Camrd Raspberry Pi-Powered Rugged Camera Offers Smart Object Recognition, Waste Tracking

Environmentalist Paul Kinsella has launched a crowdfunding campaign for the Camrd Camera, a Raspberry Pi-powered outdoor camera with object recognition capabilities and up to a 220-degree field of vision.

"We initially started the internal project for vehicles, so it needed to be fully waterproof and be able to sustain constant direct hits from trees and branches," Kinsella explains of the Camrd's origins. "From this base camera concept we soon realised that we needed to add full vehicle 360 degree coverage and the ability to recognise objects. This brought us to where we are today with a programmable Raspberry Pi camera which is suitable for all types of rugged outdoor situations."

Inside the ruggedized and weatherproof housing of the Camrd is a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ board fitted with a 64GB microSD card for both the operating system and to store up to seven days of Full HD (1080p) video footage. The camera module, meanwhile, is placed behind a choice of 160 degree or 220 degree fish-eye lenses — themselves protected by a water-resistant glass dome.

Control of the camera system comes through a web portal, capable of pulling recorded or live video and still images as well as installing software updates as and when required. The software platform also comes with predefined object and location recognition capabilities: The initial modes confirmed for launch include people and vehicle counting, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), facial recognition, and waste management tracking for rubbish collections and the insertion of contaminants into a recycling container.

"Initially we started the camera project to monitor missed bin on a refuse collection route, in order to give the office staff knowledge whether the customer placed their bin out in time," Kinsella recalls. "This then evolved into monitoring old weighbridges in order to send the weighing results to external machines. Today we are trying to get the cameras to understand the contents and fill level of containers. So as you can understand the camera project was always about creating a 'personal view' of something and not just a recorded frame which sits on a DVR system. We wanted to capture the situation, understand it and create the correct alert/action based on this.

The campaign is now live on Kickstarter, with rewards priced from €105 ($116) for the rugged case only rising to €299 ($329) for a fully-assembled Camrd with all required hardware. All rewards are expected to ship by April this year.