Limitbit Doly is a cute little autonomous robot with two continuous tracks, two small arms controlled by servos, two round color displays acting as the eyes, and various sensors, all controlled by a Raspberry Pi CM4 system-on-module. The robot can be used for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education or as a developer platform. AI workloads can also run on the Raspberry Pi CM4 module taking sensors, camera, and microphone inputs, with the robot interacting with the user through the built-in stereo speaker and two eyes. In practice, that means Doly supports features such as face recognition and smart audio with the robot capable of recognizing its owner and responding to voice commands. Doly specifications: System-on-Module – Raspberry Pi CM4 Lite model CM4101000 (1GB RAM, Wireless) by default, but also supports other CM4/CM Lite modules with wireless Storage – MicroSD card slot Display – 2x high-resolution color displays (the […]
Android 15 Developer Preview released – What’s New?
Google has just released the first Android 15 Developer Preview with some improvements related to privacy and security, the addition of the partial screen sharing feature, camera and audio improvements, and some new performance optimization that developers can leverage when running games or other demanding applications. User privacy and security in Android 15 Android 15 features the latest version of the Privacy Sandbox on Android to improve user privacy while enabling personalized advertising experiences for mobile apps, the Heatlth Connect by Android adds support for new data types related to fitness, nutrition, and more, and the File integrity manager implement new APIs making use of the fs-verity feature that was added to the Linux 5.4 kernel so that files can be protected by custom cryptographic signatures. Partial screen sharing is a completely new feature in Android 15 that allows users to share or record an app window rather than the […]
Luxonis OAK Thermal – A PoE thermal camera with Myriad X AI accelerator, waterproof M12 and M8 connectors
Luxonis has announced its first thermal camera with the OAK Thermal (OAK-T) based on the company’s OAK-SoM Pro AI module featuring an Intel Movidius Myriad X, and two waterproof ports with an M12 PoE/Ethernet connector and an M8 auxiliary connector. Luxonis has been making AI cameras based on Myriad X AI accelerator and its Depth AI solution at least since 2019, and its module is also found in third-party cameras as we’ve recently found out with the Arducam PiNSIGHT AI camera. But they had never made a thermal model, and following customers’ requests to fuse thermal and RGB data, they’ve now developed the OAK Thermal, or OAK-T for shorts, that is suitable for detecting leaks and fires or more accurately detect humans & animals than traditional vision-only based cameras. OAK Thermal camera specifications: System-on-Module – Luxonis OAK-SoM Pro with AI accelerator – Intel Movidius Myriad X AI vision processing unit […]
LicheeRV Nano – A low-cost SG2002 RISC-V and Arm camera and display board with optional WiFi 6 and/or Ethernet
When I wrote about the SOPHGO SG2002 (and SG2000) RISC-V, Arm, and 8051 AIoT processor yesterday, I noted several boards were in development, but I had not noticed the Sipeed LicheeRV Nano (Beta) was already available for sale, so let’s have a closer look. It’s an inexpensive, tiny camera and display board running Linux with optional support for WiFi 6 and 10/100M Ethernet connectivity which somewhat reminds me of the Breadbee SBC based on MStar MSC313E Camera SoC. Sipeed also provides accessories such as a camera module and a touchscreen display to quickly get started. LicheeRV Nano specifications: SoC – SOPHGO SG2002 Main core – 1GHz 64-bit RISC-V C906 or Arm Cortex-A53 core (selectable) Minor core – 700MHz 64-bit RISC-V C906 core Low-power core – 25 to 300MHz 8051 MCU core NPU – 1 TOPS INT8, supports BF16 Integrated 256MB DDR3 (SiP) Storage – MicroSD card slot and SD NAND […]
Femto Mega 3D depth camera review – OrbbecViewer and Orbbec SDK in Ubuntu 22.04, body tracking in Windows 11
We had a quick look at the Orbbec Femto Mega 3D depth and 4K RGB camera at the end of last year with a look at the hardware and a quick try with the OrbbecViewer program in Ubuntu 22.04. I’ve now had the time to test the OrbbecViewer in more detail, check out the Orbbec SDK in Linux and various samples, and finally test the Femto Mega with a body tracking application using Unity in Windows 11. A closer look at OrbbecViewer program and settings As noted in the first part of the review, the OrbbecViewer program provides color, depth, and IR views for the camera. Let’s go into details for each. The Color mode would be the same as your standard USB color camera. The Femto Mega supports resolution from 1280×720 at 30 fps to 3840×2160 at 25 fps using MJPG, H.264, H.265, or RGB (converted from MJPG). We […]
SunFounder GalaxyRVR review – An Arduino programmable Mars Rover-like robot for education
SunFounder sent us a GalaxyRVR 6-wheel robot for review. It looks like NASA’s Mars Rover robots but targets the education market with an Arduino UNO R3 compatible board and an ESP32-CAM board for WiFi connectivity and video capture. The GalaxyRVR robot kit can transmit video signals over WiFi to explore planet Earth with your mobile device or tablet and the camera can be adjusted up and down thanks to a servo motor. The robot gets its power from a solar panel coupled with a battery and features sensors such as obstacle avoidance and ultrasonic modules. NASA’s Mars Rover exploration robots NASA is currently using the Perseverance rover, also known as Percy, as the latest planetary exploration robot to land on Mars. It is designed to explore the Jezero Crater as part of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. In addition to its scientific instruments, Perseverance also carries Ingenuity, a small experimental Martian […]
Arducam PiNSIGHT – A 4 TOPS AI camera board for the Raspberry Pi 5
Arducam PiNSIGHT is an AI camera board designed for the Raspberry Pi 5 equipped with a 12.3MP auto-focus module and an Intel Movidius Myriad X-powered SoM delivering up to 4 TOPS and supporting Intel OpenVINO deep learning models. The PiNSIGHT “AI Mate” is mounted underneath the Raspberry Pi 5 to which it is connected through a 15-cm USB-A to USB-C cable. The case is made of metal and acts as a heatsink, and Arducam told CNX Software it dissipates heat enough to cool down the Raspberry Pi 5, and they don’t think the active cooler is needed anymore. In other words, it also acts as a fanless enclosure albeit it’s not in contact with the CPU, so whether it’s enough probably depends on your use case… Arducam PiNSIGHT “AI Mate” specifications: AI accelerator – Luxonis OAK-SoM based on Intel Movidius Myriad X vision processing unit delivering up to 4 TOPS […]
FOSDEM 2024 schedule – Open-source embedded, mobile, IoT, robotics, RISC-V, etc..
FOSDEM – which stands for Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting – is a free-to-participate event where thousands of developers meet in Brussels on the first week-end of February to discuss open-source software & hardware projects. FOSDEM 2024 will take place on February 3-4 with 880 speakers, 818 events, and 66 tracks. Although I won’t attend, I’ve created a virtual schedule like every year with sessions most relevant to the topics covered on CNX Software from the “Embedded, Mobile and Automotive” and “Open Hardware and CAD/CAM” devrooms, but also other devrooms including “FOSS Mobile Devices”, “ Energy: Reimagining this Ecosystem through Open Source”, “RISC-V”, and others. FOSDEM Day 1 – Saturday, February 3, 2024 10:30 – 10:55 – Screen Sharing on Raspberry Pi 5 Using VNC in Weston and Wayland with the Yocto Project and OpenEmbedded by Leon Anavi In 2023, embedded Linux developers received eagerly awaited news: […]