Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corp. said today it’s expanding its relationship with Raspberry Pi Ltd., creator of the pocket-sized computing platform of the same name, as part of an initiative that aims to provide developers with greater access to edge-hosted artificial intelligence tools.

The partnership will see Sony Semiconductor Solutions make an undisclosed investment in Raspberry Pi and bring its edge AI sensing platform AITRIOS to millions of developers that use the popular computing platform.

Raspberry Pi is an extremely small-form-factor computer with PC-like power that can easily fit into the palm of a hand. It was originally designed as an educational platform for computer science learners to understand programming, coding and computing. However, it has also become popular as a prototyping platform for software developers, especially those building so-called internet of things devices that sit at the network edge.

This is the community that Sony is trying to target through its partnership with Raspberry Pi. Its AITRIOS offering is a development platform for AI models that are powered by cameras and other sensors and operate at the edge, in low-power environments.

It’s targeted at developers building AI that runs on cameras, applications for AI-driven sensing and camera manufacturers who want to integrate AI capabilities in their hardware. One of the problems with AI-powered cameras is that they must be able to process a relatively large amount of data at the edge. If data is sent to the cloud to be processed, it results in unacceptably high latencies, hence the need for a powerful edge processing platform like AITRIOS.

According to Sony Semiconductor Solutions President and Chief Executive Terushi Shimizu, the partnership with Raspberry Pi will help enhance the capabilities of AITRIOS and bring its powerful edge AI capabilities to a global community of developers across numerous industries, resulting in the development of new and exciting AI-powered edge applications.

Image: Raspberry Pi