Raspberry Pi-based dog detector (and dopamine booster)

A Raspberry Pi Digicam Module and machine learning can do the dog spotting for you.

You can normally count on Ryder’s YouTube channel to be entire of weird and amazing would make. This latest providing aims to enhance dopamine degrees with dog spotting. Looking at dogs would make you happier, ideal? But you can not devote all working day looking out of the window waiting for a dog to pass, ideal? Nicely, a Raspberry Pi Digicam Module and machine learning can do the dog spotting for you.

Digicam established up prepared for dog spotting

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What is the set up?

Ryder’s Raspberry Pi and digital camera sit on a tripod pointing out of a window looking in excess of a avenue. Are living movie of the avenue is taken by the digital camera and fed via a machine learning model. Ryder selected the YOLO v3 item detection model, which can presently recognise close to eighty different factors — from dogs to humans, and even umbrellas:

Doggo passing bulletins

But how would Ryder know that his Raspberry Pi experienced detected a dog? They’re so sneaky — they do the job in silence. A megaphone and some textual content-to-speech software make guaranteed that Ryder is alerted in time to operate to the window and see the passing dog. The megaphone announces: “Attention! There is a sweet dog outdoors.”

The machine learning method clearly labels a ‘person’ and a ‘dog’

“Hey! Sweet dog!”

Ryder wanted to share the like and demonstrate his appreciation to the entrepreneurs of sweet dogs, so he extra a characteristic for when he is out of the house. With the megaphone poking out of a window, the Raspberry Pi does its dog-detecting as usual, but instead of alerting Ryder, it announces: “I like your dog” when a canine is walked previous.