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Google is increasingly focusing on neural networks and artificial intelligence to solve problems in search, epitome processing, and other areas of computing. Information technology'due south also doing what information technology can to foster interest in bogus intelligence among the programmer and DIY communities with initiatives like "AIY Projects," which stands for artificial intelligence yourself. Google has announced a new AIY hardware project to help you experiment with computer vision and object recognition.

This is the 2d release as part of AIY Projects. The start i was the AIY Voice Kit, which was based on a project from a Raspberry Pi enthusiast magazine called MagPi. The new AIY Vision Kit has a very similar vibe. It too is based on a Raspberry Pi (See on Amazon) and comes with a simple paper-thin enclosure. It certainly doesn't look fancy, but it tin do some very fancy things. Although, the $45 kit doesn't come with everything you need.

The AIY Vision Kit includes a cardboard enclosure, a push button, a speaker, a pair of camera lenses, the AI board, and various bits of wire and connectors. Yous need to add a Raspberry Pi Zero, a Raspberry Pi camera, an SD card, and a power supply. The Raspberry Pi camera is the well-nigh expensive of those components at effectually $30. The Cypher itself is only $5, but it doesn't need a lot of ability. All the cool computer vision features are controlled by the included VisionBonnet board.

The VisionBonnet board is at the heart of this project with its Intel Movidius MA2450 bit. This low-power vision processing unit of measurement is capable of running neural network models to recognize objects. The included software runs three TensorFlow-based neural networks. I of them is based on Google'southward MobileNets platform and is capable of recognizing over ane,000 everyday objects. The second one can spot faces and expressions in images. The last is a neural network designed specifically to recognize cats, dogs, and people. Google has also created a tool for AIY Vision that allows yous to railroad train new models with TensorFlow. The kit supports a Python API to brand basic changes like altering the color of the button LED, adjusting speaker book, and so on.

Google offers a few potential uses for the kit, similar seeing when your dog is at the back door and reading the facial expressions of your holiday guests. Does uncle Jim really like those socks yous got him? Peradventure the AIY Vision Kit tin tell you. That all seems fun, but this is really about giving tinkerers an inexpensive way to experiment with neural networks. If you're interested in picking upwards the AIY Vision Kit, it's available for pre-social club at Micro Center and will ship later this month.