Hello everyone,
I’m a hobbyist and actually a freelancer ..... I have recently joined this forum and quite amazed with the community work here ...... I won't say I helped a lot here but I tried ..... today, I need help with my Pi project ..... I’m looking for some guidance from people having experience in computer vision and edge AI
I'm trying to build a small animal detection/monitoring system using a Raspberry Pi and a Pi cam ...... project is to detect stray animals like cats, dogs, mouse(maybe) or other small animals in a specific area ..... like a lawn ...... and trigger actions like image capture, logging, or notifications.
Requirements:
Use Raspberry Pi (likely Pi 4 or Pi 5) with a camera module or USB camera
Detect animals in real time (not just motion detection, but actual animal recognition like it a cat or a dog)
I am planning to use OopenCV .... want to save images or send alerts when an animal is detected ... Alert: We have detected a dog
My research so far:
Raspberry Pi Camera documentation: https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentati ... amera.html
OpenCV object detection overview: https://docs.opencv.org/master/d7/d8b/t ... ction.html
TensorFlow Lite for Raspberry Pi: https://www.tensorflow.org/lite/example ... n/overview
YOLO object detection (for lightweight models): https://pjreddie.com/darknet/yolo/
Main queston here: Should I go with OpenCv or TensorFLow?
Few online resources: (related to my project)
Cat Detection: https://www.unikeyic.com/blog/diy-raspb ... nitor.html
It's only detecting cat, so its lke one part of my project as I want to detect other animals as well.
Object Detection: https://core-electronics.com.au/guides/ ... pberry-pi/
It's kind of detecting everything, horse, cup, frame etc. and it gave me some relief that it wont be that difficult to detect animals only.
Closest to mine: https://www.electromaker.io/project/vie ... spberry-pi
This one is closest to my project ..... though our goals are slightly different
My main questions are:
What is the best approach for reliable animal detection on a Raspberry Pi? (Traditional OpenCV vs ML-based models?)
I have worked on openCV in MATLAB, so I wwould personally prefer that
About the animal detection, does these libraries have the functions to detect animals or we need to add images for recognition ?
Has anyone here built something similar, if someone could guide that would be a blessing ....I just need some directions before getting my hands dirty ....
I will keep this thread active and will share the updates of my project.
Thanks in advance!
I’m a hobbyist and actually a freelancer ..... I have recently joined this forum and quite amazed with the community work here ...... I won't say I helped a lot here but I tried ..... today, I need help with my Pi project ..... I’m looking for some guidance from people having experience in computer vision and edge AI
I'm trying to build a small animal detection/monitoring system using a Raspberry Pi and a Pi cam ...... project is to detect stray animals like cats, dogs, mouse(maybe) or other small animals in a specific area ..... like a lawn ...... and trigger actions like image capture, logging, or notifications.
Requirements:
Use Raspberry Pi (likely Pi 4 or Pi 5) with a camera module or USB camera
Detect animals in real time (not just motion detection, but actual animal recognition like it a cat or a dog)
I am planning to use OopenCV .... want to save images or send alerts when an animal is detected ... Alert: We have detected a dog
My research so far:
Raspberry Pi Camera documentation: https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentati ... amera.html
OpenCV object detection overview: https://docs.opencv.org/master/d7/d8b/t ... ction.html
TensorFlow Lite for Raspberry Pi: https://www.tensorflow.org/lite/example ... n/overview
YOLO object detection (for lightweight models): https://pjreddie.com/darknet/yolo/
Main queston here: Should I go with OpenCv or TensorFLow?
Few online resources: (related to my project)
Cat Detection: https://www.unikeyic.com/blog/diy-raspb ... nitor.html
It's only detecting cat, so its lke one part of my project as I want to detect other animals as well.
Object Detection: https://core-electronics.com.au/guides/ ... pberry-pi/
It's kind of detecting everything, horse, cup, frame etc. and it gave me some relief that it wont be that difficult to detect animals only.
Closest to mine: https://www.electromaker.io/project/vie ... spberry-pi
This one is closest to my project ..... though our goals are slightly different
My main questions are:
What is the best approach for reliable animal detection on a Raspberry Pi? (Traditional OpenCV vs ML-based models?)
I have worked on openCV in MATLAB, so I wwould personally prefer that
About the animal detection, does these libraries have the functions to detect animals or we need to add images for recognition ?
Has anyone here built something similar, if someone could guide that would be a blessing ....I just need some directions before getting my hands dirty ....
I will keep this thread active and will share the updates of my project.
Thanks in advance!
Statistics: Posted by lichurbagan — Tue Jan 13, 2026 11:43 pm