I really like the keyboard idea. Talk about a cheap interface! I would use
two rows of keys with one hooked up to a side array of beam detectors and
the other to an overhead array. Now we have a grid of, say, 144
intersections. I think the input buffer will catch all the keystrokes. With
this little "CAT scan" output, it should be fun to figure out how many fish
are in the beams together!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Wyatt" <awyatt@fewt.com>
To: <slug@nks.net>
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 6:04 PM
Subject: Re: [SLUG] A Challenge....
> On Wed, 2002-12-18 at 16:21, wchast@utilpart.com wrote:
> > This is a little project I am going to try to take on because
> > the cost of a device available commercially is off on another
> > planet.
> >
> > My wife has a live bait business, part of that involves delivering
> > bait fish to bait and tackle shops. She has to count the buggers,
> > and the count always is off regardless of WHO counts them. I started
> > looking around for a fish counting device and found one that uses
> > a optical scanner to count them as they go through a sluice. The optical
> > part uses IR LED's to illuminate, and the detector or scanner uses
> > what appears to be a column of detectors on the other side of the
> > sluice, as a fish goes by it the detectors see the change in IR flux
> > and can detect when one fish is ahead of the tail of the first fish
> > thereby not opening all of the optical path.The fish will be anywhere
> > from 3-6 inches in size.
> >
> > The manufacturer of this device wants more than $5K for it, I suppose
> > that is ok for some government operation that has deep pockets but
> > at $0.25/fish she will have to catch a lot of fish to pay for it, she
> > also has to pay a truck used to deliver them and the guy and boat who
> > actually goes out and catches them.
> >
> > The hardware does not look to be that great a deal. It is probably in
> > the software where the cost is.
> >
> > My idea would be to feed the data from the sensors into the parallel
> > port and read it at a rate such that I get each fish as it goes down
> > the sluice.
> >
> > Now my question is this, do any of you have a idea of where I should
> > start with this one. The hardware is a no brainer, I can get IR sources
> > and detector arrays, I can build the sluice and other material, but I
> > will need to come up with some software that can count the fish as the
> > go in front of the detector. Has anyone done anything similar in terms
> > of software?
> >
>
> Why don't you replace an old keyboard key with the IR source/detector
> and then grab the scancode that gets sent? There has to be a method that
> will not send a keystroke unless the IR is broken. If you can use a
> keycode you can have the software in minutes.
>
>
> --
> Andrew Wyatt <awyatt@fewt.com>
> FEWT Software - http://www.fewt.com
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