Enthusiast Builds a Functional PokeDex on Raspberry Pi to Recognize Pokémon

A project for a fully functional PokeDex—a device from the Pokémon universe—has appeared on the YouTube channel BigRig Creates. The developer has built a gadget capable of identifying Pokémon from images and providing information about them.

The device, named Pidexter, replicates the design of the original gadget from the anime and is equipped with three screens: a main color touch display, an additional monochrome screen for system information, and a small screen on the right side for displaying textual data.

Pidexter's primary function is recognizing Pokémon from photographs. Interestingly, it uses Google's reverse image search technology for identification instead of a neural network model. After identifying a creature, the gadget displays its card with an image, a detailed description, and a voice sample. Voice search and manual selection of Pokémon from the database are also implemented.

Inside the device are a Raspberry Pi single-board computer and an ESP32 microcontroller. The developer notes that due to copyright limitations, the project cannot be commercial. The question of whether the development can be distributed under an open license also remains open.

The project demonstrates how modern, accessible components can be used to create functional replicas of pop-culture devices. The device works with images of Pokémon both as figures and in-game sprites, and it also provides game statistics and the locations where creatures appear across different games in the series.