Aurorion Edge: Turning a Room Into a Smart Cultural Space (Using Only Edge AI)

Hey everyone! 👋

I wanted to share what I’m planning to build for the challenge and hopefully connect with others doing similar things.

I’m working on Aurorion Edge — a small, on-premise AI “story hub” that museums, galleries, and heritage spaces can plug into their environment to make exhibits smart without needing cloud services or internet.

I already have Aurorion  which gives people narrated stories and cultural insights as they explore places. The part I’m building here is the local hardware unit that does all the sensing and triggering on-site for institutions. 

Using the Orange Pi 5 Plus + Metis M.2, plus the Sonoff cameras from the kit, I’m creating a mini edge server that can:

🔹 Detect which exhibit or object someone is near

🔹 Run vision models locally (no cloud streaming!)

🔹 Broadcast local “context triggers” to the Aurorion app

🔹 Play the right micro-story or audio tour instantly

🔹 Work completely offline and preserve privacy

🔹 Turn any small room into a “smart cultural space”

I’ll be prototyping this as a small “micro-museum room” at home with 3–5 exhibits, 1–2 cameras, and a simple local network. The app will respond to whatever the edge box sees or detects.

If anyone else is working on local triggers, BLE, Metis models, or gallery-style setups, I’d love to chat. And if you’re building something totally different but nearby in spirit — looking forward to following your builds too!

Excited to be part of this challenge 🎉