It may not come as a big surprise. After all, the $70 Raspberry Pi AI Camera was spotted at Embedded World 2024, but the news of a new AI-enabled camera for the Raspberry Pi is a welcome addition to Raspberry Pi’s new range of AI products, starting with the Raspberry Pi AI Kit back in June.
The Raspberry Pi AI Camera kit is a capable AI device which has another Raspberry Pi at its heart. Just underneath the sensor lies an RP2040. The same SoC as found in the Raspberry Pi Pico. It may not be as powerful as the RP2350 found in the Raspberry Pi Pico 2, but it has enough computational power to run as an interface between the camera and the Raspberry Pi. This is where it gets interesting. The Sony IMX500 is doing all of the computational work for the AI model. The Raspberry Pi’s CPU is sitting idle. This means that power consumption is much lower than using the Pi’s CPU. Put this AI camera in a low power Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W board, and we have a potent cocktail for embedded AI projects.
