SMART OBJECTS CAMERAS

Equipment List

Smart Objects Camera System

SVA MFA Interaction Design — Winter 2026
3 stations • AI-powered cameras • networked sensing

PER-STATION SETUP

Single Station Components

Each of the 3 stations (Orbit, Gravity, Horizon) requires:

Item Spec / Model Qty Est. Price
Raspberry Pi 5 16 GB RAM 1 ~$205
OAK-D Camera Luxonis OAK-D (USB) 1 ~$299
MicroSD Card 64 GB, Class 10 / A2 1 ~$9
USB-C Power Supply Official Pi 5 27 W PSU (5.1 V / 5 A) 1 ~$12
USB 3.0 Cable USB-A to USB-C, ~1 m 1 ~$5
5V DC Power Supply 5V 2A, 5.5 mm × 2.5 mm barrel jack 1 ~$9

Per-station subtotal: ~$539

Full list →

FULL SET + OPTIONAL EXTRAS

3-Station Total & Add-ons

3-Station Total

Item Qty Est. Total
Raspberry Pi 5 (16 GB) 3 ~$615
OAK-D Camera 3 ~$897
MicroSD Card (64 GB) 3 ~$27
USB-C PSU (27 W) 3 ~$36
USB 3.0 Cable 3 ~$15
5V DC Power Supply (barrel jack) 3 ~$27

3-station total: ~$1,617

Optional but Recommended

Item Qty Est. Price
Ethernet Cables (Cat6) 3 ~$15
Network Switch (5-port Gigabit) 1 ~$20
USB Keyboard + Mouse 1 ~$25
Micro-HDMI to HDMI Cable 1 ~$10
Anker 737 Power Bank (per station) 1 ~$100
USB-A to Barrel Jack Cable 1 ~$9

Optional extras: ~$179

Keyboard, mouse, and HDMI cable are shared across stations. Battery kit enables portable operation (~3 hr runtime).

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CAPABILITIES

What This System Does

Each station is a self-contained smart object

  • Detect people (or other objects) using YOLO neural networks running on the camera's dedicated VPU
  • Send real-time alerts to a shared Discord channel
  • Respond to interactive Discord commands (!status, !detect, !screenshot)
  • Coordinate across multiple cameras as a networked sensing system

Students learn computer vision, hardware integration, networked systems, and Python development through hands-on experimentation.

Software Stack (all free)

  • Raspberry Pi OS — Bookworm 64-bit
  • DepthAI 3.x + depthai-nodes — open source
  • Python 3 + OpenCV + NumPy
  • Discord — bot + webhooks
  • VS Code + Remote SSH extension
  • RealVNC Viewer — free for non-commercial use
No paid software licenses required. Everything runs on the Pi locally.

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OPTIONAL UPGRADE

PoE Spatial Tracking Rig

A multi-camera spatial tracking setup using 3 OAK-D PoE cameras connected to a single Raspberry Pi over powered Ethernet. The PoE switch delivers both power and data to each camera — no USB cables or separate power supplies needed per camera.

Additional Items Needed

Item Qty Est. Price
PoE+ Switch (Ubiquiti UniFi Pro Max 16) 1 ~$399
Ethernet Cables (Cat6) 3 ~$15
Raspberry Pi 5 (16 GB) 1 ~$205
MicroSD Card (64 GB) 1 ~$12
USB-C PSU (27 W) 1 ~$20
Compact Switch (Ubiquiti Flex Mini) 1 ~$87

PoE rig subtotal: ~$738 (not counting cameras already owned)

What Spatial Tracking Enables

  • Track people/objects across a room using triangulated positions from 3 camera angles
  • Each OAK-D PoE runs its own neural network on-device and reports detections over the network
  • The Pi fuses detection data from all 3 cameras into a unified spatial map
  • Cleaner cable runs — one Ethernet cable per camera replaces USB + power

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UPGRADE PATH

OAK 4 Cameras (RVC4)

The current OAK-D uses the RVC2 (Myriad X) chip — capable but slow for multi-stage pipelines (2–8 FPS). The OAK 4 line uses RVC4 (Qualcomm QCS8550) with 52 TOPS — roughly 40× faster.

OAK 4 Models

Model Price Stereo Key Difference
OAK 4 S ~$749 No Single RGB only
OAK 4 D ~$849 Yes Direct OAK-D replacement
OAK 4 D Pro ~$949 Yes + laser Best depth in low-light

All models: 8 GB RAM, 128 GB storage, 48 MP RGB, standalone capable. USB + PoE built into every unit.
Ships March 20, 2026 from shop.luxonis.com.

USB Stations Upgrade (OAK 4 D × 3)

Current Upgrade
Cameras (×3) ~$897 ~$2,547
Pis + accessories ~$720 ~$720
Total ~$1,617 ~$3,267

PoE Rig Upgrade (OAK 4 D × 3)

Current Upgrade
Cameras (×3) owned ~$2,547
Switch + Pi + acc. ~$738 ~$738
Total ~$738 ~$3,285
What it unlocks: 30 FPS multi-stage pipelines, open-vocabulary detection, on-device standalone apps. Same PoE switch & cables work.

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