What we have learned from camera and object recognition

The main objective for the 2019 season in terms of object recognition is to track lines inside the field and align the robot with that line. The two cameras that will be compared are the Microsoft LifeCam HD3000 and the Charmedlabs Pixy2 camera. Both Pros and Cons will be discussed below.

Pixy2

  Pros:
     * Really easy to setup
     * Mostly accurate without much tuning
     * Low power usage
  Cons:
     * Expensive compared to most of the USB Cameras on the market
     * Very limited in functionality
     * You are limited to the code that the manufacturer provides
     * limited mounting options

LifeCam HD3000

 Pros:
    * Very affordable compared to the Pixy2 at just $25 compared to the Pixy2 at $60 
    * Very versatile
    * Works with OpenCV 
    * If you can code it, the camera does it
    * Generally more accurate
 Cons"
    * It's a big hassle to setup OpenCV
    * A lot of work has to be done to get the tuning right
    * You'll need to develop some workarounds to integrate multiple computer languages together

In the end, if you are willing to spend the extra time to get OpenCV working with the LifeCam, that would be the way to go. If you are in a time crunch, then go with the Pixy2. It will save you a lot of time when setting it up, but it won't be as accurate and you don't get a lot of customization.