To produce a real-time smart camera that can be flexibly configured in terms of hardware, a camera core is provided. The camera core is designed as a hardware arithmetic logic unit, and a real-time data bus interface, for connecting a real-time data bus, and a camera control unit are additionally provided in the camera core. The camera control unit is connected to both the real-time data bus interface and the image sensor interface, and the camera control unit is actuated via the real-time data bus interface to prompt the capture of an image. The camera control unit controls the image sensor interface.