People interested in running AI on an SBC have been having a fantastic time lately. We've seen an official Raspberry Pi AI kit and a ton of alternatives you can check out. Now, SBC AI fans are eating well once again, after Sony teamed up with Raspberry Pi to bring an AI camera to the board. Best of all, the camera itself has an AI processor on it, making it a nice all-in-one package for getting visual AI tasks done.

Sony and Raspberry Pi reveal an AI camera for its SBCs

As announced on the Sony Semiconductor Solutions Group news feed, Sony and Raspberry Pi have teamed up to release an AI camera. The camera is a 12.3-megapixel model and can hit 10FPS at 4056x3,040 resolution, or 40FPS at 2,028x1,520.

So, what makes this camera an "AI camera"? Well, you don't have to worry about your SBC having an AI module:

Because vision data is normally massive, using it to develop AI solutions can require a graphics processing unit (GPU), an accelerator, and a variety of other components in addition to a camera. The new Raspberry Pi AI Camera, however, is equipped with the IMX500 intelligent vision sensor which handles AI processing, making it easy to develop edge AI solutions with just a Raspberry Pi and the AI Camera.

As you might imagine, the additional hardware raises the price a little higher than a typical Raspberry Pi camera. It comes in at $70, and you can snag one for yourself by visiting the Raspberry Pi AI camera website, clicking "Buy AI Camera" and then selecting a trusted reseller. And if that's a bit too pricey for your liking, you can instead check out the best Raspberry Pi cameras for some cheaper alternatives without the AI hardware.