Getting the best results from your hardware.

Minimum hardware

Everything on the platform works with:

• Any modern device — a phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop from roughly the last five years.
• A built-in camera — any standard phone or laptop camera is sufficient for photo and video capture.
• A built-in microphone — for voice conversation and dictation.
• A stable internet connection — 5 Mbps or better. Processing happens in the cloud, so your device's speed does not limit result quality.

If this describes your setup, you're ready. The tiers below improve results; they don't unlock features.

Recommended hardware

The upgrades that make the biggest practical difference, roughly in order of value per dollar:

1. Consistent lighting ~$25–60

The single most effective upgrade for image and video work. A basic ring light or LED panel with a diffuser gives your captures uniform, repeatable illumination — which matters more than camera quality for recognition accuracy. Shadows, glare, and mixed light sources are the most common cause of inconsistent results.

Tip: if you photograph the same kinds of objects repeatedly, keep the lighting setup fixed. Consistency between captures improves matching.

2. A stable mount ~$15–40

A tripod or fixed phone mount. A steady frame beats a higher-resolution shaky one. For repeat captures of similar objects, a fixed mount also keeps distance and angle consistent, which improves comparison quality.

3. An external microphone ~$40–150

For voice-heavy workflows: a directional USB microphone or a quality headset dramatically improves transcription accuracy, especially in rooms with echo, fan noise, or background conversation. Lapel mics work well for mobile use.

4. A better camera — within reason

Newer phone cameras and mid-range webcams (1080p+) capture cleaner detail, particularly in low light. Beyond that, diminishing returns set in quickly — extreme resolution does not improve results. Spend on lighting and stability first.

5. AI glasses for hands-free capture — Mentra Live ~$349

The AI glasses we recommend. Mentra Live earns its place when your hands are busy — inspections, field walks, bench work, anything where stopping to hold a phone breaks the task. A 119° front camera captures 3264×2448 stills and 1080p video, three microphones handle voice, and the frames weigh 43 g with 12+ hours of mixed use (the charging case carries 2,200 mAh more). They're prescription-ready, and they have no display — which is exactly why they stay light and last a full day.

Nothing to integrate: captures sync from the glasses through the Mentra app into your phone's gallery, and anything in your gallery attaches to Studio like any other photo or video. The Mentra app is required (iOS 15.1+ or Android 12+). MentraOS — the operating system and SDK behind them — is open source under the MIT license, so teams that want custom capture behavior can build it themselves rather than wait on a vendor.

Two things to know: Mentra's other model, the Mach1, is a display device with no camera — good for glanceable text, not for capture. And Mentra Live's livestreaming sends an RTMP feed to streaming platforms, not into PDC Dev Studio; for us, send the captured files.

Advanced / optional hardware

For specialized workflows. All of these work today with no configuration — they simply appear to your device as a standard camera or microphone.

USB microscopes and borescopes ~$30–300

Plug-and-play magnification. A USB microscope lets you capture surface detail, textures, and small components at a scale a phone camera can't reach; a borescope reaches inside machinery, walls, and enclosures. Both stream standard video, so they work anywhere your regular camera does.

Thermal cameras ~$200–450

Smartphone-attached thermal imagers (FLIR One and similar) output standard images and video, so their captures work in the platform as-is. Useful for inspecting heat patterns in equipment, electrical panels, insulation, and moisture detection workflows.

Macro and polarizing lenses ~$20–100

Clip-on macro lenses extend close-up capability on any phone. Polarizing filters cut glare from glass, water, and glossy surfaces — helpful when reflections interfere with a clean capture.

High-quality audio interfaces

For professional recording setups (multi-speaker sessions, field recording), an audio interface with XLR microphones feeds the platform the same way any microphone does, with substantially better signal quality.

Integration hardware — contact us

Some instruments produce data that isn't a standard photo, video, or audio stream. These need integration work on our side — and real customer use cases decide what we integrate next. If your workflow depends on any of the following (or something not listed), contact us and tell us about it:

• Multispectral and near-infrared cameras — material and substance identification beyond what visible-light imaging can distinguish (organic vs. inorganic, coatings, moisture, plant health).
• Depth cameras and LiDAR — shape, volume, and spatial measurement workflows.
• Handheld spectrometers — laboratory-grade material identification in the field.
• Environmental sensor arrays — temperature, humidity, air-quality, and gas readings tied to your captures.
• Scientific and laboratory instruments — if it produces structured data, we want to hear what you'd do with it.

We prioritize integrations by demonstrated demand. A short description of your instrument and workflow is enough to get the conversation started.

Questions about a specific device? Reach out to support — if it shows up as a camera or microphone on your device, it almost certainly works.