Militarizing Your Backyard with Python: Computer Vision and the Squirrel Hordes

Type:
Talk
Audience level:
Intermediate
Category:
Other
March 10th 2:15 p.m. – 2:55 p.m.

Description

Has your garden been ravaged by the marauding squirrel hordes? Has your bird feeder been pillaged? Tired of shaking your fist at the neighbor children? Learn how to use Python to tap into computer vision libraries and build an automated sentry water cannon capable of soaking intruders.

Abstract

Has your garden been ravaged by the marauding squirrel hordes? Has your bird feeder been pillaged? Tired of shaking your fist at the neighbor children? Learn how to use Python to tap into computer vision libraries and build an automated sentry water cannon capable of soaking intruders.

Using the Python bindings for the computer vision library, OpenCV, we will investigate the components and steps needed to power a sentry gun. In addition to basic object and motion tracking, concepts of object recognition (friend or foe) will be discussed. Communication and control of the underlying hardware is performed using Python and will also be covered.

Additional peace-time applications of the above technology will be demonstrated.

  • OpenCV
  • Object detection
  • Motion tracking
  • Friend-or-foe object recognition
  • Stereo vision
  • Building training sets with Amazon Mechanical Turk
  • Python-Arduino communication
  • Python + Kinect