Welcome workshop attendees! This repo contains the steps you'll follow alongside live instruction from the Viam team. You can always reference this repo if you need a little more time or need to return to a particular step. Please let us know if you encounter any mistakes!
This workshop walks you through building a simplified "Ring doorbell" using a Raspberry Pi, a USB webcam, and an LED. By the end, your Pi will detect when a person is in front of the camera and automatically light up the LED.
A smart doorbell system that:
- Captures video from a USB webcam connected to your Raspberry Pi 5
- Uses a pre-trained ML model to detect people in the camera feed
- Lights up an LED when a person is detected
- All configured and managed through the Viam platform — no terminal needed for the automation step
- A Viam account (free)
- A Raspberry Pi 5 with Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) pre-flashed and WiFi configured
- Hardware (see Step 1 for the full list)
Step 1: What You'll Need
Step 2: Create a Viam Machine
Step 3: Configure the Camera
Step 4: Configure the LED
Step 5: Add a Person Detection Model
Step 6: Add a Vision Service
Step 7: Automate the Doorbell
Don't hesitate to reach out during the workshop. We're here to help guide you through or debug anything weird!
This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 — see the LICENSE file for details.