Hi @Brandon,

Yes. Thanks for directing my attention to the "DepthAI: USB3C with Onboard Cameras".
I think this is likely a much better solution!
But just a quick question though - What's the height / thickness of this board?

I'll also be testing the DepthAI RPi CM3+ edition as soon as it arrives here - Hopefully, this'll arrive today or tomorrow.
But I think another separate enclosure for the battery is still needed with this setup.
That's because it'd probably be a bit on the heavy side when the battery and Zero2Go power management board are attached to the DepthAI RPi CM3+.
And this is why I was thinking of the DepthAI USB-C FCC edition.

Though because of your suggestions - My attention for this alternative approach is now on the DepthAI USB3-C onboard edition! 🙂
Another good thing about this is that it's still USB3-C, so the cable would most likely be thin - For this ID concept, I think combining this cable with the 40-pin flat ribbon cable of the gesture control board (Flick Zero) wouldn't significantly affect its flexibility.
Plus, it'll be more straightforward to also use other single board computers that support USB3-C and OpenVINO.

Thanks again! 🙂

Hi @MarxMelencio ,

The thickness is 27mm (mainly the heatsink). So if put in a metal case one could heatsink to that directly so that it wouldn't be as thick.

And yes sounds right on everything else you mention.

So one thing that might be possible is to just have the battery down w/ the SBC and have it monitor the battery directly there. So then the only thing that is on the chest is the BW1098OBC connected over USB. Note that the BW1098OBC is set up to have 5V barrel power, but there's a resistor that can be switched to make it power over USB instead.

We did this because by spec USB2 devices can only supply 500mA. And the board can pull as much as 900mA. So USB3 is enough (it's rated for 900mA), but we can't control if folks plug into a device that can supply only 500mA.

FWIW, most SBCs can do over 900mA (usually like 2A) through their USB ports, even USB2. The Raspberry Pi 3B+ can do about 2A for example.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Brandon

    So we were talking to one of our customers about this and he brought up this system:

    It uses servos to tap you on the temple to tell you to go left or right on a path.

    Hi Brandon,

    Really cool idea to take out the BW1098OBC's heatsink and integrate that into the ID of the enclosure!! 🙂
    —> I'm thinking of placing a thinner H-shaped heatsink in the original heatsink's place, so it'll be built into the enclosure's front and sides; and
    • This'd likely make the entire thing thinner, also most likely without negatively affecting the heatsink's efficiency in serving its purpose ...

    Also, would it be possible for me to order a BW1098OBC that's already switched to use USB3-C power and has the heatsink taken out?
    —> I'd probably be able to afford this, including shipping, by next week ...

    And I'm still waiting for the DepthAI RPi edition to arrive — DHL tracking seems to be stuck at "customs event", but I've already contacted them about this a couple of times (still waiting for them to get back to me) ...

    On another note, I've been talking to 45 blind users here for the past 2 weeks — I introduced the concept to them, and all of them are really, really excited about this! 🙂
    —> I developed and been conducting, as the main trainer, a series of free Webinar training sessions in coordination with Resources for the Blind, Inc. here in the Philippines; and
    • It's called "Remote Work 101 — An Actionable Workshop to Get Gainful Online Jobs in the Middle of a Global Crisis ", which is sponsored by Nippon Foundation Japan and ICEVI East-Asia (International Council for the Education of Persons with Visual Impairment) ...

    • 🙁 Almost 70% of blind Filipino adults here in the country recently lost their ONLY income source. That's due to gov't mandated lockdowns as a response to CoViD-19, as they're masseurs; and
    • 🙁 Blind Filipino children and teenagers alike are also significantly affected, as they aren't getting suitable education due to the lockdowns, especially in rural areas here ...

    So I learned that, both in urban and rural areas here, many with 30% vision are riding their bikes while others without functional eyesight are walking for an hour or so each day (still no public mass transport due to the lockdowns), just to go to downtown areas, so as to access gov't support services and Internet connectivity for these free Webinars / remote training sessions, among their other day-to-day needs. 🙁
    • This is where DepthAI can really, really help; and
    • I've also been talking to SPED teachers about the possibility of using DepthAI to provide gammified educational content to blind Filipino children and teenagers even beyond these lockdowns, and they're really, really hopeful! 🙂

        Hi again @Brandon,

        DeepWay looks like a really cool project — Thanks for the heads up! 🙂

        This gives me some ideas to, in future versions, integrate vibrating ERM motor disks into the backside of the ID enclosure concept, so as to provide real time haptic feedback. 🙂
        • Users will feel on their chests where detected object's are in any of the 6 quadrants I previously mentioned (top left, top center, top right, bottom left, bottom center, bottom right); and
        • That's aside from providing us with open ear audible input for the class, clockface location and distance of detected objects, along with other beneficial functions like OCR and so on! 🙂

        MarxMelencio Very Cool!

        Neat to see you helping in so many ways!

        Also, would it be possible for me to order a BW1098OBC that's already switched to use USB3-C power and has the heatsink taken out?

        Yes, we can definitely do this. Also one of my friends who's a mechanical engineer may be able to help to make a heat-spreading case for this design.

        If you order the BW1098OBC (here), we'll ship you one with the power switched to USB input and also have the heatsink removed (but included in the shipment).

        Be sure to not run the device long with the heatsink removed though without another equivalent heatsink (e.g. the heat-spreading case) in its place, as it will very likely overheat.

        And WRT customs: let us know if there's anything we need to do to help. Usually these need to be cleared by the receiving party though.

        Thanks again,
        Brandon

          Hi @Brandon,

          Thanks! 🙂
          I'll order from that page for sure, as soon as I raise the money for the unit and shipping, hopefully later this week.

          Yes, I'll let you know as soon as DHL gets back to me.
          Their tracking page says the package is already here in Manila, so I contacted their Manila support directly, since it's stuck at "customs status updated".
          But they haven't gotten back to me yet - I'll call them again tomorrow morning GMT+8.

          Thanks again, and have a great week ahead! 🙂

          Thanks @MarxMelencio !

          So for anyone else following the thread, we have moved a lot of the iteration to our slack community channel on this ( #visual-assistance ), here.

          And we have two parallel efforts in progress:

          1. Prototype with existing DepthAI hardware (BW1097 and BW1098OBC in process, as above).
          2. Build a custom completely-integrated system for this visual assistance device, specs of which are here.

          Please feel free to come join us in slack (and contribute) if this is of interest to you!

          Thanks,
          Brandon

          7 days later
          7 days later

          So @MarxMelencio - Rares at Luxonis was able to get the text detection running on DepthAI even though OpenVINO says that it doesn't work. So this is a great step for then being able to do OCR on the text.

          Github issue here

          Hi @Brandon,

          Cool! 🙂
          • I'll take a closer look much later this week. Planning to test some sequential methods for running object detection, tracking, text detection, and text recognition. Will test OpenVINO, Pytesseract, and Microsoft OCR Read Cloud API ...

          Also, I managed to successfully run BW1097 with my PiJuice HAT and 40-pin GPIO extender ribbon cable (male to female).
          • However after a couple of days, PiJuice suddenly isn't able to supply enough power. Even if the PiJuice HAT is still working, based on its LEDs.
          • And my Zero2Go Omini isn't working. I remember we used a capacitor to make this work with an RPi Zero WH ...
          • So I'm back to using BW1097's official power supply, while waiting for the USB-A male to barrel plug that I ordered, as we discussed in Slack ...

          And I'll in the next day or so share a video in Slack regarding some things I've been doing.
          • This mainly involves calculating object placement in clockface locations, i.e. If x_distance and y_distance <= -0.85m, then clockface location is "7 o'clock" (Python treats negative values with higher numbers as bigger, instead of smaller, so this is >= in my code) ...
          • Converting z_distance into number of standard steps, i.e. If <= 1m, then "2 steps away or less" ...
          • Stringing this up with mobilenet object class, i.e. 9 o'clock. Person. 3 steps away ...
          • Generating quick beeps with stereo panning to prefix TTS of combined result, i.e. Quick stereo pan from right to left if object is at the left (10, 9 and 7 o'clock), no stereo panning for center clockface locations (12 noon, dead center, 6 o'clock), etc.
          • Also using fade ins / outs and 3 different pitches for these beeps, i.e. Lower pitch for 5 / 6 / 7 o'clock positions, and so on, to optimize much faster user recognition of object location ...
          • Plus, using 3 different TTS voices for the same reason, i.e. One voice for object location, another for object class, and another for distance ...

          Cheers! 🙂


          Also, I managed to successfully run BW1097 with my PiJuice HAT and 40-pin GPIO extender ribbon cable (male to female).
          • However after a couple of days, PiJuice suddenly isn't able to supply enough power. Even if the PiJuice HAT is still working, based on its LEDs.
          • And my Zero2Go Omini isn't working. I remember we used a capacitor to make this work with an RPi Zero WH ...
          • So I'm back to using BW1097's official power supply, while waiting for the USB-A male to barrel plug that I ordered, as we discussed in Slack ...

          Interesting. Checking out the PiJuice HAT specs now. FWIW I did order the USB-to-barrel-jack cable here and tested it, and it does work. It also looks identical to the standard power supply barrel jack, so that's good.

          Output amperage - maximum current at 5V gpio is 2.5A and at VSYS output 2.1A, but also this depends heavily on battery capacity. For BP7X have measured around 1.1A at 5V GPIO and around 1.6A at VSYS output. Obviously, this also depends heavily on the current draw demanded by the Raspberry Pi/device itself. To achieve a maximum of 2.5A it will need battery over 3500mAh.

          What size battery are you using with the PiJuice? From their specs here it seems 3.5Ah or higher is required.

          And I looked at the Zero2Go Omni... from the look of the board I don't think it can provide the current. Checking to see what its specs are in terms of output current. It says Output 5V (±5%), maximum 2A but it just doesn't seem like it has enough onboard capacitance/energy storage to reliably support that for a dynamic load (like a computer system). So this fits w/ what you were saying about having to add a capacitor. It looks like it's more intended for <1A use.

          • I'll take a closer look much later this week. Planning to test some sequential methods for running object detection, tracking, text detection, and text recognition. Will test OpenVINO, Pytesseract, and Microsoft OCR Read Cloud API ...

          Super excited to learn what you find! We have not researched this field much. The closest I've done is OpenALPR on an iPhone. :-)

          And really cool on the effort you've done to share information in clock direction and w/ audio feedback w/ different pitches/etc.! That's super neat! Really excited to hear it in action!

          Thanks again,
          Brandon

          3 months later

          We have the first version of the visual assistance variant working now! Some photos below show that it is small enough to be wrist-worn, measuring 60mm x 47mm x 27mm.