The $50 Modular reCamera Aims to Be the ‘Most Advanced AI Camera’

Aug 26, 2024

Jeremy Gray

A high-quality camera with a large lens is mounted on a compact, sturdy tripod standing on a wooden surface. The background is blurred, highlighting the camera and tripod as the main focus of the image. — reCamera Industrial (work in progress)

Seeed Studio is putting the finishing touches on what it calls the world’s “most advanced AI camera.” A modular, customizable device, the reCamera can run computer vision and artificial intelligence tasks on-device.

“reCamera is more than just a camera — it’s an intelligent, standalone system engineered for Computer Vision tasks,” Seeed Studio explains. “Built with RISC-V SoC, reCamera delivers one trillion operations per second (one TOPS) of AI performance through a dual-core CPU and an MCU with 8KB SRAM. This compact, open-source AI camera is fully programmable and customizable, making it ideal for developers and innovators.”

A promotional image from Seeed Studio showcasing various AI camera components and modules, including the PoE BaseBoard, Type-C BaseBoard, and SC200S SensorBoard. The text emphasizes modular design, high AI performance, and versatile AI detection capabilities.

Based on the company’s marketing for its new reCamera, it’s immediately evident that the camera goes far beyond typical picture-taking scenarios. It is a device designed and built for specific computational tasks. That said, given its open-source nature, Seeed Studio expects people to customize the reCamera to their needs, which could theoretically include some exciting photography projects.
As noted by Hackster.io, Seeed Studio hopes to make the reCamera stand out from other open-source smart cameras thanks to the camera’s modularity.

Technical diagram for "reCamera," a programmable AI camera by Seeed Studio. Left side features an exploded view of the camera parts; right side presents a detailed table of product specifications for reCamera 2002 and reCamera 2002w, including performance, sensors, and connectivity.

That customizable nature extends to the image sensor, with Seeed offering three different sensor boards. None are high resolution, topping out at five megapixels for two different rolling shutter options. There is also a global shutter option that is one megapixel. That said, DIY Photography reports that at launch, which is not too far off as the reCamera is currently in public alpha testing, only one of the two five megapixel sensor boards will be available.

Various expansion boards for reCamera are displayed, including SensorBoard - SC130GS, SensorBoard - IMX335, reCamera Core, BaseBoard - PoE, BaseBoard - Gimbal, and SensorBoard - OV5647, with "Customize Expansion Board for reCamera!" text and Seeed Studio logo.

Each sensor board pairs with a core board, which includes the processor and optional wireless communications, and a base board, which includes different communication ports such as USB-C and Ethernet.

A white robotic camera mounted on a white triangular base with a swiveling arm, set against a blurred blue and black background with some colorful bokeh effects. The camera has a rectangular head with a lens in the center. — reCamera Gimbal (work in progress)

The significant draw of reCamera is its intelligence. Seeed Studio cites the camera’s ability to perform AI detection tasks on camera, adding that it supports AI frameworks like TensorFlow and PyTorch. The camera runs a custom, Linux-based open-source buildroot system, reCamera OS. Seeed is also working on numerous related projects, including an open-source reCamera Gimbal, a rugged reCamera Industrial housing, and even a reCamera Robot Arm.

“Why choose reCamera?” Seeed Studio asks. “Modularity, high performance, and ease of use,” the company answers.

A close-up image of a robotic arm with carbon fiber segments and red connectors, holding an orange camera-like device at the end. The background is blurred, with blue lights and shelves visible. — reCamera Robot Arm (work in progress)

It’s also an affordable device. The reCamera will start at just under $35 for the base model (no Wi-Fi and 8GB of eMMC memory) when it launches. A Wi-Fi/Bluetooth-equipped version with 64GB of memory will sell for around $55. The company is also offering 50% discount codes in exchange for a $5 pre-order deposit. Complete purchasing information is available on Seeed Studio’s store.

Image credits: Seeed Studio. Some photos show work-in-progress developments. Detailed documentation and schematics are available on GitHub.