machine vision

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on WeAct STM32H743 Arm Cortex-M7 board ships with a 0.96-inch LCD and a choice of camera sensors

WeAct STM32H743 Arm Cortex-M7 board ships with a 0.96-inch LCD and a choice of camera sensors

WeAct STM32H7 LCD camera development board

WeAct STM32H743 is a small MCU development board powered by a 480 MHz STMicro STM32H743VIT6 Cortex-M7 microcontroller and equipped with a small LCD and a camera connector taking OV2640, OV5640-AF, OV7670, or OV7725 camera sensors. The board comes with 2048KB flash and 1MB RAM built into the STM32H7 microcontroller, 8MB SPI flash, 8MB QSPI flash, a microSD for data storage,  USB-C port for power and programming, a few buttons, and plenty of I/Os accessible through two 44-pin headers. WeAct STM32H743 specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32H743VIT6 Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller at 480MHz with FPU, DSP, and MPU, 2048KB flash, 1MB RAM Storage – 8MB SPI Flash, 8MB QSPI Flash (bootable), microSD card socket Display – 0.96-inch TFT LCD based on ST7735 SPI display driver Camera 8-bit Digital Camera Interface (DCMI) with autofocus support OV2640 (1600×1200), OV5640-AF (2592×1944 with autofocus), OV7670 (640×480), or OV7725 (640×480) camera sensors are supported USB – 1x USB-C […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Reolink Argus PT Ultra review – A solar powered 4K WiFi Pan-and-Tilt smart security camera

Reolink Argus PT Ultra review – A solar powered 4K WiFi Pan-and-Tilt smart security camera

Reolink Argus PT Ultra Solar Panel Instllation

Nearly four years ago, I reviewed the solar-powered Reolink Argus PT pan-and-tilt security camera. The device worked (and still works) mostly fine, but it was at a time when security cameras did not implement AI features like people and vehicle detection just yet relying only on PIR motion sensors so I’d get plenty of false positives. The WiFi connection is not overly reliable either especially when I tried to access the camera from outside my house, something that does not happen with the PoE and 4G LTE models from the company. Reolink asked me whether I wanted to review the new Reolink Argus PT Ultra security camera with higher 4K resolution, dual-band WiFi support, as well as people, vehicle, and pet detection, and most of the same other features found on the older Argus PT. So I took up on the offer and I’ve used it for about one month […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on SunFounder PiCar-X 2.0 review – A Raspberry Pi 4 AI robot car programmable with Blockly or Python

SunFounder PiCar-X 2.0 review – A Raspberry Pi 4 AI robot car programmable with Blockly or Python

SunFounder PICAR-X Robot review

SunFounder PiCar-X 2.0 is an AI-powered self-driving robot car using the Raspberry Pi 3/4 as the main processing board. It is equipped with a camera module that can be moved by a 2-axis servo motor, allowing the camera to pan or tilt, an ultrasonic module for detecting distant objects, and a line detection module. The PiCar-X robot can also perform computer vision tasks such as color detection, face detection, traffic signs detection, automatic obstacle avoidance, and automatic line tracking. The PiCar-X can be programmed with two computer languages: Blockly-based Ezblock Studio drag-and-drop program and Python, and the robot works with OpenCV computer vision library and TensorFlow for AI workloads. Finally, you can also control the robot through the SunFounder controller application on your mobile phone. The company sent us a sample of the Picar-X 2.0 for review, so let’s get started. SunFounder PiCar-X 2.0 robot overview The PiCar-X robot kit […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on AMD Ryzen Embedded 7000 Zen 4 SoC integrates Radeon RDNA 2 graphics, up to 28 lanes of PCIe 5 connectivity

AMD Ryzen Embedded 7000 Zen 4 SoC integrates Radeon RDNA 2 graphics, up to 28 lanes of PCIe 5 connectivity

AMD Ryzen Embedded 7000

AMD Ryzen Embedded 7000 Series is a new “Zen 4” processor with integrated Radeon RDNA 2 graphics designed for high-performance embedded systems targetting industrial automation, machine vision, robotics, and edge servers. The last two Ryzen Embedded families from AMD, namely the Ryzen Embedded V3000 and Ryzen Embedded 5000, mostly targeted headless networking and storage applications since the processors lacked any 3D GPU. But the new Ryzen Embedded 7000 processors bring back graphics with a Radeon RDNA 2 GPU clocked at up to 2.2 GHz and also come with up to 12 Zen4 cores clocked at up to 5.4 GHz, and feature up to 28 lanes of PCIe 5 connectivity. Ryzen Embedded 7000 Series specifications: CPU – Up to 12-core/24-thread “Zen 4” processor GPU – Radeon RDNA 2 graphics 1WGP @ 2.2GHz max with support for AV1/VP9 decode, H.264/HEVC decode/cncode Cache – Up to 1MB L2 cache/Core, up to 32MB L3 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on TRACEPaw sensorized paw helps legged robots “feel the floor” with Arduino Nicla Vision

TRACEPaw sensorized paw helps legged robots “feel the floor” with Arduino Nicla Vision

TRACEPaw

Our four-legged friends don’t walk on tarmac the same way as they do on ice or sand as they can see and feel the floor with their eyes and nerve endings and adapt accordingly. The TRACEPaw open-source project, which stands for “Terrain Recognition And Contact force Estimation through Sensorized Legged Robot Paw“, aims to bring the same capabilities to legged robots. Autonomous Robots Lab achieves this through the Arduino Nicla Vision board leveraging its camera and microphone to run machine learning models on the STM32H7 Cortex-M7 microcontroller in order to determine the type of terrain and estimate the force exercized on the leg. But the camera is apparently not used to look at the terrain, but instead, at the deformation of the silicone hemisphere – made of “Dragon Skin” – at the end of the leg to estimate 3D force vectors, while the microphone is used to recognize terrain types […]