News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Throwing and catching an inverted pendulum with quadrocop... by bri3d on Thursday February 21, 2013 @09:35PM (#5262174)
Read the video description: "Thanks to Vicon for the tracking system" - the same system used in this juggling video, as far as I know.

I think all of the KMel Robotics projects (at least all of the ones I've seen on video, like the Bond theme) have used the same basic design, which involves a Vicon system.

Re:Throwing and catching an inverted pendulum with quadrocop... by bigiain on Thursday February 21, 2013 @10:17PM (#5262345)
I wonder how they get it to work in a dark room with some _very_ bright moving lights? IR with really good visible light filters maybe?
Re:Throwing and catching an inverted pendulum with quadrocop... by bri3d on Thursday February 21, 2013 @10:36PM (#5262444)
I think so. Like most motion-capture systems, Vicon systems use high-frequency strobe lights to illuminate markers being tracked. IR strobing is definitely an option for these systems. I, too, am quite impressed that they worked in that situation, as the range on IR strobes is usually much worse than NIR and especially red ones. I suppose with the way the lighting is set up the cameras could have been in relatively close proximity behind the stage.