In a move consistent with the coalescing of robotics market players, Braintech has released a version of its vision software VOLTS-IQ ™ SDK that is designed to work with Microsoft Robotics Studio.
According to their site,
Braintech specializes in the expert design and integration of artificial intelligence for Vision Guided Robotic (VGR) software and solutions. [Their] applications are used for manufacturing and Internet based support and include quality inspection, process control and complex assembly.
That may be true, but this move to support Microsoft Robotics Studio portends the moving into the service and personal robotics space. Babak Habibi, Braintech’s CTO, states: “We are passionate about our approach to robot vision that is centered on providing actionable information to robots. This contrasts with traditional vision libraries, which provide numerous low level functions but burden the developer with the task of figuring out how to link and configure these functions to produce usable vision information such as an object’s type or position. With the VOLTS-IQ SDK, robotic developers can focus on the evolution of a product or project as opposed to getting bogged down in the details of which edge detection method or image filter to use”. (AMEN BROTHER!)
I viewed a demonstration of the Vi_Tracker software and studied the API. This software is fantastically easy to use. VOLTS-IQ’s compatibility with Microsoft Robotics Studio will open up some interesting doors to the next generation of application developers.
The demonstration video shows a user circumscribing a target object in the video stream and Vi_Tracker instantly following and tracking it. The software does a really good job of keeping up even with partial occlusion. It also maintains the orientation of the target object.
My personal experience with a more arcane method of training vision software affords me the appreciation for VOLTS-IQ’s on-the-fly train-and-track algorithm. Usually, there is a bit of training time that can be expected–sometimes the training takes days and many samples of the object. In this case Vi_Tracker did it instantly.
Now if we could only get Erector (Meccano) to create an API to Spykee! An “open” Spykee with a Microsoft Robotics Studio / Braintech / Skilligent combination would provide for an incredibly robust and inexpensive platform on a standard PC!
This is some cool software I can’t wait to play with.
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