The HVC-P2 sensing unit that I am road testing is using the Omron OKAO Vision technology. Omron has developed a number of models of these "Human Vision Components" (HVC) but I've found it difficult to find documentation on them. In 2005 Omron introduced the OKAO Vision Face Recognition Sensor that was apparently intended to be integrated into mobile phones for owner facial recognition. According to their White Paper released in May 2018 Omron has been licensing the OKAO technology for over 20 years for integration into digital cameras and smartphones. They have issued more than 10 million licenses over that time. I wasn't able to find a physical description or spec of that sensor so I'm not sure if it was just a chip or a module.
In 2014 they launched their HVC series which is targeted at IoT applications. The HVC components all share the same set of ten detection modes. There are 3 basic categories (Human Body, Hand, and Face) and under Face you can additionally detect 7 additional subcategories (Direction, Age, Gender, Gaze, Blink, Expression, and Recognition). I thought it might be interesting to document the various models that I was able discover.
2014
HVC-C
Camera and processor integrated into module Communicates over Bluetooth LE.
HVC-P
Camera and processor integrated on single board. Communicates over serial UART.
2015
HVC-C2W
Camera and processor integrated into module like ipcam. Communicates over WiFi.
2016
HVC-P2
Camera and processor on separate boards. Long range and short range (wide angle) cameras available. Communicates over serial UART.
HVC-F
Camera and processor integrated into occupancy sensor module. Communicates Power over Ethernet (POE).
The various models are optimized for different applications. The HVC-C models seem targeted at remote monitoring. The typical view and alert on smartphone. The HVC-P models are intended for vending machine and kiosk applications. And the HVC-F is optimized for occupancy monitoring (people detection in a room) for lighting and environment control.
For the roadtest I'm going to try to use the HVC-P2 in a security monitoring application, so I'll cover the pros and cons of that in my review. I'm struggling a bit implementing my application because Omron does not provide an API but rather sample software that does not clearly define the function parameters. I've requested support from Omron but haven't gotten a response yet (they did acknowledge my request).