Developing surveillance applications with Raspberry Pi, Django, and cloud services

he Raspberry Pi has become a popular platform for teaching students about embedded systems. There are many potential applications including environmental sensing, process control, and security. At the same time, there has been significant growth in the software ecosystem for utilizing embedded systems in practical applications. We select a specific use case based on deploying cameras for the surveillance of physical spaces. Though there are multiple tools available, we chose an all-Python-based workflow for the sake of simplicity. We describe the use of Django, a Python-based open-source web framework. We created a surveillance application where a camera attached to a Raspberry Pi collects images and transmits them to a cloud-based service. We used the Google Cloud Platform for its cost and simplicity. Educational institutions and students will benefit from the design and implementation of our system. Though we describe the process for image data, any sensory stream can be used in a similar manner. Our framework can also be used for any remote monitoring application.