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Winter Hibernation

A project log for Bicycle Dashcam

Bicycle Dashcam with License Plate Recognition (ALPR)

richard-audetteRichard Audette 11/23/2019 at 22:500 Comments

We had an early snowfall here in Toronto, and I've put my bike into storage for the winter.  I have given some thought about next steps though.  

First, I found a really easy way to implement a display.  I came across this article about a Vancouver cyclist who tries to "beat" the packed buses on along West Broadway with a display-equipped Pix Backpack.  This backpack might be the quickest way to to implement a display.

Second, I started thinking about cameras.  Looking at the footage from Cycliq cycling cameras, its definitely possible to get steady footage on a bicycle.  I explored modules and spec sheets for various modules from Arducam and camera-modules.com - anything "fast" enough should take a suitable shot.  And a co-worker suggested just using a GoPro, but the challenge is, how do you pull the image off to process it as you're riding?  Reading various action camera reviews, I came across Yi Action cameras.  Although none of the libraries seem to be current, they've made SDKs available to interface with their cameras: https://github.com/YITechnology/YIOpenAPI

I've reviewed the footage on Youtube from Yi cameras mounted to bicycles - it looks pretty good.  I'll probably pursue this route. 

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