Raspberry Pi and Sony Combine to Create an AI-Powered Camera Module

Raspberry Pi, the company that sells small, single-board computers, released the Raspberry Pi AI camera which utilizes Sony’s IMX500 Intelligent Vision Sensor.

The unit is priced at $70 and will be useful to experimental photography engineers who enjoy making Frankenstein cameras.

“Compatible with all Raspberry Pi computers, the Raspberry Pi AI Camera takes advantage of Sony’s IMX500 Intelligent Vision Sensor to help you create impressive vision AI applications and neural network models using the on-module AI processor,” Raspberry Pi writes on its website.

The camera is 12.3 megapixels that can capture footage at 10 frames per second in 4056 x 3040 or 40 frames per second at 2028 x 1520. It has a 76-degree field of view with a manually adjustable focus. The entire unit measures 25 x 24 x 11.9 mm.

The Raspberry Pi AI camera combines the company’s RP2040 microcontroller chip with Sony’s IMX500 image sensor. Tech Crunch notes that because the AI camera module has onboard processing, the host Raspberry Pi computer won’t be affected by visual data processing meaning users won’t need a separate accelerator or graphics processing unit (GPU) which are typically needed for camera modules to handle large-scale visual data.

It’s not the first time Raspberry Pi has released a camera module — the company still sells the Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 for $25 — and this new version isn’t replacing existing products. The AI camera is about the same size as Camera Module 3 but with a slightly thicker optical sensor. A real-time object detection model called MobileNet-SSD comes pre-loaded with the module.

“AI-based image processing is becoming an attractive tool for developers around the world,” Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton says in a press release. “We look forward to seeing what our community members are able to achieve using the power of the Raspberry Pi AI Camera.”

“Sony Semiconductor Solutions and Raspberry Pi Ltd aim to provide Raspberry Pi users and the development community with a unique development experience,” says Eita Yanagisawa, General Manager, System Solutions Division, Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation.

“I’m very excited to share SSS edge AI sensing technology with the world’s largest development community as the first fruits of our strategic partnership. We look forward to further collaboration with Raspberry Pi using our AITRIOS™ edge AI solution development and operations platform. We aim to make the most of AI cameras equipped with our image sensors in our collaborative efforts with Raspberry Pi.”