Raspberry Pi AI Camera: Camera module with built-in AI accelerator

The Raspberry Pi AI Camera combines an image sensor and AI computing unit, e.g. for object recognition. The controlling software is integrated in Raspi Linux.

Raspberry Pi AI Camera with Sony IMX500

(Image: Raspberry Pi Plc.)

Sep 30, 2024 at 9:00 am CEST

2 min. read

c't Magazin

By

Christof Windeck

With the Raspberry Pi AI Camera module and a Raspi, it is relatively easy to build an intelligent camera that can classify objects, for example.

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 deliver both image data and information extracted from it as metadata. Sony had already announced this technology in 2020.

In front of the image sensor is a lens with a 76-degree aperture angle and manually adjustable focus. The Raspi RP2040 microcontroller is installed to control the AI camera. Like all other camera modules, the Raspberry Pi AI Camera 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.

Videos by heise

Object recognizer pre-installed

The Sony IMX500 Intelligent Vision Sensor combines a 12.3 megapixel image sensor with a DSP for AI models.

(Image: Sony)

The Sony IMX500 's AI accelerator processes Int8 data and should be able to evaluate up to 30 frames per second (fps). It has 8 MB of its own memory, which stores the firmware and the AI model. Sony relies on the TensorFlow Lite AI framework. The MobileNetSSD AI model for object recognition is pre-installed when the camera is delivered.

The Raspi developers support their 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 US dollars. In this country, it will probably cost around 80 euros.

Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt

Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.

Preisvergleiche immer laden

Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.