One application is 3D
scanning. The project 3DScan uses 100 Raspberry Pi cams:
http://www.pi3dscan.com/
Here you find the costs of the hardware: http://www.pi3dscan.com/index.php/cost
So I am thinking how we could make this cheaper.
MIP CSI2
The raspberry PI cams and all the cams used in mobile phones don’t use an USB
interface. They use CSI-2 (Camera Serial Interface Type 2) with a 15 pin
ZIF 15 socket.
A widely adopted, simple, high-speed protocol primarily intended for
point-to-point image and video transmission between cameras and host devices
https://www.mipi.org/specifications/csi-2
USB Webcams?
An alternative to the would be to use
USB-Webcams and don’t have 100 hundred decentralized CPUs (Raspberries). The
challenge is you need a multi-port USB interface like this: https://plugable.com/products/usb3c-hub97xxx/
One problem
with this approach is that there are no multi-port solutions available.
Due to high demand the above product is unfortunately sold out indefinitely.
I assume that there would be also a bandwidth-problem on the PC side.
Use Raspberry PI Zero?
Using a Raspberry PI Zero would save some money:
https://www.pi3dscan.com/index.php/blog2/45-raspberry-pi-zero-v2
https://electronics.semaf.at/Raspberry-Pi-Zero-W-Camera-Kit
Use an ESP32-PICO?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8Jq0G17WgQ
Maybe it would not work with a cam which has more than 2 MPixels resolution.
Summary
For me the best would be to have a module where the cam-module already sits on
the PCB. This would save connectors, cables (15pin!) and adaptors.
Also I would prefer to have a waterproof case for outdoor usage.
Any Ideas???