ESP32 is now being used for AI workloads such as face detection with camera boards like ESP32-CAM, or the upcoming ESP-EYE board from Espressif Systems themselves, combined with ESP-WHO face detection and recognition framework. The two aforementioned board require you to use a phone to vizualize the results, unless you blink some LEDs or connect your own display. But the just released TTGO T-Camera board includes a 128×64 OLED display which should allow you to display face detection and/or recognition results, as well as a BME280 environmental sensor, a PIR sensor, and an optional fisheye lens. TTGO T-Camera board specifications: ESP32-WROVER-B Wireless Module SoC – ESP32 dual core Tensilica LX6 processor Memory – 8MB PSRAM Storage – 4MB SPI flash Connectivity – 2.4 GHz 802.11n WiFi 4, Bluetooth 4.2 LE Camera – 2MP OV2640 camera with normal or fisheye lens Display – 0.96″ 128×64 OLED display connected via SSD1306 I2C […]
ESP-EYE ESP32 AI Development Board Supports Face detection, Voice wakeup
Sometimes last month, Espressif Systems contacted me to send a mysterious new development kit together with a 10-year anniversary T-shirt, an offer I found hard to decline 🙂 So I got a new year present this morning delivered by DHL… The letter lists the main specifications of ESP-EYE development board: WiSoC- ESP32 dual core Tensilica LX6 processor with WiFi and Bluetooth Memory – 8MB PSRAM Storage – 4MB flash Camera – 2MP OV2640 camera Audio – Microphone USB – 1x micro USB port for power and programming Misc – Reset, boot and function buttons, 2x LEDs Dimensions – 41 x 21 mm It reminds me of ESP32-CAM camera board, except it adds a microphone, it’s even smaller, and as an official Espressif board, software support might be better. AI features such as face recognition or detection, and voice wake-up are supported out of the box. The board ships with a […]
Amazon Echo Look Camera Goes for $50 with Intel Atom x5, RealSense Camera SR300
Amazon Echo Look is a smart camera with Alexa Assistant that was launched about 2 years ago for $200, and designed to help you decide if your outfit is a good match, beside taking photo and video selfies with voice commands. Sales may not have matched Amazon expectations (unsurprisingly), and the product is now offered for just $49.99. What may be interesting for CNX Software readers is that Echo Look appears to be a consumer version of AWS DeepLens deep learning video camera for developers ($249), plus some cost savings as well, so there may be some hacking potential here. A teardown video – embedded below – reveals some interesting specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8350 quad core Cherry Trail processor @ up to 1.44 GHz System Memory – 1 GB LPDDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, 16 Mbit SPI flash Camera – Intel RealSense SR300 depth sensing camera + […]
Intel RealSense D435i Stereo Depth Camera Supports 6 Degrees of Freedom Tracking
First unveiled in CES 2014, Intel RealSense Technology was introduced for perceptual computing application with hardware such as 3D sensing cameras, as well Nuance Dragon Assistant voice technology. Since then the company release various 3D sensing camera models and kits such as Realsense R200 Depth Camera robotics development kit, and just announced the new RealSense D435i stereo depth camera which adds 6 DoF (Degrees of Freedom) tracking over D435 model thanks to an inertial measurement unit (IMU). Intel RealSense Depth Camera D435i key features and specifications: Intel RealSense Vision Processor D4 – Purpose-built ASIC designed to deliver stereo depth data at up to 90fps at VGA resolutions or up to 1280×720 resolution at 30fps Intel RealSense module D430 – Depth camera imaging sub-system featuring a wide field of view (91.2 horizontal x 65.5 degrees vertical), global shutter stereo image sensors and an IR projector Depth Technology – Active IR stereo […]
Nubia X Dual Screen Smartphone Drops the Selfie Camera
Consumers don’t seem to be fans of bezels, so manufacturers try to keep them as small as possible, and many phones are now launched with a notch for the front-facing camera, and some with a front-facing camera that pops up during use. The former is not eye-pleasing to some users, and the latter may not feel robust. Nubia X smartphone does away with either simply because the company dropped the front-facing camera, instead relying on the rear camera plus a second screen on the back for selfies. This setup enables an utra-slim bezel on all four sides. Nubia X specifications: SoC – Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor with 4x Kryo 385 Gold cores @ up to 2.65 GHz, 4x Kryo 385 Silver cores @ up to 1.80 GHz, Adreno 630 GPU System Memory + Storage – 6GB LPDDR4X + 64GB storage, or 8GB LPDDR4X + 128 GB storage Displays 6.26″ main […]
Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 Cortex-A76 based Processor Targets High-Tier Mid-Range Smartphones
Last August, Qualcomm unveiled Snapdragon 670 processor with performance and efficiency Kryo 360 cores believed to be based on Cortex-A75 and Cortex-A55 cores, but the company has just announced an update with Snapdragon 675 mobile platform powered by Kryo 460 cores which are based on Arm Cortex-A76 according to Anandtech, and so far, Cortex-A76 was only found in “premium” processors such as HiSilicon Kirin 980. Beside the upgrade cores, the company also claims the processor brings “outstanding gaming, a leap in artificial intelligence (AI) capability and a cutting-edge camera”. Snapdragon 675 main specifications: CPU 2x Kryo 460 (Cortex-A76 based) @ 2.0GHz with 256KB L2 6x Kryo 460 (Cortex-A55 based) @ 1.8GHz with 64KB L2 GPU – Adreno 612 DSP – Hexagon 685, Qualcomm AI Engine Display – Support for FHD+ display Camera – Spectra 250L ISP with triple-camera support Audio – Qualcomm aptX and Aqstic Modem – Snapdragon X12 LTE […]
Tiny NanoPi Duo2 Board Comes with WiFi, a Camera Interface, an Optional 2G-IoT Dock
NanoPi Duo was launched last year as an ultra-cheap ($8+) Arm Linux board that fits into a breadboard. The board was powered by Allwinner H2+ processor coupled with 256 or 512MB RAM, and the infamous XR819 802.11b/g/n WiFi chip. FriendlyElec has now launched NanoPi Duo2, that’s still breadboard compatible, but with a slightly longer form factor, Allwinner H3 processor, 512 MB RAM, better WiFi thanks to an AP6212 module, and an extra camera interface. As we’ll see further below the company also developed a carrier board for 2G cellular IoT applications. NanoPi Duo2 specifications with highlights in bold showing differences again NanoPi Duo: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 SDRAM Storage – micro SD card slot, footprint for SPI flash Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0 LE (Ampak AP6212 module) with chip antenna, […]
ESP32-CAM is a $10 ESP32 Camera Development Board
Espressif Systems ESP32 has many new interfaces over ESP8266, but still lacks a hardware camera interface like DVP or MIPI CSI. However, it’s still possible to connect a camera to the I2S interface. What? Isn’t I2S used for audio? It turns out there’s more to ESP32’s “I2S interface” as pointed out in the forums: The I2S subsystem in the ESP32 also provides a high speed bus connected directly to RAM for Direct Memory Access. Putting it simply, you can configure the ESP32 I2S subsystem to send or receive parallel data under hardware control. There were some ESP32 camera boards launched previously such as ESP32-PICO-tinyCAM, but most seem to have been phased out. However not is all lost, as Seeed Studio is now taking pre-orders for the new A.I. Thinker ESP32-CAM board with a 2MP camera for $9.90. ESP32-CAM board specifications: Wireless Module- ESP32-S WiFi 802.11 b/g/n + Bluetooth 4.2 LE […]