Start the second level

I have started my second level of project from last week, and this is much more advanced that previous one. After being finished, the fish feeder will feed fish automatically if fish comes here, the feeder will rotate to feed fish, so I think it can be called artificial intelligence project.

In this level, the webcam board (2302279) needs to be added in the raspberry pi as shown in Figure 1. 

Figure 1: Webcam board for Raspberry Pi

Furthermore, the rough algorithm is shown as following:

1.      Take photos for fish tank to detect if is there exists fish.

2.      Process the image to analysis if there is any fish in photos.

3.      If there is no fish in photos, take photos continually.

4.      If there exists some fish, drive feeder to feed fish.

5.      After some time, take photo continually.

So, the most important step is that analysis the photos to detect fish. The image processing will be involving in the second level. OK, how to process image? I will use OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision Library). OpenCV will provide basic structure for computer vision and image processing so that we can use some functions to analysis images, you can use Matlab, C, C++, Python and so on to program. Furthermore, it can be installed in Windows, Mac, Linux so it can be used in main system platforms. 

Figure 2: OpenCV Logo

Raspberry Pi controls fish feeders using timer

I have finished the first level successfully, I use timer which is in Raspberry Pi to control fish feeder automatically, for example, the fish feeder will be rotated once every 5 seconds.

The results are shown in the following video:

Video 1: Raspberry Pi controls feeder using timer

This is important for my project and I have finished the first milestone. The next level is that feed fish automatically, which means that feeder will be rotating automatically if fish comes here and in the view of webcam. So the next level is challenger and it involves image processing.

The way to solve the problem

Today, I have failure to control feeder using GPIO again, I think that the GPIO cannot drive the motor. Please look at this forum:

A topic related to drive a DC motor using GPIO

The output current is about 20 mA, therefore, it is too small to drive the DC motor and it's enough to derive the LED light. 

I need to buy a expansion board called GERTBOARD for Raspberry Pi, the picture of this board is shown as 

Figure 1: GERTBOARD

So, I want to use it to drive the feeder, I hope it can bring luck to me.