On October 6, 2020, Arduino announced the launch of the new Arduino Portenta Vision Shield, an add-on for the Arduino Portenta H7 that will give you new features - including a low-power camera, two microphones, and wired internet connectivity - so you’ll be on the cutting edge of IoT projects machine learning applications for video.

The original Arduino Portenta H7 was designed to run code in conjunction with real-time tasks, featuring two processors that work in parallel and communicate with each other. This means you could use the Portenta like an embedded microcontroller board, or you could use it to serve as the main processor for an embedded computer.

With the Portenta Vision Shield, you’ll now be able to use the H7 as a high-tech camera that can run real-time ML algorithms for live video feeds.

Arduino Portenta Vision Shield Specs

The Portenta Vision Shield features:

• A Camera Sensor (324 X 324 pixels) – with it you can use the OpenMV for Arduino Editor to run image recognition algorithms

• 2 MP34DT06JTR Microphones – capable of directional sound detection, so you can record, analyze, and response to sound in real-time

• An Ethernet Connector (100mbps) – for a wired internet connection; you can also connect wirelessly via the Portenta H7 board’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

• A SD Connector – so you can store captured data or process configuration files

• A JTAG Connector – debug your Portenta board or run firmware updates with a professional debugger (like those from Segger or Lauterbach), debugging your code step-by-step

The Portenta Vison Shield has been designed to complement the range of available Portenta boards, which come with multicore 32-bit ARM® Cortex™ processors for high level program memory and RAM.

Machine Vision that Never Takes a Shut Eye 

The camera that comes with the Arduino Portenta Vision Shield is a Himax camera designed for ultra-low power. This means you can keep your Portenta H7 in standby mode, and it will only activate the microcontroller when it detects motion, an energy-saving solution for long-lasting performance.

Now you don’t have to worry about continuously running your boards in order to make sure your camera will be on to capture the imagery you need.

Audio Detection & Voice Recognition

With the two built-in, omnidirectional microphones, the Portenta Vision Shield supports both audio event detection and voice recognition.

You’ll be able to capture, store, and share both video and audio data as well as respond to real-time sound.

Ethernet Connectivity Built for IoT 

If you’re working on an IoT project, you may need high bandwidth, which the ethernet connectivity option of the Portenta Vision Shield provides on top of the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capability already built in to the Portenta device.

In addition, the Portenta Vision Shield comes with a LoRa® module option, designed for long-distance, low-power communication over the LoRaWAN® network, a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) protocol developed by Semtech specifically for IoT.

Open MV IDE Compatibility

In partnership with OpenMV, Arduino is offering a free license to OpenMV for Arduino Editor. With OpenMV IDE, you’ll join other global users creating machine vision projects with this ability to scan and read images (including QR codes).

You’ll be able to use MicroPython for programming and easily learn to make use of the embedded computer vision that comes with the Portenta Vision Shield. Try it now and browse through a range of AI/ML algorithms.

With the Portenta Vision Shield ready to ship at the end of October, our team here at Vilros is excited to find out the impact it will have for Arduino Portenta users. If you’ll be an early adopter, let us know your story!

And to find out more about the latest announcements from Arduino and Raspberry Pi, be sure to bookmark and return here to this Vilros blog!