I know it won’t win me a camera, but the first job is a self-portrait of the RPi, is traditional is it not (although the Mars landscape in the background may be simulated…by Issue 6 of the MagPi).

I would love to see it tested for astronomy pictures, and some high-res/high-speed stills/video.

Entry sent, although I know that the community here will come up with some much more amazing ideas than mine!

who was the guy who did the bird photo thingy? he might be a good bet for testing waterproofness :)

Could you add a link to the camera’s specification – things like expected frame rate at each resolution, and some indication of sensitivity and noise would be great. That would help us tell if some ideas would be feasible or not. Thanks!

How about Pi in the Sky Mk. II – using the camera board rather than a webcam.
Can it generate decent images 40 km above ground? :)

(And no, I don’t have the money or resources to do it, but if someone could, that would be cool!)

Any word on when it will be released?

Will I ever be able to post on here.

There is one application especially worth checking – Eulerian Video Magnification http://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/vidmag/ Maybe RPi could be used as cheap baby breathing monitor.

Hmm, I have an equatorial mount reflector telescope and a lens adapter.

Just have to mod up an arduino to drive it. I haven’t got all the parts yet for the arduino, so if a rapid return on results isn’t needed, I’d say send me a camera.

Any idea yet what the cameras would be selling for?

I’m going to put it on wheels and equip it with a sandwich. And I don’t mean just any wheels, I mean BIG wheels – all-terrain, mud and snow, stud-equipped, rock-and-cliff-climbing kindsa wheels. And I don’t mean just any sandwich, I mean the Earl of Sandwich kind. And no, there will be NO Grey Poop-on musturd involved, it will be a rightly condiment on the order of Colman’s Original English Prepared Mustard.

Then, we send it into space, and I don’t mean near-space on a foofy balloon, I mean orbital space, as in to the International Space Station … or perhaps interplanetary space, such as to Mars (but, that’s going to take about five more years since we missed the launch of Curiosity a couple of years ago). You have no idea what kinds of opportunities there are to stash things in equipment being prepared at our local NASA Ames Research Cent(er/re) here in SillyCon Valley (where technology for the Mars rovers was originally designed, along with testing of rover parachutes in the wind tunnels, and off-Earth exobiology research is done, among many other things). I highly recommend getting your very own NASA research cent(er/re) in your own back yard – it’s lottsa fun, even if Google is buying and hiding most of it (they currently rent a NASA hangar for their 757, 767, and all of their private aircraft, and are paying to detoxify historic Hangar One, the dirigible hangar built in 1933, where everything will move to in a year or three).

If any of the IMF team are caught or killed, The Secretary will disavow any knowledge of our actions. Good luck, Jim. This message will self-destruct in five seconds … hey, this thing’s on FIRE!!! :o

Urine testing http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21586082 (a good way of testing the colour sensitivity) but my idea is to do away with the testing strip and just have a multi-coloured checkered card behind the sample, and depending what colours changed and by how much determins what the person may have wrong with them… or I can just beg for a kit from India. ;)

I had a linux-based webserver take picture of my living room every 5 minutes for whole 2010. I have soooo many pictures. I even made time-lapse videos of them.

This is very demanding on your media (lots of small writes) and I recommend you make a script that compares images and only does something, when image changes.

The easiest way is to:
1) Take a pic
2) Wait x seconds
3) Take another pic
4) Run ImageMagick diff on the images

What I did next, was to use text-to-speech synthesis to say random anecdotes everytime images changed. The state of text-to-speech was far worse on Linux in 2010 than it was with Macs. My friends could barely make out, what computer was saying. Besides, hearing computer speak every 5min gets tedious after a while :)

—

I am going to use mine for home surveillance, when I eventually buy mine. Just make an Android app that takes pictures on demand. IF Pi had more memory, you could cache whole day’s worth of pictures in the RAM and compile a time-lapse at midnight.

It should be mentioned that the currently software interface is not integrated into any standard linux system…

i.e. no OpenCV or V4L2 drivers

Basically its more like the OpenMaxIL interface of the video (although we use something we know as MMAL the MultiMedia Adaptation Layer) so for those of you interested in doing something using OpenCV then that’s not going to fly…

Whereas if someone knew V4L2 drivers and knew our OpenMaxIL / MMAL interface and would like to make something then that would be interesting…

Gordon

Eye tracking for scrolling through web pages, writing etc.

hi i have gotten into rc airplanes and have been looking for a camera thet i can use with a mobil phone for flight data and for remote controle functions to maintain flight pathe and altitude. the systems now on the market are limited as to distance and with phone towers everywhere it seems this would be a cost efective way for 2way comuinacation.

I would enter this idea into the contest as it is a research interest of mine, however, I am certain I won’t have enough free time in the near future to actually implement it in any timely fashion.

I think turning the RPi into a wearable structure from motion device would be really cool. Calculating camera position through feature tracking and generating a 3-d representation of your surroundings. Sort of like the Google street-view cars, but for hallways. It would be really computationally expensive, I’m unsure of how much of the processing the RPi could actually handle, but it would be really neat.

Hi.
I plan to stalk around my neighbors. Does this apply?

iwillbuyacamera@raspberrypi.org when they are available. Seems a lot easier to spend £30.
haha

Entry sent from out here in California. Thanks for the offer and consideration!!

Now that the boards are off to production, could someone post a few photos that would allow us to SEE rather than read what the photos will be like.

A photo of a face, and a photo of either a page of text or a printer test sheet would be ideal.

Thanks.

Geez, you actually reply to these things quickly (or tickety-boo, if that’s your preference).

Thanks a million for everything all of you have done and are doing. It is both highly appreciated and highly inspirational.

Entry Submitted, good luck to everyone!

Have submitted an idea for someone else to do (i’m not skilled enough!)
It’s a pi-based version of a commercial product – perhaps significantly cheaper & a potential life-saver.
It’s really good news about the camera module – well done everyone!

Sent! These boards look great!

My idea involves calculating the air speed velocity of a couple of swallows…

I like the idea of a home security system that can recognize who is at the front door, or perhaps also various places inside the house. It could have many uses (“Jimmy, you have now watched five hours of TV so far this week…”) I don’t know much about the state of face recognition algorithms, vs. the R-Pi’s cpu power. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to pursue this idea at the moment myself. 3D motion capture is another area which I think benefits from lots of cheap cameras.

hi,are schools allowed to take part?
(i might get my school to do so)

for some reason its refusing to let me post today, i have emailed the email address, but forgot to add my address as i went into a daydream of ideas which are flowering.

Hi i have started work on a project of mine that involves using a PI as part of a suit with sensors that i can then use to add realism to a game. even thou this is an unnecessary add on it but the way i see it it can send me the crucial processed information directly to the server PC instead of having that main PC doing all the work. Even though this is unnecessary it will leave a PI in charge of a suit, therefore making it easier to maintain issues with each suit. My main reason is that I intend to get overboard complicated with this idea and I am putting the PI as a precautionary measure just in case i need it at some point. Any ideas will help allot thanks.
is there anyway to use them with a battery, is there anyway to use them as an intercom and can they run some sort of wireless data sending device through the Ethernet ports.
(at the current moment i am trying to get hold of a PI and I am finding it hard as I am in South Africa and most people aren’t even aware the PIs exist.

I am running a 24/7/365 meteor radio reflection monitoring station, part of the RMOB network (www.rmob.org). Currently using a x86 laptop, but developing the software for Pi.
It would be nice to complement the radio setup with an optical setup that works at night. Although the low-light performance of the camera is probably poor, the low cost and low power are very attractive. Makes for a nice science project for a school.

I’d like one to be able to recognise the image of a feline crouching in my vegetable plot and to trigger a water pistol to dampen its enthusiasm. Then maybe I’ll be able to cultivate food crops eaten raw, like salad.

Ever since the first news of a Pi-camera was announced, i have been thinking of this application: point the camera towards our (any) cherry tree; as soon as a bird flies into the tree to steal some cherries (and we have a lot of daring birds in our neighbourhood) the pi has to react with rock music, the sound of a sparrowhawk, kids shouting or whatever is most effective in scaring the bird away.

If you have an idea of the price of a large size decent quality bird’s net you’ll understand that this solution is probably cheaper than throwing a net over your tree, especially for large trees!

Hat Cam

“or hooking two of them up together and modging the images together to create some 3d output”

That would *have* to be called Pi-nect ;-)

Super easy selection process…
Give them all to V4L2 driver developers so the rest of us can play with Motion, OpenCV and touch-screen table interface software after they are done.

My nephew has vision problems. The shape of his eyes are distorted. So he wears glass contacts that physically reshape his eye. They cost $250 a pop. When he sneezes the pressure in his eye causes the lens to pop out. He is then effectively blind beyond a few inches from his face, so often cannot find the lens. He can however read the screen of his mobile phone when placed and inch or so from his face. I have been wondering if a small display right in front of one eye, a small wearable camera and some image/video stream manipulation to correct or adjust the image to suit the defects in his eye might not make his vision/life a little better. The raspi, the camera opencv and a small oled display my not be a worth while project.

Google has been fantastic to the Foundation.
If your nephews condition isn’t the best application I have heard of for Google Glass, I don’t know what is.

Yeah, I know about google glass, pretty cool. We seem to be in the age of the possible. People can now design and print their own prosthetics, use kinect to augment awareness for the blind. All sorts of possibilities and this doesn’t even need direct work by big corprorate bust just people in their home/backyard with an idea.

Are the camera boards being assembled by Sony in Wales too?

The main idea for the camera would be to use it for motion detection integrated with an alarm system.
But the plus would to use it also as safety device for people with continous need of assistence (older people, maybe with limited movement capabilities), integrated with a automatic monitoring system (I am thinking of some form of “I am in danger!” or “I do need help!” message trigger with body language).
Obviously it would depend on the tech capabilities of the cam, but anyhow it would be a good starting point for experiencing and developing the system.

Donate a model A and camera board to SpaceX ask them, nicely, to send it up to ISS on next flight. Then they can use it to film out of the Cupola window of our “little blue dot”…..

Looks like im out of the runnign for one i’m still a noob so wouldnt be able to mach some of the great ideas above

i hope enough are being manufactured that everyone can buy first release cameras

Thanks guys for all the great work

I know i wont win one but I still want one!

I would like to try to use a pi and camera to use with a microscope. The pi could drive the slide stage, focus controls and magnification changes through a series of stepper motors. The camera could be attached to an eye piece and allow for digital images to be captured. With a bitor software the system could be used.to identify cell types.there are already systems that do this but they are big and cost thousands of pounds.

Airbag inflator for stairs

Imagine a RasPi with camera trained on a flight of stairs where there might be vulnerable people around – the elderly or infirm or those in police custody. If the RasPi with camera can detect a human being with flailing limbs and travelling downwards at unexpectedly high speed with abnormal or zero contact with the stairs, it could inflate an airbag at the bottom to break their fall.

The processing is needed to distinguish between a person and inanimate objects such as dirty laundry or a pack of toilet rolls.

Life saver!

Entry sent from Philippines 8-)

If the camera can view IR ( as most cameras can) i would like this to be a early fire detection device. Baked Pi

i must admit

i have been meaning to do this for years and its more practical then fun or observation

i wanted to setup a telescope to sight the moon and to monitor its Phase as its very hard to tell by eye what is lunar calender is

so now im thinking maybe i can look into this a bit deeper and setup a pi camera rigged telescope to motitor the moon 24-7 and then i can look back at the footage and keep track of dates

If you was to do a google search today and ask for the lunar date of any certain date you will find that different websites will give a day or 2 difference

so i will be getting it logged with as best as accuracy as i can

WISH ME LUCK — LOL

i wonder if i opt for a depth perception use i can get 2 camras for my prize?

Will it be possible to externally trigger the camera by means of the GPIO? being able to sync the capture with external devices would open a lot of possibilities.

This brilliant piece of vision processing software certainly gets my vote for a free camera.
No shipping cost from Cambridge needed!

http://remotepresence.org/?p=126

Entry submitted!
No OpenCV is a bit of a let-down though. But OpenMaxIL / MMAL make sense coz now we have better GPU integration since the graphics stack got open-sourced some time back.
In my case; I’ll have to re-write the imaging module code. A bit of a drag; but paying nonetheless.

I’m interesting to test my Netduino Go, pic168887and PIC32MX7, Raspberry Pi.
Hopefully, I cannot win this(camera board).

Supra

Connect a lot of cameras and make a “real 3d” models for less money. (sorry my english ejejeje)

My possible project is doing edge detection – used for robotics and checking product position on production lines. And I would really fancy using it with a turn table to create 3d models of objects.
Both of these require some serious coding, but they have been done with other computers so why not the Pi (or maybe Pi’s) ?

If it can do face recognition, and you don’t program it up to announce “GORDON’S ARRIVED!!!” every time he enters the office, YOU’RE JUST NOT TRYING.

I would make a motion sensor to turn off lights and power points in my room after about 30 seconds of me leaving the room and then turn everything back on once I walk back in :D

What I would do with a raspberry camera?

I have a lot of music in digital format. I would like, when friends come to visit me, to handle them a deck of cards with printout of the albums and some info on it. Once they choose their preferred music they should handle the card on a “music cube interface device” to make the music start to play.

And guess it. In the box there will be just a raspberry, an hard drive* and a camera.

*optional with network connection.

i was wondering if all applications would get a response; even those that don’t make it?

I am getting the following error when I try to send! Help??

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

iwantacamera@raspberrypi.org

Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the server for the recipient domain raspberrypi.org by mx1.mythic-beasts.com. [93.93.131.52].

The error that the other server returned was:
550 Previous (cached) callout verification failure

Thanks for this great opportunity–the e-mail address has been bouncing back my messages, though; is it too late to enter?

My mail was bounced back.

Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the server for the recipient domain raspberrypi.org by mx1.mythic-beasts.com. [93.93.131.52].

The error that the other server returned was:
550 Previous (cached) callout verification failure

Liz when the results are due and what is the expected date of shipment.

I guess since the email address is not working now, the contest is closed? Looks like I missed it by a day…

Oh damn it ! I missed the day. I hope we can buy it very very soon =)

You guys wouldn’t sell a few early would you guys? I submitted an entry for the camera so I can use it in my Computer Vision project, but doubt I’d win it. Any possibility in getting it at the end of this month, very early April with a good supply?

This module would be perfect for the bot a friend and I are developing with hopes of someday selling to the military :)