Body: <p>I am planning to build an autonomous car in LEGO Mindstorms that will use ultrasonic or infrared sensors for collision avoidance and in the future also a camera for line tracking. I am now wondering which camera I should use. Currently, I am considering the following two cameras:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p><a href="http://cmucam.org/projects/cmucam5/wiki/LEGO_Wiki" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The Pixy LEGO Camera</a><br>
  It seems to be quite good for object tracking, however, I am not sure whether it will work well for line tracking.</p></li>
  <li><p><a href="http://www.mindsensors.com/ev3-and-nxt/14-vision-subsystem-camera-for-nxt-or-ev3-nxtcam-v4?module=pagemaster&amp;PAGE_user_op=view_page&amp;PAGE_id=78" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The NXTCam-v4</a><br>
  Judging from the videos on <a href="http://www.mindsensors.com/ev3-and-nxt/14-vision-subsystem-camera-for-nxt-or-ev3-nxtcam-v4?module=pagemaster&amp;PAGE_user_op=view_page&amp;PAGE_id=78" rel="nofollow noreferrer">3</a> line tracking should work quite well with this camera.</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>I am leaning towards the NXTCam but I wanted to get some other opinions before investing money ;) Therefore, your view on things is greatly appreciated, especially regarding which camera is best for lane tracking and which camera has a good API to use it with a different programming language than the LEGO building blocks (so for example to leJOS, RobotC, ...). Thank you!</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-05-01T23:48:52.893Z
Comments.Text: FYI, there is such a thing as PixyCam2 which has some improvements from the old one, and it supports line-tracking. Never heard of NXTcam though.
Comments.UserDisplayName: mindstormsboi
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-10-16T12:38:16.413Z
Comments.Text: I've not used either, but judging from the docs for the Pixy cam, it's more for "trained object recognition" - so if you're avoiding known objects you might be ok, but otherwise it might not be great. That said, the original Mindstorms used the colour/light sensor to do line tracking and path following - assuming a track on the ground with sufficient contrast was available.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Zhaph - Ben Duguid
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-10-16T12:57:27.420Z
Comments.Text: There is now a NXTCam-v5 which, as far as I can tell, can do everything the PixyCam can do and more.
Comments.UserDisplayName: David Lechner
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-10-16T13:43:27.103Z
Comments.Text: @Zhaph-BenDuguid Yes, I know that you can use colour/light sensors for line tracking. However, I am aiming for a more realistic autonomous car hence line tracking should be achieved via a camera. Thanks for the comment anyway!
Comments.UserDisplayName: ec-m
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-10-16T13:46:12.340Z
Comments.Text: @DavidLechner Alright, that is good to know. There is also an EV3-G building block for the NXTCam - would you use that one or would you recommend switching to a different programming language for accurate line tracking (f.ex. leJOS with OpenCV)? (see https://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/9295/lego-mindstorms-ev3-programming-language-recommendation)
Comments.UserDisplayName: ec-m
Tags: <ev3><mindstorms><ev3-g>
Title: LEGO Mindstorms EV3: Camera recommendation for line tracking
UserDisplayName: ec-m
ThreadText: # LEGO Mindstorms EV3: Camera recommendation for line tracking
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2017-10-16)
  
  I am planning to build an autonomous car in LEGO Mindstorms that will use ultrasonic or infrared sensors for collision avoidance and in the future also a camera for line tracking. I am now wondering which camera I should use. Currently, I am considering the following two cameras:
  
  1. [The Pixy LEGO Camera](http://cmucam.org/projects/cmucam5/wiki/LEGO_Wiki)  
     It seems to be quite good for object tracking, however, I am not sure whether it will work well for line tracking.
  2. [The NXTCam-v4](http://www.mindsensors.com/ev3-and-nxt/14-vision-subsystem-camera-for-nxt-or-ev3-nxtcam-v4?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=78)  
     Judging from the videos on [3](http://www.mindsensors.com/ev3-and-nxt/14-vision-subsystem-camera-for-nxt-or-ev3-nxtcam-v4?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=78) line tracking should work quite well with this camera.
  
  I am leaning towards the NXTCam but I wanted to get some other opinions before investing money ;) Therefore, your view on things is greatly appreciated, especially regarding which camera is best for lane tracking and which camera has a good API to use it with a different programming language than the LEGO building blocks (so for example to leJOS, RobotC, ...). Thank you!
  
  **Tags:** ev3, mindstorms, ev3-g
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_2**: I've not used either, but judging from the docs for the Pixy cam, it's more for "trained object recognition" - so if you're avoiding known objects you might be ok, but otherwise it might not be great. That said, the original Mindstorms used the colour/light sensor to do line tracking and path following - assuming a track on the ground with sufficient contrast was available.  
  > **username_3**: There is now a NXTCam-v5 which, as far as I can tell, can do everything the PixyCam can do and more.  
  > **username_0**: @username_2-BenDuguid Yes, I know that you can use colour/light sensors for line tracking. However, I am aiming for a more realistic autonomous car hence line tracking should be achieved via a camera. Thanks for the comment anyway!  
  > **username_0**: @username_3 Alright, that is good to know. There is also an EV3-G building block for the NXTCam - would you use that one or would you recommend switching to a different programming language for accurate line tracking (f.ex. leJOS with OpenCV)? (see https://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/9295/lego-mindstorms-ev3-programming-language-recommendation)  
  > **username_1**: FYI, there is such a thing as PixyCam2 which has some improvements from the old one, and it supports line-tracking. Never heard of NXTcam though.  
  
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  ## 0 answers
  
  