The required solution was to quickly and easily photograph the condition of the shipment during the dispatch of goods from the warehouse. Each pallet of goods had to be walked around and manually photographed with a tablet from all sides during the dispatch process. The captured data was then stored via WiFi in a database on a server, which was also time-consuming.
In our solution, we used several cameras connected to a Raspberry Pi. These cameras can be configured and focused on different distances directly from FileMaker. They can also be adjusted for various lighting conditions. Due to the large distance between the cameras and the Raspberry Pi, active USB cables are used.
To avoid delays in capturing images on demand, we designed a caching system for storing images. The cameras repeatedly take photos at defined time intervals (e.g., every 1 second) and store them in the cache. When an image is requested, these photos are immediately sent and saved to FileMaker. This allows the user to record the condition of the goods in the database with a single touch on a mobile device.
Significant acceleration was achieved not only because the photos are taken in advance but also because the data is sent directly from the Raspberry Pi to the server database. As a result, the operator with the iPad doesn’t have to wait for the data to be sent from the iPad.
The same Raspberry Pi will also collaborate with other devices, which are described in detail in our next solution. You can find more information in this example.
