The CMUcam project
==================

*Open Source Programmable Embedded Color Vision Sensors*

Before the OpenMV Cam, there was the CMUcam. Beginning in
2000 at `Carnegie Mellon University <http://www.cmu.edu/>`__,
the CMUcam line put
real-time machine vision into a small, low-cost, low-power
sensor -- something a hobby robot or an 8-bit
microcontroller could talk to over a plain serial port.
Five generations followed over the next fourteen years,
from the original CMUcam1 through to CMUcam5 (Pixy).

The OpenMV Cam grew directly out of that lineage: the same
idea of an open-source, self-contained vision sensor for
embedded systems, carried forward onto modern
microcontrollers and MicroPython. The connection is direct
-- the hands-on experience behind the later CMUcams went
straight into building the OpenMV Cam.

The original site, ``cmucam.org``, has since gone offline.
These pages preserve its camera overviews, wikis, and
downloads for historical purposes, so the work is not lost.
The text is reproduced from the original site with only
minor cleanup.

Overview
--------

The goal of the CMUcam project is to provide simple vision
capabilities to small embedded systems in the form of an
intelligent sensor. The CMUcam open source programmable
embedded color vision sensors are low-cost, low-power
sensors for mobile robots. You can use the CMUcam vision
systems to do many different kinds of on-board, real-time
vision processing tasks.

.. raw:: html

   <div class="omv-cards-page">
     <section class="omv-section">
       <div class="omv-grid cols-3">

         <a class="omv-card board" href="cmucam5/index.html">
           <div class="board-thumb"><img src="../_images/pixy-inhand.jpg" alt="CMUcam5 (Pixy)"></div>
           <div class="board-body">
             <h4>CMUcam5 (Pixy) <span class="tag legacy">2014</span></h4>
             <p>Small, fast, and teachable &mdash; the Kickstarter hit that carried the CMUcam name to pixycam.com.</p>
             <span class="card-arrow">Explore &rarr;</span>
           </div>
         </a>

         <a class="omv-card board" href="cmucam4/index.html">
           <div class="board-thumb"><img src="../_images/cmucam4-a.jpg" alt="CMUcam4"></div>
           <div class="board-body">
             <h4>CMUcam4 <span class="tag legacy">2012</span></h4>
             <p>A Parallax Propeller-based, Arduino-shield-compatible tracking camera with a microSD card slot.</p>
             <span class="card-arrow">Explore &rarr;</span>
           </div>
         </a>

         <a class="omv-card board" href="cmucam3/index.html">
           <div class="board-thumb"><img src="../_images/cmucam3-a.jpg" alt="CMUcam3"></div>
           <div class="board-body">
             <h4>CMUcam3 <span class="tag legacy">2007</span></h4>
             <p>An ARM7 fully programmable vision sensor &mdash; write custom C with the open-source CC3 library.</p>
             <span class="card-arrow">Explore &rarr;</span>
           </div>
         </a>

         <a class="omv-card board" href="cmucam2/index.html">
           <div class="board-thumb"><img src="../_images/cmucam2-a.jpg" alt="CMUcam2"></div>
           <div class="board-body">
             <h4>CMUcam2 <span class="tag legacy">2003</span></h4>
             <p>Faster colour- and motion-tracking with servo control, image windowing, and analog video output.</p>
             <span class="card-arrow">Explore &rarr;</span>
           </div>
         </a>

         <a class="omv-card board" href="cmucam1/index.html">
           <div class="board-thumb"><img src="../_images/cmucam1-a.jpg" alt="CMUcam1"></div>
           <div class="board-body">
             <h4>CMUcam1 <span class="tag legacy">2002</span></h4>
             <p>A low-cost, low-power serial vision sensor for mobile robots &mdash; tracks a colour blob at 17 frames per second.</p>
             <span class="card-arrow">Explore &rarr;</span>
           </div>
         </a>

       </div>
     </section>
   </div>

Acknowledgments
---------------

This project was supported through the generosity of the NASA
Ames Intelligent Systems Program,
`Parallax <http://www.parallax.com/>`__,
`Lextronic <http://www.lextronic.fr>`__,
`SparkFun <http://www.sparkfun.com/>`__, and the
`Semiconductor Research Corporation <http://www.src.org/>`__.
This project is from
`The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department <http://www.ece.cmu.edu/>`__,
`The Robotics Institute <http://www.ri.cmu.edu/>`__ (part of the
`School of Computer Science <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/>`__), and the
`Undergraduate Research Office <http://www.cmu.edu/uro/>`__ at
`Carnegie Mellon University <http://www.cmu.edu/>`__.

.. toctree::
   :hidden:

   cmucam5/index.rst
   cmucam4/index.rst
   cmucam3/index.rst
   cmucam2/index.rst
   cmucam1/index.rst