Camera crazy

For the past few days, we've been hosting a former Cornell alumnus who currently works at MobilEye. MobilEye (http://www.mobileye.com) is a computer vision company with products specializing in driver awareness systems (called "advanced warning systems," or AWS). This year we're using their SeeQ system, which detects cars and lanes. Our visitor came to explain some of the nuts and bolts of the system, its behavior, and to verify its setup.

Overall, I was quite impressed with the system, especially considering the fact that it only uses a single optical camera. Of course, like good scientists, we tested the unit out. And, like good computer scientists, we tested it out in the most lazy manner possible:

(In case you were wondering, that little gray box is the MobilEye.) We did finally get off our lazy butts and mount the thing in a real car. No, the Suburban we're using as a test vehicle is not at all sketchy:

I cried when I saw our beautiful Septentrio velcroed to the side of the car. To paint a more vivid picture, imagine it like this. We have a 1998 Chevy Suburban (a real beast of a thing, I might add). The trunk is full of sensors (mostly stuff related to GPS and pose estimation at the moment). The third row seat has a 1u rack-mount server on the passenger side, and a lab bench variable voltage power supply on the driver's side. Naturally, there are wires everywhere. The second row seat has a flatscreen monitor, keyboard, and mouse sitting on top of the folded-down driver's side seat. The right side is just a regular seat, but there's a standard 120V power strip and a bucketload of cords running on the floor. There are two cameras mounted above the dashboard, one near the rear-view mirror, and one near the passenger side sun shade. ...and that's just what's currently mounted on the inside of the car.

I sat in the middle of the third row seat while we tested. I adjusted the power supply with my left hand, and I swapped USB cables with my right. I also held onto the computer monitor when we were driving. I have never felt more carsick in my life.

On the upside, it's a lot easier to jump in the Suburban and drive around on roads than it is to load a U-Haul with a black unmarked military vehicle, drive to a deserted parking lot, unload, mount sensors, and test. Plus, we're getting a good head start on vehicle-wide sensor integration. I'm told that the vehicle-wide synchronized timing protocol is nearly completed, with timing as accurate as our fastest sensor.

Oh, and happy December!