This week we were primarily focused on creating the presentation. We took a look at parts and determined which would be suitable for our use-case requirements. Particularly, I looked at the computer vision section and what hardware would be necessary. I looked at benchmarks on various compute platforms (RPI vs Jetson) of object detection algorithms. I found that an RPI can infer in ~500ms if we tweak the parameters correctly, which we found suitable for this use case. We also looked at camera options, and I believe that a regular pi camera will provide suitable resolution at a reasonable price.
In our presentation, someone brought up concerns about the effect of smoke on image detection. I considered this problem, and while I don’t have a definitive answer, one workaround I thought about was sensor-fusing with a thermal camera. We could use the combination of inputs to more accurately detect fires.
I am currently on track with the schedule. Next week, I will be looking into creating some notebooks and doing proof-of-concept testing to make sure my intuition is correct about my sensing components.