AI & processing
AI on the camera vs in the cloud
Some cameras run AI on the device itself. It sounds efficient. But on-camera AI costs battery and data, and the models are small. Untamed Data keeps the camera simple and does the AI in the European cloud.
"Edge AI" — running detection and species recognition on the camera itself — is increasingly marketed as a feature. There is a real trade-off behind it, and it is why we split the work the way we do.
What on-camera AI costs
Running a neural network on a battery-powered camera draws real power — enough to turn months of field life into weeks. If the camera then sends its results (or the frames it decided to keep), that is cellular data on top. And the models small enough to run on a camera are limited: fewer species, lower accuracy, and no easy way to improve them without physically visiting every device in the field.
Why we do the AI in the cloud
Untamed Data keeps the camera simple and fast — capture and upload — and runs the heavier AI on European-hosted infrastructure. That buys a more capable model, results stamped with the model name and version that produced them (so a number stays auditable in a report), and the ability to upgrade the model without touching a single camera or the data you have already collected.
When on-camera makes sense
Edge processing does have its place — where there is no connectivity to upload to, or where a decision has to happen in milliseconds, such as a real-time deterrent that cannot wait for a round trip to the cloud. The honest answer is usually a split: simple, fast work near the camera; capable, auditable work in the cloud.
That split is exactly what we're building the Smart Wildlife Box for. It's a research and development project putting lightweight edge AI near the camera to decide which frames are worth sending — so low-power, off-grid, or many-camera sites get on-camera smarts where connectivity or battery won't allow constant upload, while the platform's full recognition, provenance, and export still run in the cloud. Same principle, matched to the site instead of forced on every one. Read about the Smart Wildlife Box →
Simple camera, governed cloud. Your camera just captures and uploads; the AI, the provenance, and your records live in the European cloud you control — not locked inside a device. See Wildlife AI and why Untamed Data.
