CE432 Robotics II   Fall 2021
Tutorial 1: ESP32-CAM Introduccion
Humberto Arredondo
harredondoperez@fortlewis.com

Using ESP32-CAM

1.- Introduction
In this tutorial the students were introduced to the ESP32-CAM module that, as its name says it, it has a camera on it and it also has a microSD card slot. The main two examples the studens exsecuted were to paired up the module to the wi-fi so video streaming and face recognition could be done using Arduino IDE and to blinked and dimmed a LED that is already in the board.

The equipment and materials used for this tutorial was: 2.- Methods and Results

Task 1

For this task, the CameraWebServer was followed. The ESP32-CAM was paired up as seen in Figure 1 to be able to connect to a WI-FI provider so the face recognition could be accomplished.  Also, a IP address was needed to log the right site where the streaming was showing in real time Figure 2. The code provided in the tutorial had to be modified to use face detection and the tap for face detection was activated in Figure 3. Once face recognition was activated (Figure 4), the server showed intruder alert because the face was not in the data base of the server. Figure 5 showed the fram after the new face was added. In Figure 6, the power of recognition can be tested by covering the eyes of the subject.


Figure 1. ESP32_CAM, an External Antenna and power supply using a breadboard.



Figure 2. IP address obtained from the Serial Monitor once the code was loaded to the ESP32-CAM.



Figure 3. Face detection function on.


Figure 4. Intruder Alert showed because the face was not save in the server.




Figure 5. Shows Hello Subject once the face was safe.



Figure 6. The server doen not detect the subject if glasser are being wear.



 Task 2

In this seccion of the tutorial, some examples from the book were followed to asure that there some small things that can be done with this module such as controll the blink of a LED. Figure 7 shows how to blinking light.  Then, the same LED was blinked using a push button (Figure 8), and after the code was changed to make the LED brightness to change (Figure 9).


Figure 7. Blinking a LED using simple commands.



Figure 8. Blinking a LED using pushbutton




Figure 9. Dimming a LED using simple commands.




Discussion:

The main goal of this tutorial was to introduce the students to some aplications for the ESP32-CAM, and show that it can be programmed using Arduino IDE. How to stream real time video, and use the face recognition of this module. Also the skills of soldering, follow schematics and pair modules were used.