TAKING SMOKERS' SNAPSHOT In No-Smoking Areas Using MaixCam Board

Over the past few years, smoking prevalence among adults in India fell from 14.0% (2009-2010) to 10.7% (2016-2017), thanks to public smoking bans, advertising its harms, and higher taxation.

- SOMNATH BERA

Despite this, tobacco use remains high—particularly smokeless varieties—and occasional public smoking still occurs in parks, train toilets, and office cabins.

This system deploys an automated detector that sounds a buzzer alarm and captures a MaixCam snapshot on the SD card whenever a cigarette is lit or smoked, alerting nearby individuals and deterring the smoker.

Fig. 1 shows the MaixCam board used in this system. The components required to assemble the unit are listed in the Bill of Materials table.

EFY note. As this board has been used previously, refer to related articles published in the April and May issues. Those articles offer additional details on the MaixCam development board.

Operating system

The MaixCam runs a lightweight, custom Linux-based operating system designed specifically for Kendryte K210 boards. Key features include:

• Integrated support for YOLOV5 through YOLOv8

• Headless mode for efficient remote operation

BILL OF MATERIALS

ComponentsQuantityMaixCam15V power adaptor1LED2

• Python 3.11 for scripting and automation

• SSH daemon for secure remote access

This configuration supports realtime machine learning and is wellsuited for entry-level AI systems and lightweight edge AI applications. Fig. 2 shows the pin description of the MaixCam device.

Working