An IoT camera is a camera that has to disappear into a product: a lock, a meter, a shelf, a badge. It boots fast, sips power, and still has to see a face at dusk. The old article listed 'Internet of Things' as a market. That is not a specification. Write the scene, the watt budget, and the host.
Spec the constraint, not the slogan
- Power: always-on, duty-cycled, or battery. That decides sensor, IR LEDs, and whether USB is even allowed.
- Host: a tiny MCU with DVP, a Pi-class SoC on MIPI, or a gateway that wants UVC.
- Night: IR-cut, 850 or 940 nm lamps, or a mono path. See night vision modules.
- BOM lock and PCN. A smart-home SKU that changes the lens every quarter is not smart.
Where Camemake fits
Most IoT designs land on MIPI camera modules into the product SoC, or a compact USB board when the hub is a PC. If you are replacing an old OV2640 on an MCU, that is a different, already-written path: the GC2145 DVP module on this shop. Do not mix those two problems.
AIoT adds a model on the edge. Then you care about shutter, HDR at the door, and whether the ISP already ate the RAW. The camera still has to be a camera. The network is not a substitute for a well-sized pixel.