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On Demo, a $25 1080p Camera Module For Raspberry Pi
hypnosec writes "The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced a new add-on – a camera module that will enable the credit card sized computer to snap pictures as well as record 1080p videos. Showcased by RS Components at the Elecontrica 2012 in Germany [watch video here] the £16 (apprx) module will be equipped with a 5MP sensor and will plug into the otherwise unused CSI pins of the Pi. The camera module's board is still in prototype stage and is expected to reach production sometime soon. Liz Upton, Executive Director of the Foundation said in a blog post, 'We've a (very) little way to go before we're able to send it out to manufacture.' According to Upton, testing slots have been booked in December to check on electromagnetic radiations from the ribbon cable."
And in other news, Arduino cards have a 16MHz 8-bit processor with mere kilobytes of both RAM and flash. And despite making a 1980s suitcase computer look fast, they've proven themselves to be fully capable of running all sorts of awesome things that hobbyists have been using them for.
What's your point again?
Actual use cases I've seen for the Raspberry Pi that I've done myself and seen others do:
- Plug the Rpi into a LAN, and connect it to the serial console of a piece of equipment with a USB to serial cable - old router, telephone equipment, radio broadcast transmitter, fill in the blank. SSH into the thing if you need to get at the console instead of doing a site trip.
- Plug a few sensors into it, run it off a 12V car battery and a +5V automotive USB adapter, and leave it somewhere to log data onto the SD card or a USB stick.
- Plug a USB hard drive into it, and use it as a low power torrent downloader, instead of keeping your desktop PC powered up when you're not home.
It's a tiny, $25 linux machine. Possibilities are endless.
I ordered 20 for my classroom last Friday. They arrived on Wednesday. What supply problem?
Yup, you are too clueless, because you obviously have no idea of the complexity involved. It takes man-months to really get a camera driver working properly, then man years to tune the sensor ISP to actually produce decent pictures. You get all that work, plus PCB development, for $25. And it is the standard OV sensor, not a specific 'locked down' version - you don't need locked down sensors because the damn things are all bloody different anyway.
But actually Jamesh didnt say that was the reason the GPU blob is locked down at all. The GPU has its own firmware which is closed course, the camera driver and tuning are in that firmware, so are locked down as a result of the entire GPU source being closed, not because people are not experienced enough to make the sensor work.
But full marks for FUD - well done.