Subject tracking

This guy built his own AI-powered robot camera operator to follow him around and you can too

Dec 19, 2022 by John Aldred Add Comment

James Bruton is one of the biggest names in robotics on YouTube. He’s made all kinds of crazy contraptions and robots that work on a seemingly endless number of mechanical and physics principles – not to mention a lot of electronics wizardry. In this video, he takes a look at the one problem that plagues YouTubers shooting videos on their own. Eliminating boring static camera shots.

So, he made a robot with a camera to move and follow the subject. Given James’ history, though, he doesn’t just stick a camera on a gimbal and use the app to track a subject like most of us might. Oh no, he builds one with a full AI vision system that’s on wheels. It can literally follow you around. It doesn’t just turn to look towards you from a fixed position. Is it overkill? Absolutely. Is it really freaking cool, though? You bet!

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AI camera thinks bald referee’s head is a soccer ball

Nov 3, 2020 by Dunja Djudjic 4 Comments

AI is undoubtedly getting better and better. But sometimes, even though it’s artificial intelligence, it just acts plain dumb. This is what happened at a recent soccer game in Scotland. Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. equipped its stadium with a ball-tracking AI-powered camera to stream the games. However, instead of tracking the ball, the camera would often switch its focus to a referee’s bald head.

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The Obsbot Tail uses an AI powered camera to produce perfect selfie videos

Jan 9, 2019 by John Aldred 1 Comment

The concept of a camera that can follow a subject all by itself isn’t a new idea. Well, I say all by “itself”, the camera was usually paired with some kind of “homing device” on the wearer to tell the camera in which direction to point. But the Obsbot Tail needs no homing device. It uses AI tracking to follow a subject automatically, even if visual line of sight is broken.

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These MIT cinematography drones get the perfect shot every time

May 22, 2017 by John Aldred Add Comment

Drone technology has come on so quickly in such a short space of time. Especially the camera technology. I’m not just talking about the quality of the optics and sensors, either. The “brains” behind the visual systems in drones now is just nuts. Even modest consumer drones have facial recognition, subject tracking, and similar features. All these features and help us to achieve the best shot possible.

A team of research from MIT and ETH Zurich have now taken things way beyond that which is currently available to the masses. Building on the basic visual systems, theirs actually allows you to determine where in the frame the subject is positioned. It also lets you choose the camera angle. If you want full frontal, you got it. 3/4 left or right? No problem, it’s just the flick of a menu item.

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