Raspberry Pi "warming" up

What was initially developing as an engineering kit for computer science now seems to have a life of its own. I’m talking about the ever-popular Raspberry Pi credit-card sized single-board computer.

The Raspberry Pi computer, which was developed in the UK, has become something much more than just a lesson in programming. Some recent examples of how the Pi is being deployed in imaging systems include:

• Powering an aquatic drone that can be used for recreational and research purposes.
• Powering satellite smart cameras to help combat the poaching of endangered species.

To get an idea of some of the other capabilities and uses of the Raspberry Pi, check out this article here, which suggests 25 different applications of the computer, including:

• Powering a robot
• Powering a quadcopter UAV
• Enabling home automation

You get the point; the Raspberry Pi is a multi-functional camera that turned from an experiment to a ubiquitous, and inexpensive, tool. Now, the latest news from the company is that by removing the infrared filter, the Raspberry Pi camera board module can sense infrared signals. The new Pi NoIR (Pi, noinfrared) camera board may be officially launched as soon as November.

Raspberry Pi’s beginning is not that dissimilar to the Kinect, which was once thought of as a toy for children wanting to play sports or shooting games in their living rooms. Engineers should keep their eye on such developments, I would suggest, because in the future, inexpensive machine vision systems such as these are sure to be embedded in many portable imaging systems.