At the Open Hardware Summit this year I saw great demos of the OpenMV project.  This is a small camera with a powerful ARM microprocessor that runs MicroPython.  You can write Python code to grab images and analyze them, like detect faces, edges, read bar codes, and more.  This kind of advanced image processing has typically been the domain of powerful Linux-based development boards running software like OpenCV.  However with OpenMV you can run these algorithms directly on a small board without any need for a full-blown operating system.  For example you could build a robot that chases a colored ball all powered by MicroPython code running on an OpenMV camera board–no need for a Raspberry Pi or other more complex board!  There’s even an impressive IDE built to allow quick and easy editing and running of MicroPython code on the OpenMV camera.  Check out the OpenMV project for more details!