Edge Devices

An Overview of Various Types of Edge Devices and Their Roles in Society

General Information

An important distinction to be made is regarding what is an edge devices and what is not. Oftentimes, edge devices and edge computing are contrasted with cloud computing. The reason for this is that edge devices can independently, meaning on their own, collect data and perhaps process it in some way too.

This contrasts with devices that require access to a centralized hub for processing or streaming. This means that devices like streaming devices are not edge devices, but smart thermostats are edge devices. Boiled down, edge devices are functional technologies that can be decentralized and perform their intended tasks, though sometimes the line of edge and non-edge can become blurred.

Meaning for Project

The project that you are about to undertake utilizes a camera and a raspberry pi. This makes the car an edge device because it is able to gather data indecently of the cloud and even run an inference model onboard! Although this has computational downsides, it also means that the car is relatively independent, not bad for a little car.