Augmented reality? Local Positioning System?

It occurred to me the car video would be a good target for augmented reality. I already have overlays, but you could insert location-based data over the video, for example the other cars, pit stops, navigation, maybe even explosions!

The trouble (as with any augmented reality system) is tracking distance, rotation, angle etc so as to place the augmented items correctly on screen. For a while I have been considering the idea of a LPS (local positioning system), like GPS, for accurate location of items in a small area. Fast compass measurements would also be necessary.


I recently attended a talk on lightweight java game library, which is mainly a simple, fast wrapper for OpenGL, so rendering objects is actually pretty easy :) Minecraft uses LWJGL.

Just thoughts, so far...

WiFi IP camera

While I haven't posted for a while, there was some fervent activity for a bit. My hackerspace comrade tjhowse found that there are cheap WiFi cameras you can get with an ARM processor and embedded ucLinux, which are in fact quite hackable. They also have pan-tilt stepper motors, but they have been geared way down so they are incredibly slow. Finally, they have decent IR leds so they can see in the dark; they are designed as controllable IP security cameras after all.

The innocent Wifi camera before being hacked.

The default web UI is quite decent.

I won't go into detail right now but the photo album is here and here are some threads on the topic:

http://groups.google.com/group/hackerspace_brisbane/browse_thread/thread/f5eae6b6d9922e00

http://groups.google.com/group/hackerspace_brisbane/browse_thread/thread/7336980c0f887d25

Added wires for serial connection and power.

Ultimately though, I found that:

• The latency is actually quite low on a non-congested wireless network - as little as 35ms, which is quite adequate. 
• The latency spikes a bit sometimes, not sure if this is congestion or CPU problems on the system
• It is hard to connect up the Arduino over serial reliably, though I have basically solved that. 
• It is great to have clear video without interference and static
• However, the video is too slow. Framerate is uneven and low, and there is a significant delay - no good for what should be a fast-paced reflexive game. Not sure if this is due to CPU power, the capture device, or network problems.

So it was fun hacking it, and in fact I might keep it for data comms. Maybe remove the camera and just run the base board. That will require hacking the firmware, but that's a solved problem.

I was able to run the camera off the car's battery, through the Arduino's regulator! The reg got hot quickly though.