360 kinect hack

>>129026
360 kinect on a mobile system?

>>129030
I assume your problem would be with power, which wouldnt be an issue if theres a bunch of motors an shit already needing to be run...

>>129032
They are being run off a battery. To add on the likes of a Kinect, which in turn requires a high processor power (relative to the likes of a PIC, 25W still from an Atom), means that suddenly my small system would need a heck of a load more batteries!

What about phase difference? Anyone know much about that?

Bump. If anyone could at least hint at which general idea would work, so I don't spend time researching something that won't work, that's all I'm looking for please.

Consider using pearwood.

lego mindstorms setup maybe?
not sure of logistics, but I've seen people do almost anything with it.

>>129046

I'm sorry did you mean phase variance?

>>129078
Not sure. Just measuring the difference between the phase of a received signal.

I think over two aerials on the luggage unit and compare the two in some way.

>>129022
let's see you could use:
ultrasonic beacon
an infrared beacon IR camera
polarized light beacon
trained bees and a scent beacon
put the luggage on a trained pig, dog, or miniature pony
use a mechanical connection to the person
directional antennas
radioisotopes and geiger counters

Now is this an art project, personal project, senior engineering project, masters thesis, or PHd thesis?

tracking people is difficult to do, especially in cluttered environments like an airport.

>>129249
3rd year Group Project. The people meant to be working on it have just been total fuck ups.

Other groups are doing ultrasonics as object detection and infrared as the tracking, but we had a survey that found people wanted something non-visible, that would be inside a coat pocket. So that's why trying to do it via RF and not IR/ultrasonic.

Might have to bin that at this rate though.

>>129259
I'd like to point out that even though this is my work, I'm not asking for someone to tell me exactly what to do. What I'm asking is that, as I have a reduced amount of time, we already ought to be ordering components, so can someone just give me a hint on what's bullshit and what I should focus my research on.

>>129259
>>group project
Hmmm... sounds like 3-4 teams, teams are usually 3-4 people, so 9-12 people. Sounds like a big project.


>>The people meant to be working on it have just been total fuck ups.
That almost always happens. Besides, everyone always gets most of the work done second semester.

Sounds like electrical engineering, maybe with some help from mechanical engineers.

Why don't you brainstorm all the different ways you could send a beacon?

Why not consider using directional antennas?

>>129315
Teams are 7 people, 5 teams in total.

Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering Department.

Directional aerials is something on my list to research. Need direction and distance to be found,

Might there be some way to utilize a smart phone, have the luggage link to and track that?

>>129329
It'd be the way to do it via a company, but time doesn't permit. We only have about 8 weeks to get this going and plenty of other modules take up time. If i could devote all my time maybe.

I've heard of a bluetooth system, but the site referred has long died.

Reason I asked about phase difference is that one of the groups are working on that. The other methods are video tracking (v difficult and prone to error so far as i've been shown the system) and then a variety of just ultrasonic and ir systems.

The phase difference one sounds the one I'd want, but yet to find the information I want. Thank god I have several hours right now to be researching ahead of my team meeting.

PS> I'm group leader, that's why I'm having to do this ahead of the idiots that have failed to do it.

>>129357
Another sherlock moment. That is the inspiration for this project.

>>129357
Full pic.

might i suggest some kind of magnet/ proximity detector, would be passive for you, just slap the sensor in the bag, microcontroller to calculate path, maybe with some cheap sharp ir or ultrasonic collision detection, and a servo on the rolley wheels and tada, assuming its more like a regular piece of luggage, just with bigger,powered wheels

You could try something like this.
http://inventorspot.com/articles/shadow_caddy_automated_golf_caddy_system_27197

>>129599
The plus of that is clean and pressed underwear wherever you are.

RFID Chip hooked up to a localized GPS. You can alter the proximity values to have a variable range or whatever you like.

RFID chips are cheap as fuck, GPS systems are not unless you manage to script your own (which wouldn't be too difficult seeming as though the range needed would be small).

You would have to consider things like collision detection and a bunch of other variables however, I don't know how complex you want to make it, what skills you have etc.

I've been into robotics for over 10 years, and I'm telling you this is definitely your only feasable answer, it's just a matter of making it work.

sonar will track the nearest object
i'd use gps with laser range finder and some computer vision like Stanford did on their autonomous car for longer distances path finding... but thats just me

Bluetooth? I'm sure there'd be a way of getting it to follow a user's phone.

Nothing involving kinect. It would just get confused when there were shit loads of people around.

So yeh, bluetooth. Stick a Rasberry Pi on the luggage somewhere, or something similar with an ARM processor.

>>129609
That's pretty much exactly what we want!

Any more info on this? The site won't load for me!

>>129615
Localised GPS? GPS won't work indoors. Not sure if you mean something by the localised.

>>129627
The best system in certain situation, but not this one. GPS doesn't work indoors. Computer Vision is difficult to implement.

>>129640
Bluetooth how?
Rasberry Pi, not out yet :(

>>129656
How about a mini-ITX based computer? Sure, the form factor isn't as small as a raspberry pi, and the processing power is definitely overkill, but you could get better/faster response.

> If anyone could at least hint at which general idea would work, so I don't spend time researching something that won't work, that's all I'm looking for please.

well, one idea that works for sure is the Roomba. it uses a simple system using 2 infrared LEDs separated by a black bar on the charging unit, and an IR receiver on the remote robot. it essentially steers for the best reception from both LEDs. works very well, and is accurate to within a few mm.

>>129022
User: carry a high intensity IR led.
bag: webcam with IR filter, always try to keep IR source in middle of screen(that is, homing on you).
Ultrasonic rangefinder on bag too for distance measurement.

You could blink the LED 3 times a second and have the bag only home in on such signals. Or you might have it ride off into the sunset contrary to your wishes.

>>129717
Overkill processing power means more battery power required. We need to keep the whole system only 8kg.

>>129778
Projects onto the ceiling?

>>129780
Video processing will be quite difficult I'd have thought?
Could have a look at doing just an optical sensor that reads off the values in a serial form.
I have access to a simple form of chip that can be tested with. Hmmm....

>>129921
>Video processing will be quite difficult I'd have thought?
There's a "nootropic" arduino shield that allows you to grab frames from component video camera output and do basic processing of them, you can't use a webcam in that case however.
They have an example that outlines a bright spot, remaking it to some motor control shouldn't be too hard.

You could of course just use a grid of IR photodetector/recivers instead.

>>129921
>Overkill processing power means more battery power required. We need to keep the whole system only 8kg.

If you're going to have a motor and battery to move a heavy piece of luggage then you could probably run a mini-itx computer without adding much more battery requirement. 8kg should be pretty easy unless you're planning on having lead blocks in the luggage, a ½kg motor is a very strong one, a ½ kg Li-Poly is a fuckton of power(with a peak draw of 500W or more being common). My advice would be a Mini-ITX with the HDMI-out exposed under a plastic flap, along with an optical drive and a 5" LCD for usage as a mobile media station!

>>129941
>You could of course just use a grid of IR photodetector/recivers instead.

Ordered 4 receivers/emitters today to test out. Going to be a lot of work going in soon.

Will take a look at the shield though, thanks.

>>129947
Addition:
Li-Polys may be required to take as cabin luggage when flying, as they can/will catch fire if damaged and it would be a pretty shitty situation if that happened where no one can reach it mid-flight. I think the same goes for all batteries over a certain rating. Ensure removability if you ever think of a commercial model.

>>129950
We ordered 4500mAh NiMH batteries today. Tough to test if it'll be enough without everything else though.

LiPo is actually banned on British Airways flights, but not on FCC. But we've decided to just stick so that it can be used on all flights.

It'll be a checked in luggage, so when it's checked in, we'll make sure to stop it activating early.

The Wii remote contains a camera to track the position of the "sensor bar", which is just a few IR LEDs spaced a few centimeters apart.
+ Cheap
+ easily available
+ proven to work
+ lots of reference hacks
+ low power consumption
+ free accelleration sensor
- kinda directional
- clunky beacon

>>129962
>Kinda directional
That's the point isn't it?!
>Clunky Beacon
Don't understand. If you mean physical size, it's not really an issue.

Think the trouble is that it works via bluetooth right to relay information back. Though I guess this won't be needed in this case actually....Hmm...maybe.

Eh? All these solutions seem complex.
> Put a RF reciever at each corner
> When the pulse is recieved use the difference in time received to triangulate the person's position
> Move towards that position
If you have the processing power you can implement a particle AI or something, otherwise it is enough just to move towards them.

>>130074
That's the current idea. Only using two aerials though.

Is it possible to get receiver modules with multiple aerial channels? So we'd have 4 aerials, interpreted by 1 module?

>>129022
Do you know why using radio didn't work? If it's that the luggage can't tell the beacon from other noise sources, some kind of ID system would make sense. If it's that the timing difference was too small, maybe use either infrasound of ultrasound, since the speed of sound is lower. Or actually, using both could at least give distance by comparing how long it takes to receive the radio signal versus the audio one. If it sometimes goes directly away instead of towards, you should probably get a third receiver for actual triangulation.

>>129022
Why have any complicated wireless system at all? Why not have a thin but strong cable that when you pull on it with enough pressure, it causes the luggage to move?

> if it's that the timing difference was too small

RF definitely will not work because of this. RF waves travel 1 meter in 3.3 nanoseconds. you need extremely high speed electronics to capture a difference between say 3.3 and 3.4 nsec. RF also bounces off of things like walls, and there's no way to tell whether you're getting an echo or a direct wave. all in all, RF is doomed to failure.

OP asked if the Roomba bounces light off the ceiling. nope, it's 2 horizontal beams about 3 inches off the floor. the robot spins around until it catches the beams from the charger, then moves toward them, adjusting the direction so both beams are equally strong. this way, it hits the charging pads dead on, and stops. Roomba has a number of patents, see end of this page for a list, to see if navigation is there: http://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-roomba-works.html

Great concept, but if you try to use it as luggage the maniacs at TSA will see all the gizmos wired into it, detonate your stuff first and ask questions later.

>>129022
I'm not really the right person to answer this, but I had an idea of something that could potentionally work, however it's not ideal, or maybe it is depending on how you look at it.

My idea consists of a computer system on board the luggage with a GPS device and software, and then the person with another gps device.

The idea is that as the person moves, it plots a path, then would have to be synced with the luggage and have it follow the plotted path.

Then there is also the fact that if the luggage had an inboard computer and gps, you could also plot out paths for it to go on its own, meaning you wouldn't have to "show it where to go" it would just go there.

Pros:
•The ability to preset paths
•the ability to track and locate your luggage if it is lost or stolen

Cons:
•Complicated system (Expensive, highly energy consuming, and complicated to engineer)
•Has too low accuracy (2.5m)
•Has dead spots (Where buildings/other objects block out the satellite connection)

Hey mate I'm >>129609
I have no idea how it works your OP just reminded me of the golf caddy.

This is how its explained on the website:
How does a machine follow its master? The Shadow Caddy's operation is actually quite simple. The golfer wears a belt that transmits a radio signal. The Caddy receives the signal and follows it around, toting clubs and any other golfing necesseties along on the course. It is even designed to hold your drinks. Hit the "Park" button when you reach your destination and the Caddy will stop. Simply strap on your belt and forget all about it, your clubs will be right behind you. Don't worry about it running anyone over or crashing into a rock because it includes a "sophisticated object detection system" designed to prevent such accidents.

Use a tow line, but y it off to a pair of servo testers that spring return to midpoint to control your drive motors. If it's differential drive (one motor each side) you can put the testers side by side and have inherent steering: by pulling string to one side, string pulls harder on the controller outside the turn, causing the motor on the outside of the turn to spin faster and veering toward the inside of the turn. I'm not sure if this is easy to understand, I am on two robotics teams so I throw these terms around like nothing.
what you'll need:
-string
-2x servo tester
-2x arms to glue to servo tester dials, string
-2 or 4x spring/rubberband to return servo testers to center
-2x R/C motor controller (or one dual motor controller) --pwm/servo input
-2x drive gearmotors/wheels
1x battery (at voltage appropriate for motors, controllers)
you may also need a battery eliminator circuit to power your servo testers if they run at a lower voltage than your motors.

good luck, hope this helps!

>>130570
Are you saying use a piece of string as steering?

Seriously?

>>130524
Yeah, read that, but can't find anything detailed on the RF system. Also the actual website for it won't load for me.

>>130291
GPS doesn't work indoors.

>>129300
Couldn't you make a program for phones that uses the phone's accelerometer and compass(GPS optional)to trace a track in a blank "map" which will be transmitted to the luggage cart by means of wifi or bluetooth and which it will follow?