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 circumstances — and sure, as a result of it’s 2024, there’s an AI angle. Referred to as the Raspberry Pi AI Digicam, this picture sensor comes with on-board AI processing and goes to price $70.
In additional technical phrases, the AI Digicam is predicated 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 general philosophy — it’s cheap but environment friendly.
In different phrases, AI startups aren’t going to switch their Nvidia GPUs with RP2040 chips for inference. However once you pair it with a picture sensor, you get an extension module that may seize pictures and course of these pictures via widespread neural community fashions.
As an additional advantage, on-board processing on the digicam module implies 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 suitable with all Raspberry Pi computer systems.
This isn’t Raspberry Pi’s first digicam module. The corporate nonetheless sells the Raspberry Pi Digicam Module 3, a easy 12-megapixel picture sensor from Sony (IMX708) mounted on a small add-on board that you would be able to pair with a Raspberry Pi with a ribbon cable. As Raspberry Pi guarantees to maintain manufacturing working for a few years, the Digicam Module 3 will stay out there for round $25.
The AI Digicam is identical measurement because the Digicam Module 3 (25mm x 24mm) however barely thicker because of the 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 is perhaps questioning who’s going to make use of the Raspberry Pi AI Digicam. Whereas the tiny computer systems had been initially designed for tech hobbyists and homelab initiatives, Raspberry Pi now sells most of its gadgets to firms that use Raspberry Pi gadgets in their very own merchandise or as half their meeting strains for inner industrial use circumstances.
When Raspberry Pi grew to become a public firm, it reported that the economic and embedded section represented 72% of its gross sales. That ratio is probably going going to be even greater for the AI Digicam.
I might think about firms utilizing the AI Digicam module for sensible metropolis sensors that detect empty parking spots, say, or monitor visitors flows. In an industrial surroundings, the {hardware} may very well be used for primary, automated high quality assurance with objects passing underneath 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. Firms 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 Digicam will stay in manufacturing till no less than January 2028.
