Google has recently announced a new AIY project, Vision Kit. The AIY Vision Kit is another artificial intelligence experiment from Google after the AIY Voice Kit, released 6 months back.
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Source: Google
According to Billy Rutledge, Director, AIY Projects,
“It’s our first project that features on-device neural network acceleration, providing powerful computer vision without a cloud connection. “
Users can build so many creative builds using the Vision Kit that uses computer vision. A few of the applications of the AIY Vision Kit include-
- Identify all kinds of plant and animal species
- Watch out your dog and see when it is at the back door
- Watch out for your car in the driveway
- Sound the alarm for any unauthorized entry in your house
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Source: Google
The company explains that the $44.99 Vision Kit is also a Do-It-Yourself kind of kit just like its previous family member, the AIY Voice Kit. However, a user needs a few hardware parts purchased separately to build the working Vision Kit, including - Raspberry Pi Zero W, a Raspberry Pi Camera, an SD card, and a power supply.
You must be wondering what the kit consists of. Well, the Kit includes the following –
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- An Intel® Movidius™ MA2450- powered VisionBonnet circuit board for Raspberry Pi that is the main component of the kit and is capable of running neural network models on-device;
- a cardboard outer shell that protects the hardware components;
- an RGB arcade-style button;
- a piezo speaker;
- a macro/wide lens kit;
- a tripod mounting nut and other connecting components.
The company informs,
“The provided software includes three TensorFlow-based neural network models for different vision applications. One based on MobileNets can recognize a thousand common objects, a second can recognize faces and their expressions and the third is a person, cat and dog detector. We've also included a tool to compile models for Vision Kit, so you can train and retrain models with TensorFlow on your workstation or any cloud service.
We also provide a Python API that gives you the ability to change the RGB button colors, adjust the piezo element sounds and access the four GPIO pins.”
The Vision Kit can be pre-ordered for $ 44.99 through the Micro Center. For more details, you can visit the official Vision Kit website.
Well, Google is stepping, however slowly, towards integrating AI into our life with such exprimental kits and instruments. We hope to see big impact of the efforts the company is making, for slow and steady wins the race.
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