The detailed theory on how to detect objects in an image and all the machine learning details that go into it is well beyond the scope of this book. However, understanding the general theory about how to successfully perform object detection on a microcontroller device is exactly what we are interested in doing. In this section, we are going to explore the major components that are required in order to perform machine learning on a microcontroller and how those components come together to create an object detection application.

The five main components that we are going to need in order to detect objects can be seen in the following diagram:

Let's explore each of these components in more detail and see how they interact with one another to achieve our goal.