Maple Eye ESP32-S3 board offers 2MP camera, microphone, and two LCD displays

AnalogLamb Maple Eye ESP32-S3 is a WiFi and Bluetooth connected board based on ESP32-S3 dual-core Xtensa LX7 microcontroller and equipped with one 2MP camera, one microphone, and two LCD displays placed on each side of the board.

Those features, plus 8MB of flash and an 8 MB Octal PSRAM, allow the board to make good use of ESP32-S3 AI instructions through the ESP-DL library found in ESP-WHO framework in order to speed up face detection and recognition algorithms, or for audio processing.

Maple Eye ESP32-S3 specifications:

• Wireless module – ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 module with ESP32-S3 dual-core Xtensa LX7 processor @ up to 240 MHz integrating vector instructions  for AI acceleration, 512 KB SRAM, 8MB PSRAM & 8MB Octal SPI Flash
• Storage – MicroSD card interface
• Displays – 2x 1.3-inch TFT LCD displays, selectable by switch
• Camera – 2MP OV2640 camera
• Audio – Digital microphone for VAD (voice activity detection) & ASR (automatic speech recognition)
• USB – 1x Micro USB for power and debugging
• Sensor – 3-axis accelerometer
• Misc – 4x buttons
• Power Supply
  • 5V via micro USB port
  • Battery connector and charger IC

The company says Maple Eye ESP32-S3 is compatible with Espressif own’s ESP32-S3-EYE, whose block diagram is shown above. That means you should be able to use the same getting started guide for ESP-WHO face detection/recognition framework. AnalogLamb also mentions support for esp-rs, a Rust implementation for Espressif Xtensa hardware.

The main difference against ESP32-S3-EYE is the additional display making the camera usual as either a rear or front-facing camera. ESP32-S3-EYE is itself an update to the original ESP-EYE based on the ESP32 microcontroller. I completely missed the launch of ESP32-S3-EYE, so here’s a quick overview of the ports and features with the display part of ESP32-S3-EYE Sub board.

Another difference is the price with Analoglamb selling Maple Eye ESP32-S3 board for $19.99 plus shipping. while ESP32-S3-EYE can be found for just under $48 on Amazon, Mouser, and other distributors.

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