Moondream 1: the 1.6B VLM that runs on Raspberry Pi

Until 2024, models capable of seeing and describing images required powerful GPUs and cloud infrastructure. Moondream proved this isn't necessarily the case: with just 1.6 billion parameters, this model runs on a Raspberry Pi, an Android phone, and laptops without a dedicated GPU. It can describe images, answer questions about them, and locate objects, all locally without sending data to any server. It opens the door to visual intelligence in everyday devices.