Buy the OpenMV Cam H7 directly from the great guys at OpenMV

Introduction

The OpenMV Cam by OpenMV LLC is a small, low power, microcontroller board that makes it easy to add machine vision in your real-world applications. You program the OpenMV Cam in high level Python scripts (courtesy of the MicroPython Operating System) instead of C/C++. All the hard work of developing algorithms and handling complex data structures is done for you but you still have total control over your OpenMV Cam and its I/O pins in Python. You can easily trigger taking pictures and video on external events or execute machine vision algorithms to figure out how to control your I/O pins.

Features

• All I/O pins output 3.3V and are 5V tolerant.
• Comes with a 2.8mm lens on a standard M12 lens mount that is easy to swap for other lenses.
• A full speed USB (12Mbs) interface to your computer. Your OpenMV Cam will appear as a Virtual COM Port and a USB Flash Drive when plugged in.
• A micro SD Card socket capable of 100Mbs reads/writes which allows your OpenMV Cam to record video and easy pull machine vision assets off of the micro SD card.
• The SPI bus that can run up to 45Mbs allowing you to easily stream image data off the system to either the LCD Shield, the WiFi Shield, or another microcontroller.
• An I2C Bus, CAN Bus, and an Asynchronous Serial Bus (TX/RX) for interfacing with other microcontrollers and sensors.
• 12-bit ADC and a 12-bit DAC.
• Two I/O pins for servo control.
• Interrupts and PWM on all I/O pins (there are 9 I/O pins on the board).
• And, an RGB LED and two high power 850nm IR LEDs.
• Made in the USA by MacroFab for OpenMV LLC

Choose Classic M4 or New M7

The original Kickstarter version is based on an STM Cortex M4 while the new version is based on a Cortex M7 with almost twice the speed, RAM, and flash.

Applications

The OpenMV Cam can be used for the following things currently (more in the future):

Marker Tracking

You can use your OpenMV Cam to detect groups of colors instead of independent colors. This allows you to create color makers (2 or more color tags) which can be put on objects allowing your OpenMV Cam to understand what the tagged objects are. Video demo here.

Face Detection

You can detect Faces with your OpenMV Cam (or any generic object). Your OpenMV Cam can process Haar Cascades to do generic object detection and comes with a built-in Frontal Face Cascade and Eye Haar Cascade to detect faces and eyes.

Eye Tracking

You can use Eye Tracking with your OpenMV Cam to detect someone's gaze. You can then, for example, use that to control a robot. Eye Tracking detects where the pupil is looking versus detecting if there's an eye in the image.

Optical Flow

You can use Optical Flow to detect translation of what your OpenMV Cam is looking at. For example, you can use Optical Flow on a quad-copter to determine how stable it is in the air.

QR Code Detection/Decoding

You can use the OpenMV Cam to read QR Codes in it's field of view. With QR Code Detection/Decoding you can make smart robots which can read labels in the environment. You can see our video on this feature here.

Edge/Line Detection

You can preform edge detection via either the Canny Edge Detector algorithm or simple high-pass filtering followed by thresholding. After you have a binary image you can then use the Hough Detector to find all the lines in the image. With edge/line detection you can use your OpenMV Cam to easily detect the orientation of objects.

Template Matching

You can use template matching with your OpenMV Cam to detect when a translated pre-saved image is in view. For example, template matching can be used to find fiducials on a PCB or read known digits on a display.

Image Capture

You can use the OpenMV Cam to capture up to 320x240 RGB565 (or 640x480 Grayscale) BMP/JPG/PPM/PGM images. You directly control how images are captured in your Python script. Best of all, you can preform machine vision functions and/or draw on frames before saving them.

Video Recording

You can use the OpenMV Cam to record up to 320x240 RGB565 (or 640x480 Grayscale) MJPEG video or GIF images. You directly control how each frame of video is recorded in your Python script and have total control on how video recording starts and finishes. And, like capturing images, you can preform machine vision functions and/or draw on video frames before saving them.

Data Matrix Detection/Decoding (M7)

The OpenMV Cam M7 can also detect and decode data matrix 2D barcodes too. You can see our video on this feature here.

Linear Barcode Decoding (M7)

The OpenMV Cam M7 can also decode 1D linear bar codes. In particular, it can decode EAN2, EAN5, EAN8, UPCE, ISBN10, UPCA, EAN13, ISBN13, I25, DATABAR, DARABAR_EXP, CODABAR, CODE39, CODE93, and CODE128 barcodes. You can see our video on this feature here.

AprilTag Tracking (M7)

Even better than QR Codes above, the OpenMV Cam M7 can also track AprilTags at 160x120 at up to about 12 FPS. AprilTags are rotation, scale, shear, and lighting invariant state-of-the-art fidicual markers. We have a video on this feature here.

You can mix and match available features in your own custom application along with I/O pin control to talk to the real world.

Pinout

Datasheets

• Processor Datasheet: STM32F427VG (.pdf)
• Reference Manual (.pdf)
• Camera Datasheet: OV7725 (.pdf)
• Regulator Datasheet: BD33IAWEFJ (.pdf)

Physical Measurements

• Weight: 16g
• Length: 45mm
• Width: 36mm
• Height: 30mm

Specifications

Processor

RAM Layout

Supported Image Formats

Note: lower resolutions can be used for increased performance

Lens Info

• Focal Length: 2.8mm
• Aperture: F2.0
• Format: 1/3"
• Angle (Field-of-View): 115°
• Mount: M12*0.5
• IR Cut Filter: 650nm (removable)

Electrical Info

All pins are 5V tolerant with 3.3V output. All pins can sink or source up to 25mA. P6 is not 5V tolerant in ADC or DAC mode. Up to 120mA may be sinked or sourced in total between all pins. VIN may be between 3.6V and 5V. Do not draw more than 250mA from your OpenMV Cam's 3.3V rail.

Power Consumption

Note: All values are mA measured at 3.3V

Temperature Range

• Storage: -40°C to 125°C
• Operating: -20°C to 70°C