For several years, the idea of video-chatting using graphing calculators and globalCALCnet has been jokingly tossed around on Cemetech. More realistically, ideas about connecting a Game Boy camera to a graphing calculator have been discussed here for at least three years; as early as 2004, the users of United-TI were discussing the feasibility of such a project. In February 2011, Cemetech administrator Merthsoft and I bought Game Boy cameras for such a project, but for over three years, my camera lay unused in my toolbox, disassembled but forgotten. Two weeks ago, a discussion during our weekly Have Calculator, Will Program (HCWP) teleconference led me to pull it out and seriously consider connecting the camera to a calculator.

The recently-published ArTICL Arduino-TI Calculator Linking library made this project quite straightforward by providing an easy way for an Arduino to talk to a calculator. The Game Boy camera requires six digital I/O lines and one analog line, so it could not be connected directly to a calculator, but an Arduino turned out to be a perfect platform to use for controlling the camera. In fact, existing code for interfacing the Game Boy camera's M64282FP image sensor and AVR microcontrollers already existed, and combining this with ArTICL turned out to be the work of a few days. With no additional hardware beyond an Arduino and a Game Boy camera, monochrome or color graphing calculators can now take and display photographs. In fact, because the Arduino pretends to be a calculator (or in some cases a CBL2 device), absolutely no extra software is required on the calculator. To take a picture, you simply use the GetCalc(Pic1) command, and a photograph from the camera will be stored as picture Pic1 on the calculator. You can also read and write the M64282FP's registers as TI lists (arrays), allowing the calculator to adjust parameters like brightness and contrast.

More pictures and documentation about this project can be found at the link below, including the firmware and wiring information to build this project yourself. I challenge you to try building this so you can take your own 128x123 or 64x64-pixel photos with your calculator!

More Information
ArTICam documentation, hardware, and firmware

I still think this is one of the coolest things ever. Smile
I'm waiting for video chats now Very Happy
Calc-based teleconferencing. erm, maybe if the TI had more ports available for hardware, but I feel that it would get centered on the Arduino. thus, wouldn't it be more accurate to say "Arduino-based {insert term here}, TI-Controlled"?

It may be that we are sending a picture from the GBCam to the TI, but an Arduino does pretty much all of the work for us. it may be an amazing feat to get this working, but I am not sure if this qualifies so much of a Calc-hack as just a generic hardware hack.

I do still like this, though. If we were to use a different camera than the GBCam, then what kind of changes would be needed?

Example Camera:
TTL Serial Cam - a bit expensive, but needs only 2 digital lines

And, would it be possible to flip it around and Send your current screen to an LCD connected via such an arduino?
MateoConLechuga wrote:
I still think this is one of the coolest things ever. Smile
Thank you! I do my best to make cool things. Wink
Chauronslilsis wrote:
I'm waiting for video chats now Very Happy
Unfortunately, I still think that's infeasible, as cool as it would be.
Luxen wrote:
Calc-based teleconferencing. erm, maybe if the TI had more ports available for hardware, but I feel that it would get centered on the Arduino. thus, wouldn't it be more accurate to say "Arduino-based {insert term here}, TI-Controlled"?
You're absolutely right about a teleconferencing project; at that point the TI calculator would be more the screen than anything else.

Quote:
It may be that we are sending a picture from the GBCam to the TI, but an Arduino does pretty much all of the work for us. it may be an amazing feat to get this working, but I am not sure if this qualifies so much of a Calc-hack as just a generic hardware hack.
For this particular project (ArTICam), I think the hack is getting the Arduino to pretend to be a calculator with an attached camera, so I still see it as a calculator-centric hack.

Quote:
I do still like this, though. If we were to use a different camera than the GBCam, then what kind of changes would be needed?

Example Camera:
TTL Serial Cam - a bit expensive, but needs only 2 digital lines
The changes would be in (1) the code that sets up the camera when the attached calculator begins the GetCalc(PicX) command and (2) the routine that loads picture data byte-by-byte to send to the calculator. I'd imagine it would be quite doable.

Quote:
And, would it be possible to flip it around and Send your current screen to an LCD connected via such an arduino?
It would indeed be possible. You'd need to have an assembly program on the TI-84+CSE that would read the screen pixel-by-pixel and send it, or you could use Send(PicX) with no extra software.
This is really cool! Someone could totally take this to the next level and create a picture puzzle game. The user could take a photo of something, and game then jumbles up the picture in the form of "puzzle pieces" and you have to put it back together! Smile
JamesV wrote:
This is really cool! Someone could totally take this to the next level and create a picture puzzle game. The user could take a photo of something, and game then jumbles up the picture in the form of "puzzle pieces" and you have to put it back together! Smile


That would be pretty neat. Smile
KermMartian wrote:
Luxen wrote:
Calc-based teleconferencing. erm, maybe if the TI had more ports available for hardware, but I feel that it would get centered on the Arduino. thus, wouldn't it be more accurate to say "Arduino-based {insert term here}, TI-Controlled"?
You're absolutely right about a teleconferencing project; at that point the TI calculator would be more the screen than anything else.


Sorta-like the PLT? If that wasn't discontinued, it sure would have been quite a powerful platform and would be feasible on that.
  
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