In preparation for last Halloween I created a Grid-EYE & Arduino Uno-based prop with the intent of having its eyes follow passing Trick or Treaters. I’m not the first person to do this, but I didn’t have access to their software for guidance.
It worked well enough, though because it tracked the hottest object within its field of view, there were periods when it became unresponsive (e.g. transfixed upon warming or cooling asphalt). I may be able to improve this by narrowing the temperature range used by the tracking code.
While researching the Grid-EYE device (8x8 thermopile array) I found multiple tantalizing descriptions involving the application of pixel interpolation to effectively increase system spacial resolution. While in addition to improving tracking accuracy this might also afford a means to recognize movement (distinquishing humans from background), the stuff I’ve read recommends using a more powerful CPU… like a Raspberry Pi.
I’ve been wanting to understand object-oriented programming - in part so I might better understand C+±like Arduino code syntax but also because it might prove useful in applications such as pixel interpolation. I’m not blessed with an aptitude for programming languages, but I’m willing to work at it
So… I’d need to learn about the Pi, higher-level OOP, and interpolation… all about which I’m currently quite clueless.
A coworker suggested that Python might be an easier path than C++. I know nothing about Python, though my sense is that it’s quite popular.
Any recommendations regarding best path forward would be appreciated.