It’s time to make a hackable smart camera
What is a hackable smart camera?
I’ll define it as a camera that can understand image content and can be directly customized by people with the appropriate technical skills. The Kria KV260 Vision AI Starter Kit can certainly be used for this purpose, but it lacks support for more sophisticated lenses, iris control and day/night operation. In addition, the KV260 physical form factor is not camera-friendly.
Why now?
AMD-Xilinx has finally gotten serious about vision (see my previous blog). The K26 SOM has all the right ingredients (support for AI vision, H.264, CSI-2) at the right price point. Crucially, the semiconductor parts shortages of the past two years seem to be easing so I can finally expect to build a carrier with the features I want.
Who is the audience?
If you are reading this blog entry, YOU are probably the audience. It’s people with technical know-how that would like to play with applied outdoor AI vision but have no way to do it. This site is a good place to look for what others are doing with Kria starter kits.
My personal goals?
There are two unrelated use-cases that interest me:
Watch my backyard birds and record a clip when a new bird shows up. This means both determining something is likely a bird and then determining the bird’s species. It means automatically comparing the likely species to my backyard “life list” and letting me know if something new/unusual has been spotted.
Record whenever a dog-walker doesn’t scoop up their dog’s shit at the tree in my front yard. This is an interesting problem in that it requires video behavioral analysis. It’s a stretch goal but it will be fun to attempt!
Smart camera derived requirements:
Support video recording for training
Support PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) for (bird) closeups and behavior tracking
Support multiple video input sources because people may have their own sensor preferences. The platform will support 4 lane MIPI-CSI2 (Raspberry-Pi compatible) video sensors and any USB2/3 camera source.
Small form-factor enclosure with optional support for standard camera mounting