After pinging around about this, I settled on a Raspberry Pi with a camera card. The Pi is credit card size, and the camera card is about an inch square. At least on paper, I haven't found anything wrong with this setup. It seems to be the sweet spot for this kind of image processing.
Advantages include:
- The 5 mp camera is connected to the board by a fast parallel bus. It will transfer video at 30 fps and 30 stills per sec. Around 2000x2500 but don't quote me on that number.
- The board has 512 mb to store the images.
- The 700 mhz ARM processor runs Linux.
- There is a graphics library for image analysis, OpenCV, on Linux. (+ others)
- The board has wifi for internet, usb, HDMI for monitor.
- I think a usb HD would connect. A usb hub can accomodate kbd and mouse.
- Of course, GPIO pins are there for control of circuits. ADC, DAC can be added.
- Right now the cost US is 0 for Pi + cam. China is already lowering that by
20%.
- The camera can sense NIR if a filter is removed.
That's about it. JB