News on the the Raspberry Pi camera module (5MP sensor at $25) has been around since earlier this year. Raspberry Pi camera module goes on sale article tells that THE CAMERA MODULE for the Raspberry Pi pocket computer is now available for order through RS Components and Premier Farnell/Element14. Documentation on how to set up the camera can be found on raspberrypi.org blog. This looks like an interesting addition to Raspberry Pi.
232 Comments
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Adding night vision to the Raspberry Pi camera
May 27, 2013 By Brian Benchoff 12 Comments
http://hackaday.com/2013/05/27/adding-night-vision-to-the-raspberry-pi-camera/
After months of promises, the Raspberry Pi camera is finally heading out to hackers and makers across the world. Of course the first build with the Pi cam to grace the pages of Hackaday would be removing the IR filter, and it just so happens [Gary] and his crew at the Reading hackerspace are the first to do just that.
Rosita Quartucci says:
Hmm, cool stuff, seems a bit outdated but it works. Hopefully some of the Raspberry Pi stuff gets easier to do. Some crazy projects
Cleveland Stofferan says:
I’m impressed, I must say. Rarely do I come across a blog that’s equally educative and amusing, and let me tell you, you have hit the nail on the head. The issue is an issue that not enough men and women are speaking intelligently about. I’m very happy I came across this in my hunt for something relating to this.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Picam magic: More snaps from LOHAN’s fruity eye in the sky
Spectacular images from the stratosphere for your viewing pleasure
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/11/lohan_picam/
Sony factory in South Wales churned out its millionth Raspberry Pi this week, so we thought it would be a good moment to bring readers more from our “Pi In The Sky” camera rig, which has performed to spectacular effect during test flights for our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) mission.
Following a geekgasmic Tardis flight, Dave then acquired a preproduction Picam…
…which he used to launch an airborne assault on Europe.
Dave’s imaging package includes said Picam, a Radiometrix NTX2 radio transmitter and UBlox GPS receiver, (both from fellow LOHAN team member Anthony Stirks’s HAB Supplies), all connected to a Model A Pi.
The camera delivers 5MP, allowings stills at up to 2592×1944px, and video at 1080p at 30fps, 720p at 60fps, or 640x480p at 60 or 90fps.
In May this year, the Picam grabbed some impressive snaps of Blighty from the stratosphere. In that case, it was programmed to take three pictures a minute – low-resolution for transmission via one radio channel, medium-res for dispatch via another radio channel, and high-res for storage on an SD card.
Once again, the Pi was programmed to switch from stills to video at predetermined heights, grabbing both the moment the igniter went pop and the payload came down in a field of wheat stubble
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi 5MP camera bundles boost Pi multimedia
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4422734/5MP-camera-bundles-boost-Raspberry-Pi-multimedia
RS Components has released two new product bundles featuring the Raspberry Pi Model A board and the Raspberry Pi camera module. The bundles are aimed at developers requiring a blend of ultra-low power consumption and high quality image capture, and where size and weight are important, typically in mobile applications.
The first bundle, priced at $40 (plus local taxes and shipping/handling charges) simply combines the ultra-low-power Raspberry Pi Model A with the tiny, lightweight camera module. The second bundle comes supplied with a 4GB SD card with the operating system pre-installed, and can be purchased for $45.
Raspberry Pi Model A is the lower profile version of the credit card-sized board, containing 256MB RAM, a single USB port, and no Ethernet connection. The camera module, which measures just 25mm x 20mm x 9mm and weighs a little over 3g, contains a 5-megapixel CMOS sensor
Tomi Engdahl says:
Infrared camera – you asked us, so we’re making them!
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/5089
You may have heard rumours about something we’re calling Pi NoIR (Pi, no infrared) – it’s been a very badly kept secret. Some months ago we featured some work that was being done at Reading Hackspace, where members were removing the infrared filter to use the camera to sense infrared signals, and for low-light work, especially with wildlife. The Reading camera boards ended up going to the Horniman Museum in London, where they’re currently being used to track the activity of corals at night.
A lot of you are interested in wildlife monitoring and photography. London Zoo mentioned to us that the infrared filter on the standard Pi camera board is a barrier to using it in projects like the Kenyan rhino-tracking project they’re running based around the Pi – although the Pi is used as the base of the project and does all the computational tasks required, they started out having to use a more expensive and more power-hungry camera than the Pi camera board, because that IR filter meant that it wasn’t useable at night.
Initially we thought it wasn’t going to be something we could do: Sunny, who make the sensor, filter and lens package that’s at the heart of our camera board, did not offer a package without the filter at all. Removing it would mean an extra production line would have to be set up just for us – and they had other worries when we started to talk to them about adding an infrared camera option. They told us they were particularly concerned that users would try to use a camera board without a filter for regular daytime photography, and be would be upset at the image quality. (There’s a reason that camera products usually integrate an infrared filter – the world looks a little odd to our eyes with an extra colour added to the visible spectrum.)
We convinced them that you Pi users are a pragmatic and sensible lot, and would not try to replace a regular camera board with a Pi NoIR – the Pi NoIR is a piece of equipment for special circumstances. So Sunny set up an extra line just for us, to produce the Pi NoIR as a special variant. We will be launching Real Soon Now
Tomi Engdahl says:
Turn your Pi into a low-cost HD surveillance cam
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/5071
Local government CCTV is awful, and it’s everywhere in the UK. But I’m much happier about surveillance in the hands of private people – it’s a matter of quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who watches the watchmen?), and I’m pleased to see the Raspberry Pi bring the price of networked motion-sensitive HD surveillance cameras down to be affordable by consumers. Off the shelf, you’re looking at prices in the hundreds of pounds. Use a Pi to make your own HD system, and your setup should come in at under £50, with a bit of shopping around. This is a great use case for the value bundle our distributors are offering at the moment, where a camera board and a Model A Raspberry Pi with an SD card is coming in at $45.
Christoph has made build instructions and code available so you can set your own camera up. It does more than just film what’s in front of it: he’s added some motion-detection capability to run in the background, so if the camera spots something moving, it’ll start recording for a set period.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Get a Model A and a camera board for $40
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/5048
We’ve talked before about how the camera board and the Model A are natural bedfellows. Whether you’re shooting a time lapse video or hollowing out a sweet, innocent teddy bear, the 256MB of RAM on the Model A is easily sufficient to run raspistill and raspivid, and the much lower power consumption gives you a lot more battery life for mobile applications. To allow more of you to have a play with this combination, we’ve got together with our partners to offer the two together for the bargain price of $40.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Upstagram: a Flying Raspberry Pi
http://hackaday.com/2013/11/12/upstagram-a-flying-raspberry-pi/
This tiny paper house, modeled after the one in Disney’s UP, contains a Raspberry Pi, battery pack, camera, and 3G stick. The Upstagram, built by the folks at HackerLoop, took to the skies of Paris to snap and share photos on Instagram.
We’ve seen Raspberry Pis in flight before, but this build pulls it off using simple party balloons. It took around 80 balloons to get the house to a height of 300 feet. A kite string was used to tether the device and control its flight.
This hack also required some reverse engineering of Instagram.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Multiple Raspberry PI 3D Scanner
http://www.instructables.com/id/Multiple-Raspberry-PI-3D-Scanner/
I am a big Arduino and Raspberry PI fan and also love 3D printing. I wanted to be able to make a 3d model of my kids and started investigating how to build a 3d scanner. I found a lot of solutions out there, but the problem with most of them is that the subject would have to sit still for a while… well I think it would be easier for me to invent a spaceship that can fly to mars then inventing a solution for my 2-year old son to sit still
So none of those solutions where going to work.
Then I noticed the Raspberry PI and PI camera combination. A “fairly” affordable module, that already is ethernet connected, so I could do the triggering of the cameras using the network and an easy way to download all the images to a centralized place. So my Project (and investment) started
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY WiFi Raspberry Pi Touchscreen Camera
http://learn.adafruit.com/diy-wifi-raspberry-pi-touch-cam
Make your own Cloud-connected point-and-shoot camera
This project explores the Adafruit PiTFT touchscreen and the Raspberry Pi camera board to create a simple point-and-shoot digital camera. One can optionally use WiFi and Dropbox (a cloud file storage and synchronization service) to automatically transfer photos to another computer for editing.
This isn’t likely to replace your digital camera (or even phone-cam) anytime soon…it’s a simplistic learning exercise and not a polished consumer item…but as the code is open source, you or others might customize it into something your regular camera can’t do.
DIY WiFi Raspberry Pi Touchscreen Camera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRrELkIHgbU
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Raspberry Eye Sees All
http://hackaday.com/2014/04/20/the-raspberry-eye-sees-all/
[Roman Rolinsky] wanted to try to do something interesting with his Raspberry Pi and a 2.8″ LCD he had laying about… So he made a rather bulky version of Google Glass.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Using the Raspberry Pi To See Like A Bee
http://hackaday.com/2014/05/01/using-the-raspberry-pi-to-see-like-a-bee/
The Raspberry Pi board camera has a twin brother known as the NoIR camera, a camera without an infrared blocking filter that allows anyone to take some shots of scenes illuminated with ‘invisible’ IR light, investigate the health of plants, and some other cool stuff. The sensor in this camera isn’t just sensitive to IR light – it goes the other way as well, allowing some investigations into the UV spectrum, and showing us what bees and other insects see.
Raspberry Pi NoIR camera module is suitable for IR – but is it for U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gsajzhIPF8
The Pi NoIR camera module can be used with IR light sources for many applications, including security purposes and animal camera traps. But I wanted to know, if it would be suitable for UV photography (mainly used in foreniscs and flower photography). So I took a Baader-U-filter, which blocks visible light, and an deep-UV light source (365 nm, Labino UV torch UVG3 Midlight) to check this.
Additionally, I made a RGB picture to simulate bee view. Bees do not see red, but they see UV.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Boiler Control Uses a Webcam to Read The Analog Gauge
http://hackaday.com/2014/05/09/raspberry-pi-boiler-control-uses-a-webcam-to-read-the-analog-gauge/
One of the biggest problems with home automation is trying to interface with old or analog devices. Do you upgrade the device just so you can automate it? Or do you find a workaround like [Seb] did?
The answer? A webcam! [Seb] took an old cheap webcam and mounted it in front of the temperature gauge on his boiler. He then wrote a simple python script to count the pixels using an OpenCV library — when those pixels turn red, the needle is at his ideal temperature (45C). Complex? A little bit, but the project only cost him all of what, $35? Gotta love how cheap Raspberry Pi’s are!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adding GPIOs To The Raspberry Pi With The Camera Interface
http://hackaday.com/2014/07/24/adding-gpios-to-the-raspberry-pi-with-the-camera-interface/
The Broadcom SoC on the Pi has far more GPIO pins than are broken out on the large header, and a few of those go to the CSI camera interface.
The CSI camera connector has two I²C lines that go directly to the camera, controllable in Linux as GPIO0 and GPIO1. There are two more GPIO connectors on the CSI connector controllable as GPIO5 and GPIO21. By carefully slicing and soldering wires to a flat cable, these GPIO lines can be broken out onto a breadboard.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi camera kit with interchangeable lenses hits Kickstarter
http://www.geek.com/chips/raspberry-pi-camera-kit-with-interchangeable-lenses-hits-kickstarter-1601522/
This isn’t just any camera, though. The SnapPiCam will have interchangeable lenses with support for macro and mega-zoom attachments.
The SnapPiCam is based around the Raspberry Pi Model A, which is the lower-specced version of the board.
Backers aren’t getting finished units–this is a DIY thing, so you get a kit with all the parts you need.
The Compact version is the cheapest kit at £99 (US$160). It’s smaller and doesn’t have a screen. The Adventurer and MegaZoom versions cost £149 (US$250) and £199 (US$335), respectively.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WiFi Raspberry Pi Touchscreen Camera
http://hackaday.com/2014/08/30/wifi-raspberry-pi-touchscreen-camera/
Adafruit has a tutorial on their site that shows how to fashion together a cloud-connected, point-and-shoot camera. The best part of this project is that it can be customized to the heart’s content, unlike traditional digital cameras or smartphones. The integrated touchscreen and open-source computing allows for Instagram-like filters that can be scrolled through easily.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Camera Mod Lets this Raspberry Pi Shoot in Different Spectrums
http://hackaday.com/2014/10/03/camera-mod-lets-this-raspberry-pi-shoot-in-different-spectrums/
For [Peter Le Roux'] first “real” electronics project, he decided to make a camera based off the venerable Raspberry Pi platform. But he didn’t just want a regular camera, he wanted something that could shoot in near IR wave lengths…
It’s a well-known fact that you can remove the IR blocking filter from most cameras to create a quasi IR camera hack
The problem is even if you let the IR light into the camera’s sensor, you still get all the other light unless you have some kind of filter. There are different ways of doing this, so [Peter] decided to do them all with an adjustable wheel to flip through all the different filters.
Octarine Pi Camera (almost) complete!
http://drawsolderprintplay.blogspot.fi/2014/10/octraine-pi-camera-almost-complete.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stereo Vision and Depth Mapping with Two Raspi Camera Modules
http://hackaday.com/2014/11/03/stereo-vision-and-depth-mapping-with-two-raspi-camera-modules/
The Raspberry Pi has a port for a camera connector, allowing it to capture 1080p video and stream it to a network without having to deal with the craziness of webcams and the improbability of capturing 1080p video over USB. The Raspberry Pi compute module is a little more advanced; it breaks out two camera connectors, theoretically giving the Raspberry Pi stereo vision and depth mapping. [David Barker] put a compute module and two cameras together making this build a reality.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Stomach Shot” Halloween Costume
http://hackaday.com/2014/11/11/stomach-shot-halloween-costume/
Halloween may have come and gone, but [Luis] sent us this build that you’ll want to check out. An avid Walking Dead fan, he put in some serious effort to an otherwise simple bloody t-shirt and created this see-through “stomach shot” gunshot wound.
The project uses a Raspi running the Pi Camera script to feed video from a webcam on the back of his costume to a 7″ screen on the front.
Stomach shot – Halloween costume 2014
http://www.instructables.com/id/Stomach-shot-Halloween-costume-2014/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Multiplexing Pi Cameras
http://hackaday.com/2014/12/19/multiplexing-pi-cameras/
The Raspberry Pi and its cool camera add-on is a great way to send images and video up to the Intertubes, but what if you want to monitor more than one scene? The IVPort can multiplex up to sixteen of these Raspi camera modules, giving the Pi sixteen different views on the world and a ridiculously high stack of boards connected to the GPIO header.
IVPort Raspberry Pi Camera Module Multiplexer
http://hackaday.io/project/2847-ivport-raspberry-pi-camera-module-multiplexer
This is IVPort, the first Raspberry Pi Camera Module Multiplexer designed to connect more than one camera to Raspberry Pi.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Junked Inspection Camera Given 15-Year Face-lift with Raspberry Pi
http://hackaday.com/2015/08/13/junked-inspection-camera-given-15-year-face-lift-with-raspberry-pi/
The nice thing with having a hacker cred is that family and friends are always on the lookout for stuff they think might be useful to you. [Craig Hollabaugh]’s son-in-law found an inspection camera and thought it would be handy for his hobby work. The MagniSight Explorer was first introduced in 2001. It is good for surface mount board work and inspection, except that its analog 480p video is quite dated by today’s standards. So [Craig] upgraded it for crystal clear 1080P/30 video and 5 megapixel images using a $35 Raspberry Pi 2 and a $26 Raspberry Pi Camera Module. After the upgrade, the unit is now a great tool for SMT rework.
http://www.spudcentral.com/potd/150807.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
DOLPi – RasPi Polarization Camera
https://hackaday.io/project/6958-dolpi-raspi-polarization-camera
A polarimetric imager to detect invisible pollutants, locate landmines, identify cancerous tissues, and maybe even observe cloaked UFOs!
The polarization of light carries interesting information about our visual environment of which we are unaware because human vision is virtually insensitive to polarization. Some animals have evolved the capability to see polarization as a distinct characteristic of light, and rely critically on this sense for navigation and survival. Many fish, arthropods, and octopuses use polarization vision as a compass for navigation, to detect water surfaces, and to enhance the detection of prey and predators.
The DOLPi project aims to widely open the field of polarization imaging by constructing a very low cost polarimetric camera that can be used to research and develop game-changing applications across a wide range of fields; spanning all the way from environmental monitoring and medical diagnostics, to security and antiterrorism applications.
The project’s blog is at: http://www.diyphysics.com/2015/07/27/dolpi-a-low-cost-raspi-based-polarization-camera/
A complete project description including detailed construction instructions and Python code is available in pdf format at: http://www.diyphysics.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/DOLPi_Polarimetric_Camera_D_Prutchi_2015_v2.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacking a Pi Camera with a Nikon Lens
http://hackaday.com/2015/09/19/hacking-a-pi-camera-with-a-nikon-lens/
Cell phones have killed many industries. It is getting harder and harder to justify buying an ordinary watch, a calculator, or a day planner because your phone does all those things at least as well as the originals. Cell phones have cameras too, so the days of missing a shot because you don’t have a camera with you are over
The Raspberry Pi camera is about on par with a cheap cell phone camera. [Martijn Braam] has a Nikon camera, and he noticed that he could get a Raspberry Pi camera with a C-mount for lenses. He picked up a C to F adapter and proceeded to experiment with Nikon DSLR lenses on the Raspberry Pi camera.
You’d think the pictures would be great, right? They are good, but [Martijn] found that the Pi’s sensor actually compensates for color effects found in the little cheap lenses it would usually have.
Using a Mobile Phone Camera Sensor with a Nikon F DSLR Lens
http://petapixel.com/2015/09/14/using-a-mobile-phone-camera-sensor-with-a-nikon-f-lens/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Getting Biometrics in Hand
http://hackaday.com/2015/09/20/getting-biometrics-in-hand/
[Alexis Ospitia] wanted to experiment with vein matching biometrics and had good results with a Raspberry Pi, a web cam, and a custom IR illumination system. Apparently, hemoglobin is a good IR reflector and the pattern of veins in your hand is as unique as other biometrics (like fingerprints, ear prints, and retina vein patterns).
http://www.instructables.com/id/Biometria-de-las-venas-de-la-mano-Raspberry-Pi-LCD-1/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi night vision camera (NoIR) and “motion” detection test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qusD93KNakg
Tomi Engdahl says:
Portable Pi2 Thermal Imager with Overlay
https://hackaday.io/project/7796-portable-pi2-thermal-imager-with-overlay
A portable thermal imager with PiCam overlay using a FLIR Lepton on a Raspberry Pi2, Official Raspberry screen, and some other parts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Laser Beam Profiler
http://hackaday.com/2015/12/21/raspberry-pi-laser-beam-profiler/
[Anthony] at UCLA needed to verify the shape of a laser beam. Commercial units for this, as you would expect, are expensive. But a Raspberry Pi with a Pi Noir camera easily handles the task. Not only is the use of the Pi cool but so is the task – they are using lasers to cool molecules to study quantum effects. The Pi camera without the IR filter captures a wide bandwidth making it suitable for use with non-visible lasers. [Anthony] captures the beam along two axes and plots both curves on the LCD touchscreen. That data, based on the pictures, is also available on a host PC.
Raspberry Pi Laser Beam Profiler
https://hackaday.io/project/8655-raspberry-pi-laser-beam-profiler
Fits and displays intensity profile of laser beams using picamera and raspberry pi 2. TFT touch screen and battery pack used for mobility.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PiNoculars – A Farseeing Pi Camera
http://hackaday.com/2016/01/11/pinoculars-a-farseeing-pi-camera/
The Raspberry Pi camera provides a 5 megapixel resolution with still images of up to 2592 x 1944 and multiple video modes including 2592 x 1944 at 15 frames per second. With it being mounted on a small board it is ideal for using in hacks. [Josh Williams] mounted the camera on the lens of binoculars to capture some startling images, including this squirrel.
The camera is installed on a custom, laser cut mount that fastens to one eyepiece of the binoculars. The Pi itself is mounted above the binoculars.
PiNoculars – Raspberry Pi Binoculars
http://www.instructables.com/id/PiNoculars-Raspberry-Pi-Binoculars/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digital Logging Of Analog Instruments
http://hackaday.com/2016/04/16/digital-logging-of-analog-instruments/
a way to convert these old analog gauges to digital using a Raspberry Pi and a bit of computer vision.
this team is using a 3D printed bracket that mounts a Raspberry Pi and camera directly in front of an analog gauge. Combine this contraption with OpenCV, and you have a device that’s just smart enough to look at a needle on a dial, convert that to a number, and save it to a file or send it out over WiFi.
Instrument Digitizer using Computer Vision
A device to create a digital data output for analog sensors and instruments, on temporary and permanent setups.
https://hackaday.io/project/10617-instrument-digitizer-using-computer-vision
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Zero Gains Camera Support, Keeps $5 Price
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/16/05/16/2143212/raspberry-pi-zero-gains-camera-support-keeps-5-price?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
The Raspberry Pi Zero has received its first major hardware upgrade today: a camera connector. The new addition of a camera connector works well with the two new Sony imaging modules announced last month. The board will retain its $5 price, too.
Raspberry Pi gets an 8-megapixel Sony camera upgrade
As always, the price stays the same.
http://www.engadget.com/2016/04/25/raspberry-pi-sony-camera-sensor/
Although the Raspberry Pi has undergone numerous refreshes since it launched three years ago, its first official accessory — a 5-megapixel Omnivision camera module — has remained the same. That’s mostly due to the Raspberry Pi Foundation and its partners buying a huge amount of sensors, which not only kept the price low, but also enabled it to have plenty of stock for years to come. According to CEO Eben Upton, those reserves are now running very low, so it’s time to show off the new merchandise: two new $25 (£19) cameras powered a Sony IMX219 8-megapixel sensor.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony’s Hi-Res Sensor Ups the Quality of Raspberry Pi’s Camera Modules
https://www.eeweb.com/blog/eeweb/sonys-hi-res-sensor-ups-the-quality-of-raspberry-pis-camera-modules
Raspberry Pi’s camera modules, which haven’t been updated since 2012, upgraded to an 8-MP sensor.
Omnivision OV5674 sensor was end-of-life at the end of 2014 and the large stockpile was depleted.
“Fortunately, we’d already struck up conversation with Sony’s image sensor division, and so in the nick of time we’re able to announce the immediate availability of both visible-light (seen above) and infrared cameras (seen below) based on the Sony IMX219 8-megapixel sensor, at the same low price of $25,” Upton said in a recent blog post.
For those who aren’t aware, the IMX219 has a fixed-focus sensor and can output photos with resolutions of up to 3,280 × 2,464 pixels, and 1080 p at 30 fps. The organization said the new sensor represents more than a resolution upgrade, and was also chosen for its image quality, color fidelity, and low-light performance.
The Sony sensor is paired with the VideoCore IV multimedia processor architecture, which features an advanced image sensor pipeline (ISP). The ISP must be tuned to work with the sensor to correct for the artifacts such as thermal and shot noise, detective pixels, lens shading, and image distortion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: A Cheap Robotic Microscope
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/26/hackaday-prize-entry-a-cheap-robotic-microscope/
The microscope is one of the most useful instruments for the biological sciences, but they are expensive. Lucky for us, a factory in China can turn out webcams and plastic lenses and sell them for pennies. That’s the idea behind Flypi – a cheap microscope for scientific experiments and diagnostics that’s based on the ever-popular Raspberry Pi.
Flypi is designed to be a simple scientific tool and educational device. With that comes the challenges of being very cheap and very capable. It’s based around a Raspberry Pi and the Pi camera, with the relevant software for taking snapshots, recording movies, and controlling a few different modules that extend the capabilities of this machine.
Flypi – cheap microscope/experimental setup
https://hackaday.io/project/5059-flypi-cheap-microscopeexperimental-setup
Pi + Picamera + M12 lens + Arduino microscope/experimental setup for diagnostics and scientific experiments!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: An Open Source Retina Scanner
http://hackaday.com/2016/08/10/hackaday-prize-entry-an-open-source-retina-scanner/
An ophthalmoscope is a device used to examine the back of the eye. This is useful for diagnosing everything from glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, to detecting brain tumors. As you would expect from anything related to medicine, these devices cost a lot, making them inaccessible for most of the world’s population. This project for the Hackaday Prize is for an ophthalmoscope that can be built for under $400.
An ophthalmoscope is a relatively simple device, that really only requires a clinician to wear a head-mounted lamp and hold a condensing lens in front of the patient’s eye. Light is reflected off the retina and into the clinician’s view.
Of course, the simplest ophthalmoscope requires a bit of training to get right, and there’s’ no chance of being able to take a picture of a patient’s retina to share with other clinicians.
The Open Indirect Ophthalmoscope gets around these problems by using a digital camera in the form of a Raspberry Pi camera module. This camera, with the help of a 3 W LED, is able to image the back of the eye, snap a picture, and send that image anywhere in the world.
Open Indirect Ophthalmoscope
https://hackaday.io/project/11943-open-indirect-ophthalmoscope
An open-source, ultra-low cost, portable screening device
for retinal diseases
Key Features:
Ultra Low Cost: Under $400, compared to its contemporaries
Open Source and Design: Expands the scope of the device worldwide
High Portability: Weighs less than a laptop
Intuitive interface: No specialized training needed to operate the device, making it perfect for use in rural areas
How it works?
Ophthalmoscopy is a technique by which optometrist analyze and view the retina and its features by either directly looking or imaging, the retinal features through the pupil. OIO captures the images of the retina using the same technique, through a camera.
The OIO uses a 20D lens, mirrors, light source and camera, a raspberry pi and a touch interface to achieve this. The lens and mirror system are used to compress the optical path and focus the light from retina onto the camera. The camera and pi act as the processing unit and display live images on the display allowing the clinician to easily image the retina.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cheap 360 Degree Camera
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/09/cheap-360-degree-camera/
How much would you pay for a 360 degree camera? How about $15 if you already have a Raspberry Pi and a Pi camera hanging around? If you don’t, you’ll have to add that minimal cost into the build. [Gigafide] noticed how a spherical mirror, made to see around corners, showed an all-around view if you took a picture of it from below. He snagged a panoramic lens made for an iPhone and stripped it for its optics. Some custom software and a little work resulted in a usable 360 degree camera.
SimpleCV (a light version of OpenCV) provides the algorithms to unwrap the frames and you can take video with the setup
Uber Cheap 360 Video Camera
http://www.instructables.com/id/Uber-Cheap-360-Video-Camera/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Build Your Own Raspberry Pi Camera
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/build-your-own-raspberry-pi-camera?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+linuxjournalcom+%28Linux+Journal+-+The+Original+Magazine+of+the+Linux+Community%29
Why Pi?
The RPi3 has built-in Wi-Fi. That means I can access it without worrying about Ethernet cabling. And, that means I can potentially put it outside without trying to weatherproof a network cable or figure out how to poke a hole in my house to get the Ethernet inside!
The RPi3 has an incredible camera module. Literally the day after I purchased my 5 megapixel camera module, RPi released an 8 megapixel camera, which means if you buy now, you’ll get even better results.
The RPi3 is small. That’s important, because I plan to put everything inside a weatherproof project case and mount it outside next to a bird feeder that isn’t right outside my window (they all are now by necessity).
The RPi3 is fairly inexpensive, especially when compared to an IP camera with similar image quality. The RPi3 itself is about $35, the camera is $25, and I have a pile of MicroSD cards and MicroUSB chargers lying around. Even with the cost of the project box (around $15), it’s all less than $80.
Since the Raspberry Pi device I’ll be setting up is a full-blown Linux computer, the configuration options are endless. It’s possible to install Motion on the little beastie and handle motion detection fully on the RPi. I already have Motion installed on my Birdcam server though, so what I want is for the Raspberry Pi simply to serve out a stream that my existing server can use to capture movement like it does with the USB cams locally connected.
My first attempt at creating the perfect RPi IP camera (RPIPCam?) included compiling mjpg_streamer and creating an MJPEG streaming camera that could be added to the Motion setup on my BirdCam server. I realized after the fact that Motion would be just as happy with a simple Web server on the RPi serving up a still image, then constantly re-downloading that image. It means my Raspbian Linux image doesn’t have to have any custom software installed at all, which is ideal.
The first step is to install Raspbian. This is done easily by getting the NOOBS zip file
NOOBS is incredible. It allows you to install a variety of distributions, and it does all the heavy lifting
Once you get the file unzipped onto your MicroSD card, connect the RPi Camera Module via ribbon cable, an HDMI monitor, USB mouse and USB keyboard.
During the setup process, you’ll be asked what OS you want to install. Don’t bother setting up the network yet
Once Raspbian is installed, you’ll reboot the system, and it should come up into a GUI desktop. Thankfully, if you set up Wi-Fi now with the GUI tool, it will save the configuration for you and automatically connect even after you turn off the GUI.
The only software I installed on my RPi, in addition to what came by default, is the lighttpd package. It’s a very fast, simple Web server. Since all I need to do is serve out an image via HTTP, it’s perfect.
check to make sure the camera module is working. On the terminal, type:
vcgencmd get_camera
You should see something like this:
supported=1 detected=1
Once the camera reports that it is working, you can start taking photos. The built-in programs are really the best (possibly only) way to do this. Run the raspistill command and have it take a new photo every 100ms, overwriting the previous photo each time.
raspistill –nopreview -w 1280 -h 720 -q 80 -o /dev/shm/pic.jpg
↪-tl 100 -t 0 -th none
The only other configuration to make is to link the image file so that it can be seen remotely via HTTP. Since you installed lighttpd earlier, just type:
sudo ln -s /dev/shm/pic.jpg /var/www/html/pic.jpg
Then see if it’s working by opening a browser window and heading over to http://raspberry.pi.ip.address/pic.jpg, and you should see a still image.
Integration with BirdCam
Remember, since the Raspberry Pi is a complete computer, you don’t need to implement Motion on another system. In my case, the Motion install is on another computer, but yours doesn’t have to be.
The Future?
Honestly, I really want to make the camera solar-powered. I could mount a solar panel on the roof of a bird feeder, and then use that to power a lithium-ion battery to run the RPi. The biggest problem is that Raspberry Pi computers tend to be very sensitive to voltage changes and reboot easily.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Action Cam
https://hackaday.io/project/16393-raspberry-pi-action-cam
A video and still camera based on the Raspberry Pi A+. The camera has integrated bluetooth and wifi for file transfers, as well as an on-board
The design of the action camera had to be based on off-the-shelf components. If you have access to a 3D printer and soldering iron, you can build this project. With that in mind, I started with the Raspberry Pi A+, the newer, low-power version of the Model A. Having the A+ as the platform meant having access to hundreds of parts designed to work with Raspberry Pis; the most important being the camera module
My design goals for this project were simple:
1. Long battery life
2. Wireless communication
3. Simple, durable enclosure
The first goal meant having a large battery. The hour to hour and a half battery life of the GoPro wouldn’t cut it for longer, multi-hour rides. The second meant having both Bluetooth and WiFi so that additional hardware wasn’t needed to interface with the camera.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Animated Gif Camera, Brought To You By A Raspberry Pi
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/23/the-animated-gif-camera-brought-to-you-by-a-raspberry-pi/
No one watches video anymore. Cable cutters are digging into Verizon’s profits, and YouTube is a shadow of its 2005 self. What are people consuming now? Animated gifs. This is the bread and butter of the meme economy. Personally, all my investments are sunk deep into Gandolf / Balrog gifs, with each character replaced with Trump and Hillary. I expect a tidy profit on November 9th.
With animated gifs being the de facto method of sharing moving pictures, the world will belong to those who can create them. Phones are fine, but strangely video cameras, DSLRs, and other high-end photography equipment are the norm. This is idiotic, of course, because high-definition images are just a fad, and audio is useless
PIX-E Gif Camera
https://hackaday.io/project/16358-pix-e-gif-camera
A fully customizable 3D printed camera that takes short gifs using a Raspberry Pi Zero and Raspberry Pi Camera.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Flypi – cheap microscope/experimental setup
https://hackaday.io/project/5059-flypi-cheap-microscopeexperimental-setup
Pi + Picamera + M12 lens + Arduino microscope/experimental setup for diagnostics and scientific experiments!
Our plan with this project is to develop a complete opensource and cheap device for scientific experiments (data collection and analysis) and diagnostics (if they are “microscopy based”).
The setup is quite simple:
A raspberry pi 2 (or 3) (running Raspian) + picamera with mounted lens (M12 standard) + some python3 code (for custom GUI + saving of data) do most of the lifting and an Arduino + custom PCB + electronic bits take care of timing, light stimulation, heating, temperature sensing and any other physical interaction necessary.
For more details, please check: https://openlabwaredotnet.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/main-v4.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Camera Flash
http://hackaday.com/2016/12/22/raspberry-pi-camera-flash/
The Raspberry Pi Camera is a great tool; it allows projects that require a camera to be put together quickly and on a budget. Plus, having a Linux back end for a little processing never hurt anybody. What can be difficult however, is imaging in low light conditions. Most smartphones have an LED flash built in for this purpose. [Wim Van Gool] decided to follow suit and build an LED flash for the Raspberry Pi.
RPI HAT FLASH
https://phyx.be/RPI_HAT_FLASH/
The board is designed around the Ti TPS61169 WLED driver. The drivers are connected to the hardware PWM signals of the RPi. Keep in mind that you can’t keep the LEDs on for a long time due to almost non-existant heat dissipation capacity of the PCB. The camera can be mounted in the center of the board.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Camera v2.1 Reversed
Reversed schematic and PCB of Raspberry Pi Camera v2.1
https://hackaday.io/project/19480-raspberry-pi-camera-v21-reversed
So you assume with all the openness of the Raspberry Pi Foundation that there most popular peripherals would be Open Hardware, but you would be wrong. Turns out the PI Camera does not have publicly available schematic or PCB designs. The project is here to fix that.
As it stands I have drawn up a full schematic for the board. I still need to measure the values of the capacitors, resistors and inductors but the basic functionality is apparent.
http://dryerzinia.io/index.php?p=projects/ReversePiCam21
Tomi Engdahl says:
Motion Detecting Camera Recognizes Humans Using The Cloud
http://hackaday.com/2017/02/06/motion-detecting-camera-recognizes-humans-using-the-cloud/
[Mark West] and his wife had a problem, they’d been getting unwanted guests in their garden. Mark’s solution was to come up with a motion activated security camera system that emails him when a human moves in the garden. That’s right, only a human. And to make things more interesting from a technical standpoint, he does much of the processing in the cloud. He sends the cloud a photo with something moving in it, and he’s sent an email only if it has a human in it.
[Mark]’s first iteration, described very well on his website, involved putting together all off-the-shelf components including a Raspberry Pi Zero, the Pi NoIR camera and the ZeroView Camera Mount that let him easily mount it all on the inside of his window looking out to the garden. He used Motion to examine the camera’s images and look for any frames with movement. His code sent him an email with a photo every time motion was detected. The problem was that on some days he got email alerts with as many as 50 false positives: moving shadows, the neighbor’s cat, even rain on the window.
That lead him to his next iteration, checking for humans in the photos. For that he chose to pass the photos on to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Rekognition online tool to check for humans.
Smarten up your Pi Zero Web Camera with Image Analysis and Amazon Web Services (Part 1)
https://utbrudd.bouvet.no/2017/01/10/smarten-up-your-pi-zero-web-camera-with-image-analysis-and-amazon-web-services-part-1/
Tomi Engdahl says:
PolaPi-Zero
Yet another Polaroid-like camera. Now with flavor! RapsberryPi Zero, Python, Memory-LCD, less wiring. It’s all about monochrome.
https://hackaday.io/project/19731-polapi-zero
This is the second iteration of an Instant-Printing-Point-and-Shoot camera. No more thermal printer hack, and just Python.
It is base on a Raspberry-pi Zero, a Sharp memory LCD for ‘live-view’ and review and the Nano thermal printer from Adafruit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gadget Freak of the Year Creates a Cheap Mine-Detection Tool
David Prutchi wins the top prize for a Design News Gadget at the Pacific Design and Manufacturing show in February 2017.
https://www.designnews.com/gadget-freak/gadget-freak-year-creates-cheap-mine-detection-tool/42291808652537?cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20170228.tst004t
Sometimes cool gadgets double as public service equipment. The DOLPi polarimetric camera can help de-mining teams see if mines are hidden in natural terrain. While the mines are not detectable by the naked eye, the DOLPi is designed to detect human-made materials. At the Pacific Design and Manufacturing show in Anaheim, Calif. earlier this month. David Prutchi was awarded the Design News Gadget Freak of the Year for this cool and useful gadget.
Gadget Freak Case #276: See UFOs and Explosives With a DIY Polarimetric Camera
https://www.designnews.com/governmentdefense/gadget-freak-case-276-see-ufos-and-explosives-diy-polarimetric-camera/145405935146361?doc_id=279719&image_number=1&piddl_msgorder=thrd§ion_id=1362
It’s no secret that there are entire wavelengths of light invisible to the human eye. Animals and insects have eyes that can filter light and polarize it to all sorts of benefits like seeing in the dark and hunting prey. For a more in-depth definition you should consult your old college physics book, but the idea of polarized light is that it oscillates on a single plane, as opposed to scattered around like normal sunlight or lamp light.
You’ve probably seen cameras use polarization filters to enhance or remove certain colors in a shot. But this is really only the tip of the iceberg. Long story short, if a human could see in polarized light he or she would be able to detect all sorts of things normally invisible to the naked eye.
Enter the polarimetric camera.
Design News reader David Prutchi has come up with a project – the DOLPi – an affordable, Raspberry Pi-based polarization camera that anyone can use to see polarized light.
Prutchi has included a whitepaper with highly detailed build instructions, a parts list, and Python source code to run the camera.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Facial Recognition
https://www.hackster.io/gr1m/raspberry-pi-facial-recognition-16e34e?ref=channel&ref_id=425_published___&offset=2
Tomi Engdahl says:
Turn that Pi Zero into a Streaming Camera, Step-by-Step
http://hackaday.com/2017/03/26/turn-that-pi-zero-into-a-streaming-camera-step-by-step/
What makes [mwagner1]’s Raspberry Pi Zero-based WiFi camera project noteworthy isn’t so much the fact that he’s used the hardware to make a streaming camera, but that he’s taken care to document every step in the process from soldering to software installation. Having everything in one place makes it easier for curious hobbyists to get those Pi units out of a drawer and into a project. In fact, with the release of the Pi Zero W, [mwagner1]’s guide has become even simpler since the Pi Zero W now includes WiFi.
Pi Cam Part 1
Raspberry Pi Security System Part 1: The camera.
https://hackmypi.com/PiCamPart1.php
Tomi Engdahl says:
Detect Cars Running Stop Signs (and Squirrels Running Across the Roof)
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/12/detect-cars-running-stop-signs-and-squirrels-running-across-the-roof/
There’s a stop sign outside [Devin Gaffney]’s house that, apparently, no one actually stops at. In order to avoid the traffic and delays on a major thoroughfare, cars take the road behind [Devin Gaffney]’s house, but he noticed a lot of cars didn’t bother to stop at the stop sign. He had a Raspberry Pi and a camera, so he set them up to detect the violating cars.
His setup is pretty standard – Raspberry Pi and camera pointed outside at the intersection. He’s running OpenCV and using machine learning to detect the cars and determine if they have run the stop sign or not.
http://www.stopsign.devingaffney.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Detect Cars Running Stop Signs (and Squirrels Running Across the Roof)
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/12/detect-cars-running-stop-signs-and-squirrels-running-across-the-roof/
There’s a stop sign outside [Devin Gaffney]’s house that, apparently, no one actually stops at. In order to avoid the traffic and delays on a major thoroughfare, cars take the road behind [Devin Gaffney]’s house, but he noticed a lot of cars didn’t bother to stop at the stop sign. He had a Raspberry Pi and a camera, so he set them up to detect the violating cars.
His setup is pretty standard – Raspberry Pi and camera pointed outside at the intersection. He’s running OpenCV and using machine learning to detect the cars and determine if they have run the stop sign or not. His website has some nice charts showing when the violations occurred by hour and by day of the week.