Local AI Just Got Easy (and Cheap)

This Google TPU makes local AI simple...

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Explore the groundbreaking Coral AI mini PCIe accelerator by Google, a game-changer for home automation and DIY projects, in my latest video where I integrate this innovative chip with the ZimaBoard and Zima Blade for superior performance and cost-effectiveness. Discover how this setup outperforms others, like the Raspberry Pi 5, in speed and thermal efficiency, and follow my journey from troubleshooting software issues to successfully running Frigate, an advanced home lab computer vision system. Learn how this affordable, under $100 setup can revolutionize your home tech projects!

Monitor your security cameras with locally processed AI
Frigate is an open source NVR built around real-time AI object detection. All processing is performed locally on your own hardware, and your camera feeds never leave your home.

[ooglek]

So you state "cheap" but fail to cover the actual costs of all the hardware! 'sup with that? I'd at least expect that in the description, or a pinned comment, or covered in the video and a summary at the end with some chapter markers. Pretty please?

I did the work for you:
USD$119.90 to $199.90 - Zima Board
USD$64 to $96 - Zima Blade, dual-core and quad-core, respectively (unsure of availability)
USD$24.99 - Coral AI Mini PCIe Accelerator
USD$10 - Mini PCIe Adapter Card (eBay)

So Cheap = about USD$125 for the Blade, AI, Adapter, and $25 for power supply, wires, etc (maybe less)
Questionable Availability though
Still cool, but holy hell you really need to be a BOFH SYSOP to get this working. NOT EASY

[wizbowes]

I'm really confused. Your title is Local AI JUST got Easy. I've been using a Coral TPU with Frigate exactly like this since August 2021 - literally 2 and quarter years before you made this video and I wasn't a cutting edge user by any means. This really isn't new or any different to what we've had for a long time.

[jdl]

Did you test to see if the USB bus speed is causing a bottleneck as is the premise of the video? 600MB/s is a huge amount of image data to pass over to the accelerator. Is the bus latency an issue?
Would be nice to see a use case that shows where the “faster” you mention matters.

[KamelMakhloufi]

The Coral TPU m.2 / mini-PCIe version itself is PCIe 2.0 x1 aka 500MB/s, so theoretically it's "slower" than the USB3 version in every case. Obviously the answer isn't as simple as that, but saying the PCIe version is faster because USB3 bandwith is only 625MB/s isn't the right answer either. You have to take into account various overheads, driver optimizations, etc...

[festro]

I love that you relate Frigate to golden eye, I do the same thing with relating facilities to bathrooms because of that game.

[monstercameron]

PS there is nothing wrong with using an older version of python. Use conda or venv to properly version your pip deps

[nectarinetangerineorange]

Conda (anaconda or miniconda) resolves python dependency issues by creating a separate environment with the specified version of python, and isolates the environment along with anything loaded into the environment related to Python (ie if you install with pip or conda, it stays with the environment and leaves the systems python alone)

This allows me to use alpha versions of ubuntu with any python programs i want by having separated environments for each program

[Omizuke]

Person detection. Training the AI to hunt us more efficiently. lol
This is an amazing little thing. I do have an issue with the AI online. Having a local device that can be use to monitor and do what it has to do on an offline local network is amazing.

[JimFeig]

Given the keying of your M2 module is should have a max transfer rate of 250MB/s or maybe 500MB/s if using both PCIE channels.

[cken]

Pretty sure you leaked your public IP address in your router webpage at around 3 mins in. Better blur it away to be safe. This project is novel to me, just that the view screen within MacOS is quite faint when it moves along with the mouse pointer, especially in 9:54.

[ozkifovxvypyvp]

I don't know how you do your video editing, but I really like the zoom and other effects thrown in here. Nice walkthrough.

[gabrielstangel]

*gains sentience* as you plugged in the TPU made me lol

[johnlaurencepoole]

Suggestion: use an IP camera to lessen the complexity and length of your video and revise your video, most viewers who want detection will be using IP cameras, and leave the rtsp magic for a separate video. While I used 13 Reolinks cameras, beware that Reolink uses LIVE555 for its rtsp server and earlier cheaper models generate problem packets. I waited almost a year to get my hands on some Coral USBs, it's good to see the M2s available and that certainly expands my options. Thank you.

[ChristopherFortin]

I'm blown away you were able to get this piece of Google abandonware up

[nimbl_]

Love the video! The audio is a little wonky at points. Loud and then quiet then REALLY loud then quiet. Hurt my ears with my earbuds in. Thanks for the info!

[HiddenKey]

just a reminder, blur is not destructive. use black/white or colour blocks if you want to censor

[powerdada]

Thank you for this. ;-) Have a zimaboard 832, with coral tpu USB & PCI

[josequinton]

Good thing you have in your hand think 2~3 years ago went to buy a older Coral w/ priced $60 nxt thing every direction scooped up & vendors were selling’ like @ $190 even $300 even if one could afford it was they were hard find a/ lead time was spaced like months for the next available batch {same thing w/ the older Versions of Raspberries

[ahmedal]

What would be a cool graduation project using some other APIs and LLMs along with Coral? I was thinking face recognition and auto lock based on face but I would like to hear your take on! Thanks for inspiring us to do it our selves! I hope one day I can start a tech community like yours!

[liamblu]

Want this on a slot for my Framework 16 instead of the graphics card.