Edge Agents · @SkaDeanRealm
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Replace the subscription
Local computer vision on a Raspberry Pi can replace a Ring-style camera rent — if you want events, receipts, and a gate you keep.
Honest status. Our Hermes Battle Station correlates presence, DNS, and native camera alerts today. Custom cloud-vision-on-every-snapshot from the Pi was purged for stability. Full local detect is the endgame for DIY heads — not a pretend “already shipped” flex.
Two ways in
DIY
Buy parts. Spend weekends. Own the stack. Supported — and not free of time or materials.
Journey
Follow the X Articles and this site as we document the Battle Station path in public.
What the subscription actually sold you
- Cloud storage and a polished app
- Person / package / vehicle labels
- Push notifications
- A little AI theater
You can rebuild 1–3 without a monthly rent. Perfect night color forever is marketing. Debounced events on your vault is engineering.
Starter shape
camera (RTSP / USB / CSI)
→ Pi detect (YOLO / MobileNet class)
→ zone masks + debounce
→ 10–30s clip on your vault
→ MQTT / Home Assistant
→ Hermes skill or notify
→ phone (you keep the gate)
Parts & time (expect both)
- Raspberry Pi 4/5 (+ optional Coral / USB accelerator)
- Camera that speaks RTSP, USB, or CSI — brand-agnostic
- Storage for short justified clips (NAS / SSD)
- Home Assistant or MQTT bus
- Hermes (or similar) for correlation and calm alerts
- Evenings for zones, false-positive hunting, and lighting
Do not train if off-the-shelf detectors already hit person/vehicle/package. Fix angle and debounce first. Fine-tune only when misses are systematic.
Where agents sit
- Pi — always-on edge brain next to the lens and the house
- Desk / laptop — factory: profiles, deploy, private local models, heavier judgment
- Phone — remote approve and briefs
- Grok bot / chat seats — optional remote desk; still route physical-world tools through the Pi gate
Enterprise / fleet leverage — TBD later.