I wrote Zack Lee and he was helpful in setting me in the right direction for my particular need - he wrote:

"For example, if you open "ofelia/examples/video/asciiVideoExample/asciiVideoExample.lua", in line 51, you can replace the M.draw() function with the following:

function M.draw()
local stepAmount = 20
for i = 0, camWidth-1, stepAmount do
for j = 0, camHeight-1, stepAmount do
local color = vidGrabber:getPixels():getColor(i, j)
color:invert()
ofSetColor(color)
ofDrawRectangle(i, j, stepAmount, stepAmount)
end
end
end

It will check the pixel every 20 steps, and get the color value, then invert the color and draw a rectangle with the color."

I could still use lots of help with the implementation if anyone is up for some paid Ofelia/Lua work though!

I'm new to PD and Ofelia (although I have used Max), and I've been searching around for ways to do the simple video analysis I need and I haven't found much. For example:

I would like to 'scan' the incoming webcam image and have an X Y coordinate spit out for any significant change in pixel value (signifying the sharp top edge of an object on a blurry background for example). And then get a value for the color of the top edge of that object.

Do I need OpenCV to do this or can it just be done using Ofelia and some coding? I'm not looking for some kind of mission critical use, it's for a toy so it doesn't have to be perfect. I'm lost when it comes to trying to take what I find at openFrameworks and somehow applying it to Ofelia...

Thanks, and I'm willing to pay someone for their help!