Raspberry Pi, renowned for its compact and budget-friendly single-board computers, is set to launch an innovative add-on that expands numerous applications—featuring an AI component, as one would expect in 2024. Named the Raspberry Pi AI Camera, this image sensor includes on-board AI processing and will retail for $70. Technically speaking, the AI Camera utilizes a Sony image sensor (the IMX500) coupled with the RP2040, Raspberry Pi’s proprietary microcontroller chip equipped with on-chip SRAM. Consistent with Raspberry Pi's overall philosophy, the RP2040 is both affordable and efficient. This means that AI startups won’t be swapping out Nvidia GPUs for RP2040 chips for intensive inference tasks. However, when combined with the image sensor, it forms an extension module capable of capturing images and processing them through standard neural network models. An additional advantage of on-board processing in the camera module is that the host Raspberry Pi remains unburdened by visual data processing tasks. This allows the Raspberry Pi to handle other operations without the need for an external accelerator. The new module is designed to be compatible with all Raspberry Pi computers. This isn’t Raspberry Pi’s inaugural camera module.

The company continues to offer the Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3, which features a straightforward 12-megapixel Sony image sensor (IMX708) mounted on a compact add-on board that can be connected to a Raspberry Pi via ribbon cable. Raspberry Pi intends to sustain its production for many years, ensuring that the Camera Module 3 will remain available for around $25. The AI Camera shares the same dimensions as the Camera Module 3 (25mm x 24mm) but is slightly thicker due to the optical sensor's design. It comes pre-installed with the MobileNet-SSD model, an object detection model that operates in real-time. At this point, you may be curious about the target audience for the Raspberry Pi AI Camera. Although these tiny computers were originally aimed at tech enthusiasts and homelab projects, a majority of Raspberry Pi's sales now go to businesses incorporating their devices into their products or utilizing them within their assembly lines for various industrial applications. Upon becoming a public company, Raspberry Pi disclosed that the industrial and embedded sectors accounted for 72% of its sales, and this proportion is likely to rise for the AI Camera. I can envision businesses employing the AI Camera module for smart city applications, such as detecting vacant parking spaces or monitoring traffic patterns. In an industrial setting, the hardware could facilitate fundamental automated quality assurance for items moving beneath the camera module.