Sony's semiconductor division has announced that it's making a "strategic investment" in Raspberry Pi as a way to bring its AI tech to a wider market. The idea is to give Raspberry Pi users around the world a development platform for its Aitrios edge computing (on-chip) AI platform used for image sensing functions like facial recognition. "We are very pleased to be partnering with Raspberry Pi Ltd. to bring our Aitrios platform -- which supports the development of unique and diverse solutions utilizing our edge AI devices -- to the Raspberry Pi user and developer community, and provide a unique development experience," said Sony Semiconductor Solutions president and CEO Terushi Shimizu. The Raspberry Pi 4 and other devices from the company give users PC-like power in a small form factor. Originally designed as an educational platform to teach robotics, coding and more, it has become popular as a way for coders to prototype IoT (Internet of Things) and other devices. The addition of Sony's Aitrios could make it even more useful.

You say you're a parent or teacher investigating robot kits for children? And you don't want a simple solution with a single purpose: you want the child to experience science, technology, engineering, and math? You want a kit that teaches all four categories, from piecing together the foundation to wiring the appendages to programming the "brain" using software. That's where our list of robot kits for kids comes in. Most of the robot kits listed below are tied to terms such as STEM, Arduino, and Blockly.

Following the launch of the Raspberry Pi3 in February, element14, the market leading manufacturer and distributor of the Raspberry Pi has announced the launch of two new upgraded cameras. The Raspberry Pi Camera v2 and Raspberry Pi NoIR Camera v2 is set to further enhance the application of the best selling credit-card sized computer. The upgraded bards are in stock and could be bought from element14. The two new Raspberry Pi cameras have a resolution of 8MP and feature an image sensor that enables the board to capture 3280 x 2464 pixel static images. The v2 cameras have video capability of 1080p30, 720p60 and 640x480p90 video, and link to the Raspberry Pi board through a dedicated CSi interface.