What hardware for real-time shelf monitoring

[DragusPatrick]

Hello guys.
I need some advice regarding a little project.
Basically I want to monitoring in real time the quantity of products from a shelf and when the qty is low send a notification to a web app or eventually calling an api endpoint.
My problem is I don’t know what hardware to use. If raspberry pi is good for this kind of project or going to arduino portenta h7 or something like that.

Thanks

[neilgl]

Depends on how you want to monitor the quantity e.g. by switches that activate when product taken or by image recognition in real time etc. For the former, a pico-w or similar would do, latter needs a pi4 or similar.

[ame]

How are you going to detect that the quantity of whatever on the shelf is low?

[DragusPatrick]

I want to compare the camera images with an empty shelf image and get the differences but I don’t know if is the best solution.

I’m really new in the IoT industry so if you guys have a better idea i accept it

[neilgl]

I would have a look at OpenCV on a pi4.

[revell1]

I want to compare the camera images with an empty shelf image and get the differences but I don’t know if is the best solution.

I’m really new in the IoT industry so if you guys have a better idea i accept it

How would you handle someone adding something to the shelf, would you be able to determine if it is the correct thing on the shelf, what if it blocks the image so you can not see what is behind the "unexpected item on the shelf".

[ghp]

Give more details about current solution (type of items, number of items, items have ID like barcode, size of shelf, storage strategy e.g. fifo, chaotic, delivery/removal numbers per hour) and if there is an operator why the person can not press a button 'low count warning'.

What is cost when 'low count warning' is missed compared to the budget of an automated solution ?

[DragusPatrick]

Basically the solution is for diy/construction shops where the dimensions of shelves are 250cm wide, 220cm height x 60cm. Each shelf have barcode labels for every product. Yes, the shop have an operator but now the operator has to go on office and ask for filling the shelf. What we what to do is to connect the hardware solution with an assets inventory web app (we already have this app) with a feature that place an order to the vendor if the quantity is low in the warehouse, some daily sell statistics etc so the final solution will be quite complex.

[ghp]

If there are barcodes on the items, would it be possible to retrieve the sold items from the cashier system where the items are scanned for the bill?

[DragusPatrick]

Yes but on the shelf the main problem persist. For example stolen item, moved by customers etc and we need to monitor the real situation of each shelf

[ame]

Yes but on the shelf the main problem persist. For example stolen item, moved by customers etc and we need to monitor the real situation of each shelf

Ok, well that's probably going to be hard. The choice of computer is going to be very low on the list.

A Pi is excellent for prototyping, but you might find that you can use a laptop and a webcam (if you are doing it visually). Or a laptop and Arduino if you have some funky sensor.

[DragusPatrick]

Guys now i have another problem with this project. In my country I find only raspberry’s pi 3 with 512mb of RAM. What do you think, 512mb of ram can be enough for prototyping and testing some object detection script?

[ame]

Guys now i have another problem with this project. In my country I find only raspberry’s pi 3 with 512mb of RAM. What do you think, 512mb of ram can be enough for prototyping and testing some object detection script?

Raspberry Pi 3B has 1Gb of memory:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/ra ... 3-model-b/

Can you buy only the model 3A? It has only 512Mb.

It's true that Pis are in short supply. I'd try to get a Pi 4 somehow, so that you are at least starting development with the fastest version. I already suggested you could do this with a laptop and a webcam.