How to make your own Sleep Camera

Sleep Camera is easy to assemble from standard parts widely available in many web shops around the world. It is based on Raspberry Pi 4B and some other standard components.

These are the Sleep Camera components:

Raspberry Pi 4B (4GB or 8 GB) 66-87 €

This is the brain of SleepCamera
Raspberry 7" Touch display 85 €

Display is used to start and stop recording as well as to enter some basic data.
Raspberry Pi 15W USB-C Power Supply 13 €
Raspberry Pi Camera Module 2 NoIR 15-40 €

You must buy night camera. NoIR means No Infrared filter. There are many compatible cameras available on the market.
IR Lights 10-30 €

In order to shoot in total darknes you need IR lights (and camera sensitive to IR lightning). There are many IR lights on the market. It is further explained on this page.
SD Card (32 GB) 7 €

You load SleepCamera software to SD cards and system is ready to use.
3D printed housing 10-30 €

You can print housing by your self or you can order it from 3d printing companies. STL files are available in downloads section.
USB Drive 10 €

Videos from SleepCamera are always recorded to USB drive. Best option is to choose Dual Drive USB with Type-C connector.
Standard photo tripod 25 €

You need to mount SleepCamera very close to your bed. Easiest and cheapest way to achieve this is by using standard photography tripod.
Bluetooth Temperature Sensor 20 €

SleepCamera supports two temperature sensors. One for bedroom and one for bed (under cover).
Total price of all components 261-327 €

As price of some components can vary this is estimated components price.

Description of main components

SleepCamera is easy to assemble from standard parts widely available in many web shops around the world.

Raspberry Pi 4B (4GB or 8 GB)

I have decided to use Raspberry Pi for the brain of SleepCamera project. It has been sold in more than 30 millions pieces and is widely available in almost any country. It is also cheap which helps to make SleepCamera affordable tool. We have tested Rasberry Pi 4B in 4GB and 8 GB version.

Raspberry Pi 7" Touch display

Raspberry 7″ Touch display is logical choice in the era of smart phones and tablets. You will use it to enter your name, correct date and time and enter some basic setting. You will also use it as viewfinder to adjust the camera to perfect position. Before you will go to sleep, you will press “Start” and in the morning you will press “Stop”. It is as simple as that to get your 8 hours of sleep into 8 minutes video file on your USB stick.

Raspberry Pi 15W USB-C Power Supply

Raspberry Pi 15W USB-C Power Supply is probably first logical choice to power Raspberry Pi. With 3A/15W output it is strong enough to power not only Raspberry, but also IR lights on the camera. Naturally you can use any standard 3A/15W USB power supply with Type-C connector.

Raspberry Pi NoIR Camera Module

As you know SleepCamera needs to operate in total darkness. Because of this reason any standard camera like those on phones, tables and regular digital cameras are not an option. They would just record black image and that’s it.

For shooting in total darkness, you need two things:

1. IR Camera (camera without IR filter than can capture IR light)

2. IR lights to iluminate subject with IR light

There is plenty of options on Raspberry Pi for IR cameras. Here are just a few of them.

Raspberry Pi Camera Module 2 NoIR

Raspberry Pi

IR Cut Camera Module for Raspberry Pi

You can find many IR cut cameras for Rspberry pi on sites like Amazon, Aliexpress or similar. In many cases they are bundled with IR lights. This is one of the easiest ways to finish SleepCamera as you don’t need separate IR lights.

16MP NoIR Camera Module for Raspberry Pi

ArduCam is well known specialsed camera producer. They offer many different cameras for Raspberry Pi including NoIR option.

IR Lights

There are plenty of IR lights widely available on the market, since they are being used for all video surveillance systems. Here are just a couple of examples. They are available in many on line stores like Amazon or Aliexpress. If you choose to use camera with built-in IR light there is generally no need for external IR lights. Nevertheless External IR lightning might help make footage brighter.

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SD Card

Not much to say about Micro SD card. You need one to boot the Raspberry Pi anyway. 32 GB is enough. You should download Rapberry Pi Imager, download our SleepCamera image and transfer it to SD card using imager. Then you just plug it into Raspberry Pi, power it up and your Sleep Camera is ready to use.

USB Drive (recommended: Dual Drive)

Videos from SleepCamera are always recorded to USB drive. The reason for this choice is privacy concern. Your nights are your privacy and you should be the only person who will be able to choose with who to share your personal data. Best option is to buy Dual Drive USB with Type-C or Lightning connector. This way you can easily transfer videos to your computer or to your phone. USB drives with Type-C are suitable for Android phones. USB drives with lightning connector are suitable for iPhones.

3D printed housing

SleepCamera is not intended to be mass produced, because it is only targeted to sleep scientists and sleep enthusiast. Luckily in the era of 3D printers it is easy and relatively cheap to 3D print a plastic housing.

Standard photo tripod

You need to mount SleepCamera very close to your bed. Easiest and cheapest way to achieve this is by using standard photography tripod. Probably you already have one or your friend has it. If you are going to buy one, you can go for one of the cheapest options on the market for around 25 €.

Typical sleep camera setup in bedroom

On this photo, you can see typical configuration of SleepCamera when placed in bedroom.

It consist of two modules connected with plastic tube.

Main unit consists of the following components:
* 3D printed housing
* Raspberry Pi 4B, 4GB RAM
* 7″ Touch Screen
* Power Supply (Standard Raspberry Pi 3A, or powerful 3A power bank)

Camera unit consists of the following components:
* 3D printed housing
* Raspberry Pi compatible Camera
* IR Reflectors

Camera extension arm is a standard 1″ (25,4 mm) plastic tube. It aim is to place a camera above bed for better shots.

Complete SleepCamera system is usually placed on standard tripod to achieve good operational height.

Sleep Camera will record your sleep in total darkness. You will watch 8 hours of your sleep in 8 minutes on your smartphone. Data from sensors will be included in the video.

By attaching different lenses and by moving the camera closer or further you can choose to record complete bedroom or to take more closer look. See more examples in video section.

In this video you can see some examples of Sleep Camera output:

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