Unless you're really looking for a vision problem to solve, or really can't modify your environment... why not use an easier sensor approach? A toaster and a microwave will draw *significantly* more power while in use than not. A simplified ammeter placed between each device and the wall should give you a pretty reliable and accurate "is it on" result. Likewise, a keypad entry of identity for notification would be easier, although it sounds like this part is especially designed for playing with vision. On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 1:55 PM, Rogan Creswick <[email protected]> wrote:
> > We have a kitchen at work that is not easily monitored by any of us -- > so we often forget things in the toaster / microwave. > > I'd like to set up a webcam that will watch the microwave / toaster to > report things like: is the microwave on? (based on the internal light) > and is the toaster toasting? (based on the position of the toast > lever--it's a toaster oven, so using an IR beam that would be > interrupted by the toast popping up won't work.) > > I'm also hoping to use OpenCV to do face recognition, to support the > following workflow: > > Someone enterthe kitchen, gets their lunch: > > * put the lunch in microwave > * smile at camera > * start microwave > > Then, when the microwave turns off, an app pairs the last face seen > with a list of ICQ numbers, and sends an IM/email/pmsg to the person > who was using the microwave. > > I need some advice on what hardware to get, and how to arrange the > camera. I'd like to mount the camera so that it doesn't see more than > is necessary (possibly using two cameras... but they'd have to be > cheap). A magnetic mount to the adjacent fridge would be ideal, but > poses problems for snapping face pictures, since I expect that the > camera position will be critical to detect changes in the toaster > lever. > > Furthermore, the nearest computer is more than the maximum distance > for USB, so something else will be necessary. We don't have 80211.b > (yet), so that's probably out too. > > Anyhow, I'm looking for suggestions. The computer doing the work will > be linux-based, but I think that's about it for requirements. > > Thanks! > --Rogan > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Website: http://saturdayhouse.org/ Post: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
