Raspberry Pi, the corporate that sells tiny, low cost, single-board computer systems, is releasing an add-on that’s going to open up a number of use instances — and sure, as a result of it’s 2024, there’s an AI angle. Referred to as the Raspberry Pi AI Digital camera, this picture sensor comes with on-board AI processing and goes to value $70.
In additional technical phrases, the AI Digital camera relies on a Sony picture sensor (the IMX500) paired with a RP2040, Raspberry Pi’s personal microcontroller chip with on-chip SRAM. Like the remainder of the line-up, the RP2040 follows Raspberry Pi’s total philosophy — it’s cheap but environment friendly.
In different phrases, AI startups aren’t going to exchange their Nvidia GPUs with RP2040 chips for inference. However if you pair it with a picture sensor, you get an extension module that may seize pictures and course of these pictures via frequent neural community fashions.
As an additional benefit, on-board processing on the digicam module signifies that the host Raspberry Pi isn’t affected by visible information processing. The Raspberry Pi stays free to carry out different operations — you don’t want so as to add a separate accelerator. The brand new module is appropriate with all Raspberry Pi computer systems.
This isn’t Raspberry Pi’s first digicam module. The corporate nonetheless sells the Raspberry Pi Digital camera Module 3, a easy 12-megapixel picture sensor from Sony (IMX708) mounted on a small add-on board which you can pair with a Raspberry Pi with a ribbon cable. As Raspberry Pi guarantees to maintain manufacturing operating for a few years, the Digital camera Module 3 will stay accessible for round $25.
The AI Digital camera is similar dimension because the Digital camera Module 3 (25mm x 24mm) however barely thicker as a result of construction of the optical sensor. It comes pre-loaded with the MobileNet-SSD mannequin, an object detection mannequin that may run in realtime.
At this level, you could be questioning who’s going to make use of the Raspberry Pi AI Digital camera. Whereas the tiny computer systems had been initially designed for tech hobbyists and homelab tasks, Raspberry Pi now sells most of its units to firms that use Raspberry Pi units in their very own merchandise or as half their meeting strains for inside industrial use instances.
When Raspberry Pi turned a public firm, it reported that the commercial and embedded phase represented 72% of its gross sales. That ratio is probably going going to be even larger for the AI Digital camera.
I might think about firms utilizing the AI Digital camera module for sensible metropolis sensors that detect empty parking spots, say, or observe site visitors flows. In an industrial setting, the {hardware} could possibly be used for fundamental, automated high quality assurance with objects passing beneath the digicam module.
The rationale why firms like utilizing Raspberry Pi is as a result of they’ll produce computer systems and modules at scale — they confronted some post-Covid provide constraints however these appear to be resolved. Corporations know they’ll reliability supply Raspberry Pi merchandise with out struggling delays in a manufacturing pipeline. That’s additionally a part of the explanation why Raspberry Pi guarantees that the AI Digital camera will stay in manufacturing till at the very least January 2028.
