seeking (low cost) HW + SW system for image pixel analysis

After pinging around about this, I settled on a Raspberry Pi with a camera card.
The Pi is credit card size, and the camera card is about an inch square.
At least on paper, I haven't found anything wrong with this setup.

Advantages include:

1. The 5 mp camera is connected to the board by a fast parallel bus. It
will transfer video at 30 fps and 30 stills per sec.

2. The board has 512 mb to store the images.

3. The 700 mhz ARM processor runs Linux.

4. There is a graphics library for image analysis, OpenCV, on Linux.

5. The board has wifi for internet, usb, HDMI for monitor.

6. I think a usb HD would connect. A usb hub can accomodate kbd and ouse.

7. Of course, GPIO pins are there for control of circuits. ADC, DAC can be added.

8. Right now the cost US is $100 for Pi + cam. China is already lowering that by
20%.

9. The camera can sense NIR if a filter is removed.


That's about it.
JB

In article ,
wrote:
Raspberry Pi with a camera card.

2. The board has 512 mb to store the images.

The board has 512MB system memory *total*, there's memory consumed
by running Linux, your apps, and part of it is reserved and used by the GPU.

You may wish to find somewhere to offload the images to. The SD card you boot
from (that holds the Linux OS/files/swap space) can be Gigabytes large, so that's
one answer, or you could force them over a wired/wireless network to another computer.

5. The board has wifi for internet

Not built in, you need to add a USB WIFI dongle, and you may need a powered hub
for it to work, current on the USB ports is limited.

9. The camera can sense NIR if a filter is removed.

There are two versions of the camera, the regular one, and the "NOIR"
model, which has the filter factory not-fitted

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Mike Brown: mjb[-at-]signal11.org.uk | http://www.signal11.org.uk

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9. The camera can sense NIR if a filter is removed.



There are two versions of the camera, the regular one, and the "NOIR"

model, which has the filter factory not-fitted

Yes, you are right about the details, but my focus is "What is the best board
for imaging and signal processing?" So it's a study of forests more than trees.
I am happy to have any substantial memory on board that can hold the images. And an OS with a file system, and a USB that can host a hard drive, and a high speed bus for the camera.
There doesn't seem to be anyone else that has this combination.