Show HN: Real-time face recognition on low power microcontroller

1 points by pelex 11 hours ago

Built face recognition that runs entirely on STM32's new N6 chip - no cloud, no external processing. The chip istelf is smaller than a thumbnail and uses minimal power (on full operation ~0.25W), but the documentation is practically non-existent since it just launched. Performance numbers:

Face detection: 9ms Face recognition: 130ms per person Multi-face tracking that actually works Runs locally with zero data transmission (with an option to stream feed to PC, but it's entirely up to you)

The hardest part wasn't the AI - it was figuring out how to make anything work on hardware so new that most examples don't compile. With examples that don't cover the whole span of what developer need in the real world. Spent months reverse-engineering and debugging cryptic NPU errors, hacked and slashed my way untill things worked - ST might learn new things about their own hardware from how I abused some of it. Includes full source code, build pipeline, model conversion scripts, and documentation written by someone who actually used it. No enterprise sales pitches - just working code for embedded AI. Have fun and :)