communication code.

I did learn something interesting about searching debian for things I need and here is a link for finding cv.h in any architecture.

That works really well as it sorted through a thousand logos for chip manufacturers and found the right one in a blink. I can't even do that in 40 seconds and it gets very tedious to get the manufacturer, part number, search the net and get the pdf, read the spec, test the chip, and all the other crap so if it does this in less than a second, I am happy. This was pure blind recognition from one set to another and I have done it in microseconds in assembly, but time spent in assembly is never realized in use unless it is a critical function and it is so CPU specific it ports like a snail.