Duncan
Good point about the door ... I will get a screen placed in front as a baffle ...
No we don't have an infinite budget, but I will look into an array of smaller lights, rather than a few large ones, to improve uniformity of lighting.
Regards
Tony
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-micromouse@cs.rhul.ac.uk on behalf of Duncan Louttit
Sent: Mon 4/18/2005 7:14 PM
To: micromouse@cs.rhul.ac.uk
Cc:
Subject: Re: MICROMOUSE 2005 LIGHTING
Hi Everyone,
I think the main issue is uniformity of lighting. Many sensor
systems have some kind of calibration to allow for the lighting in the
start square. If the lighting everywhere else is the same it minimises
problems.
Another thing is not the brightness on the maze but the brightness
looking out from the maze area. If the field of view of the sensor looks
over the walls, then a window or other bright spot will cause problems. One
of the competitors last year had problems when the sensor was pointed at
the door as this was much brighter than the rest of the surroundings. In
general, lighting from above causes less problems than lighting from the side.
The type of lighting that will cause most problems depends on the
type of sensor. Incandescent lamps generate more infra-red but the light
has less 50Hz or 100Hz content. Fluorescents are the opposite.
I guess, if you have an infinite budget, a large number of DC
driven LED lamps pointing down onto the maze from a long way up are
probably the best.
Regards,
Duncan
At 14:53 18/04/05, you wrote:
>Hi everyone
>
>I had a few comments last year about lighting of the maze for the competition.
>If we ever achieve the perfect maze, we would simply transfer the
>objections to the lighting source!
>
>However, my aim is to ensure that the lighting for this year meets
>everyone's expectations - an impossible goal, but one to shoot for. There
>is a chance that I can better control the lighting this year by buying
>some specifically for the job.
>
>Is the best lighting fluorescent?
>Does low/high frequency fluorescent make a significant difference?
>Should I go for tri-colour phosphors such as SP65 ( a wild guess) or what?
>
>Is it possible to optimise the lighting?
>Should we even try to optimise the lighting? It does seem strange that the
>rules state all sorts about physical dimensions, limited bits about
>materials, yet nothing about the environment in which the maze sits.
>
>My objectives would be:
>1. To minimise the effect on all (or most) types of optical sensor used
>for micromouse
>2. To maximise the perceived brightness for audience viewing and quality
>video capture
>3. To minimise the chance of variation during the day (either by manual
>intervention or otherwise)
>
>
>While I'm at it, and while we're in planning stages, does anyone have any
>suggestions for this year with regard to any other issues?
>
>Regards
>
>Tony
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