Google is launching a new hardware and software kit aimed at developers and hackers who want to build products that incorporate computer vision… on a budget.
It’s called the AIY Vision Kit, and it’s up for pre-order from Micro Center for $45, with an expected ship date of December 31st.
You’ll need to spend a few more bucks to actually use the kit though: it’s designed to work with a Raspberry Pi Zero W mini computer ($10) and a Raspberry Pi Camera V2 ($30). And you’ll need to supply your own SD card.
The total cost is still under $100 though, which is pretty impressive for a set of tools that you can use to develop projects that use what Google calls an “intelligent camera.”
Google’s kit includes a VisionBonnet accessory board that adds an Intel Movidius MA2450 low-power vision processing unit to the tiny computer, an RGB button, a piezo speaker, a macro/wide lens kit, cables, a tripod, and a cardboard box that holds everything together.
There’s also a software image with neural network models for recognizing common objects, detecting faces and facial expressions, and differentiating between cats, dogs, and people. Advanced users can also create and train their own models.
Google envisions users creating projects that could do things like automatically open a dog door when your pet approaches, perform actions when someone opens the front door to your house or recognize different types of food, among other things.
And the whole thing is meant to be hackable: you can skip the cardboard enclosure and build your own casing for the camera (or fit into a more complex system). You can add additional hardware using GPIO pins. And there’s a Python API that lets you change the way the RGB button colors, sounds, or other components function.
This isn’t Google’s first kit of this type. Earlier this year the company released a Voice Kit that works with a full-sized Raspberry Pi and includes a speaker and microphones for folks that ant to assemble their own smart speaker systems.
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Looks interesting, but the RPi Zero W doesn’t ship with the 40pin header, just holes (at least the three I have all came that way…). So you’d need to solder on long male pins to fit the Movidius board. Also, why do GOOG keep selling exclusively through Micro Center? I would have thought Adafruit and Sparkfun would be at least as reasonable (no brick and mortar, but most people don’t live near a Micro Center store anyhow).
It’s unclear if it will be available from other sellers in the future, but it’s only available for pre-order from Micro Center today… but unlike some items sold by Micro Center, you can order for either in-store pickup *or* have it shipped to your home.
When I purchased the Voice Kit a few months back, it was available at Adafruit, Microcenter, and Pimoroni. I’m sure it’ll be available to those same ones soon with this kit
Seems that Google likes cardboard.
I got 2 Voice Kits from Microcenter for $9.99 each on Thanksgiving. If the price is going to drop on Xmas – I’d rather wait till then. Sounds pretty exciting. a good time to buy the camera now though.