Week1 - FabCam

A diy camera to document fablabs and their inhabitants.

Approach

Open source software & hardware:

Similar projects exist (CMUcam, Stanfordcam, Elphel, BugLabs) but are not really made to be created or assembled by users:

complex schematics
lack of information
ambitious hardware design
domain-oriented cams

Focus on simplicity, hackability, reconfigurability (cf L. Suchman, Plans and Situated Action ) and ultimately mobility.

Multiple form factors:

Documentation Camera (Instructable, ContourAnalysis for non-photorealistic doc, feature extraction for ReFabbing)
Cnc Camera (mounted on machines, visual feedback, multiple sensors cf Elphel)
Mobile Science Lab (Reflectance photospectroscopy, I/O probes, ) cf Alan Kay World Stethoscope.

Designed to be fabbed :

Minimal electronics (CMOS + Linux on chip), maximum expectation (easily programmable, wireless, embedded machine vision, mobile)
Composed of standard (McMaster, flat stuff) but maybe also of non-standard materials (Forrest, tree branch)

Timeline

Frame/Rig:

Laser cut wood + PMMA. Design based on my previous work with kids and extension to lifelong interactions.
Pleached wood, grown to fit. Cf pleaching , Arborsculpture , growing a boat.

Electronics:

Vision: Home Made Cmos/SysOnChip, other option is LeanXcam (CMOS-Sensor with WVGA (752x480) and up to 60 f/s ) Schematics here (340 USD)
Computational Light Rig: home-made pcb
Lens: either Pinhole (handcut, lasercut) or Saul Griffith style (Uv cured polymer low cost optics )

References

OS Cameras:

http://www.buglabs.net/ ( > 500 USD)
http://www3.elphel.com/index.php ( > 1000 USD )
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~cmucam/( > 200 USD )
http://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/camera-2.0/ (priceless for the moment)

OS Hardware