Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Cloud Robot

I was reading about cloud computing.
So here's an idea:
A robot relying on vision can upload its real-time sensor input to the cloud.
The cloud can extract whatever it likes and present it to humans.
But the cloud will also do all the image processing and download the result (?) back to the robot.
The result could be motor instructions or descriptors for the robot to work with.
So that the robot itself doesn't need a high-powered processor.
All that's needed is real fast wireless link:
640*480*4*60=73,728,000 bytes/sec!
(640x480 pixels, each 4 bytes (RGBI) @ 60 frames/sec)
You could strip that down to 3 bytes/pixel @ 30 frames/sec 640*480*3*30=27,648,000 bytes/sec
OK, 320x240 image = 320*240*3*30=6,912,000 bytes/sec
OK, 256-shade grey scale = 320*240*30=2,304,000 bytes/sec
That's possible!
And that leaves 500 KBs to send stuff back.
Probabaly been done. But maybe not so real time?

2 comments:

Ted said...

Lookit! This guy had the same idea - only two weeks ago.
http://quantombone.blogspot.com/2008/06/computer-vision-summer-internship-at.html

Ted said...

The thing is, at even 640x480, you can hardly detect anything.