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With the Raspberry Pi AI Camera camera module and a Raspi, it is comparatively easy to build an intelligent camera that, for example, classifies objects.
The Raspberry Pi AI Camera contains the Sony IMX500 Intelligent Vision Sensor, which combines a 12.3 megapixel image sensor with an AI inferencing accelerator. An AI model can be loaded into the latter so that the camera module can provide both image data and information extracted from it as metadata. Sony had already announced this technology in 2020.
In front of the image sensor there is a lens with a 66 degree opening angle and manually adjustable sharpness. The Raspi RP2040 microcontroller is installed to control the AI camera. The Raspberry Pi AI Camera Like all other Raspi camera modules, it is connected to the CSI port of a Raspi via a flat foil cable. The Camera Serial Interface (MIPI CSI) also includes an I2C control channel.
Object detector preinstalled
The Sony IMX500 Intelligent Vision Sensor combines a 12.3 megapixel image sensor with a calculator (DSP) for AI models.
(Image: Sony)
The AI accelerator Sony IMX500 processes Int8 data and should be able to evaluate up to 30 images per second (fps). It has 8 MB of its own memory that holds firmware and the AI model. Sony relies on the AI framework TensorFlow Lite. When the camera is delivered, the MobileNetSSD AI model for object recognition is pre-installed.
The Raspi developers support your AI camera via libcamera in Raspberry Pi OS. Raspberry Pi Plc. is now selling the Raspberry Pi AI Camera, which was announced a few months ago, at a guide price of $70. In this country it costs around 80 euros.
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