A Face Tracking Cheeseball Launcher Is a Couch Potato's Dream Device
A Raspberry Pi and OpenCV are used to aim the cheeseballs.
Let’s just say you’re lying on the couch and want a snack. Adam of element14 Presents was in this not-too-uncommon position recently, and rather than simply getting up to see what treats were available in the kitchen, he decided to take things further. Much further in fact, as he instead designed a face tracking cheeseball launcher to fling these nominally dairy flavored orbs at his mouth.
As outlined in the build video below, Adam employed a spinning cylinder setup similar to what you might see at a batting cage to fling cheeseballs. A number of cheeseballs are stacked into a cylinder, then pushed out one-by-one via a servo motor and linkage assembly, and flung forward into the air. The launch apparatus is set up in a moveable turret arrangement, featuring two steppers to adjust the pitch along with a third stepper that allows it to pan left and right.
A webcam is configured to move with the launcher, sending images to a Raspberry Pi 4 running an OpenCV face tracking routine. The turret adjusts launch angles as needed, attempting to aim a cheeseball close enough to one’s mouth for a catch. An ultrasonic sensor is also implemented for distance measurement, enabling it to adjust the launch angle to match up with how far away the target is.