Time to look at the ESP32-CAM to create a Software Defined Block solution again. This time I can use it at home first, then apply to Randall.

This was the rationale behind the ESP32-CAM Grade Crossing controller.

Coding the ESP32 as I wanted in C++ was a bit of PITA and thus I started looking at alternatives, namely Rust would seem appropriate for that task. There’s now more embedded Rust for ESP32 than 2 years ago so that’s good.

OTOH a goal would be to use OpenCV and I don’t think there’s a good solution there. Preliminary research shows either OpenCV-for-Rust /or/ OpenCV-for-ESP32, but not sure there are libs for OpenCV-for-Rust-for-ESP32 yet.

Also to be honest, I’m not a big fan of Rust. I’m not super familiar with Rust so that may cause more problems than it would solve. “What would I expect from Rust” is the essential question. The answer is clear pointers/memory ownership especially in the context of multi-threading. From my cursory trying of Rust, it does solve the problem of “clarifying” at compile phase that memory management is sound. The syntax is a pile of crap, though.