AI-on-the-edge-device/README.md

# Welcome to the AI-on-the-edge-device
Artificial intelligence based systems have been established in our every days live. Just think of speech or image recognition. Most of the systems relay on either powerful processors or a direct connection to the cloud for doing the calculations up there. With the increasing power of modern processors the AI systems are coming closer to the end user - which is usually called **edge computing**.
Here this edge computing is brought into a practical oriented example, where a AI network is implemented on a ESP32 device so: **AI on the edge**.

This projects allows you to digitalize your **analoge** water, gas, power and other meters using cheap and easily available hardware.

All you need is an [ESP32 board with a supported camera](https://github.com/jomjol/AI-on-the-edge-device/wiki/Hardware-Compatibility) and a bit of a practical hand.

<img src="images/esp32-cam.png" width="200">

## Key features
- **Small** and **cheap** device (3x4.5x2 cm³, < 10 EUR)
- camera and illumination integrated
- Web surface for administration and control
- OTA-Interface to update directly through the web interface
- API for easy integration
- Inline Image processing (feature detection, alignment, ROI extraction)
- Tensorflow Lite (TFlite) integration - including easy to use wrapper

## Workflow
The device takes a photo of your meter at a defined interval. It then extracts the Regions of Interest (ROI's) out of it and runs them through an artificial inteligence. As a result, you get the digitalized value of your meter.

There are several options what to do with that value. Either send it to a MQTT broker, write it to an InfluxDb or simply provide it throug a REST API.

<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jomjol/AI-on-the-edge-device/master/images/idea.jpg" width="600"> 

## Impressions
### AI-on-the-edge-device on a Water Meter
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jomjol/AI-on-the-edge-device/master/images/watermeter_all.jpg" width="200"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jomjol/AI-on-the-edge-device/master/images/main.jpg" width="200"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jomjol/AI-on-the-edge-device/master/images/size.png" width="200"> 

### Web Interface (Water Meter)
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jomjol/AI-on-the-edge-device/master/images/watermeter.jpg" width="600"> 

### AI-on-the-edge-device on a Electrical Power Meter
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jomjol/AI-on-the-edge-device/master/images/powermeter.jpg" width="600"> 


## Setup
There is a growing [wiki](https://github.com/jomjol/AI-on-the-edge-device/wiki) which provides you with a lot of information.
Head there to get a start, set it up and configure it.

There are also a articles in the German Heise magazine "make:" about the setup and the technical background (behind a paywall) : [DIY - Setup](https://www.heise.de/select/make/2021/2/2103513300897420296)

For further background information, head to [Neural Networks](https://www.heise.de/select/make/2021/6/2126410443385102621), [Training Neural Networks](https://www.heise.de/select/make/2022/1/2134114065999161585) and [Programming on the ESP32](https://www.heise.de/select/make/2022/2/2204010051597422030) 

## Download
The latest available version is available on the [Releases page](https://github.com/jomjol/AI-on-the-edge-device/releases).

Initially you will have to flash it through an USB connection. Later an update is possible directly over the Air (OTA).

## Casing

A 3d-printable housing can be found here:
  - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4573481 (Water Meter)
  - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5028229 (Power Meter)
  - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4571627 (ESP32-Cam housing only)

## Build it yourself
See [Build Instructions](code/README.md).

## Donate
If you would like to support the developer with a cup of coffee you can do that via [Paypal](https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=8TRSVYNYKDSWL).

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/donate" method="post" target="_top">
<input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="8TRSVYNYKDSWL" />
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/DK/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" title="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!" alt="Donate with PayPal button" />
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_DE/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1" />
</form>
If you have any technical topics, you can create an [Issue](https://github.com/jomjol/AI-on-the-edge-device/issues). 

In other cases you can contact the developer via email: <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jomjol/AI-on-the-edge-device/master/images/mail.jpg" height="25"> 

## Changes and History 
See [Changelog](Changelog.md)

## Tools

* Logfile downloader and combiner (Thx to [reserve85](https://github.com/reserve85))
  * Files see ['/tools/logfile-tool'](tbd), How-to see [wiki](https://github.com/jomjol/AI-on-the-edge-device/wiki/Gasmeter-Log-Downloader)

## Additional Ideas
There are some ideas and feature requests which are not followed currently - mainly due to capacity reasons on side of the developer. They are collected here: [FeatureRequest.md](FeatureRequest.md)

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