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Image sensor evaluation kits support VR and smart buildings

Tue, Dec 24, 2019

Evaluation kits from ams support eye tracking, presence detection and object recognition in virtual reality headsets, smart lighting and home and building
automation products.

The Raspberry Pi and Arduino-based NanEyeC evaluation kits are based around the ams NanEyeC miniature image sensor.

The NanEyeC camera, image sensor is supplied as a 1.0 x 1.0mm surface-mount module. It produces 100kpixel resolution up to 58 frames per second and can be used for video applications where the camera needs to be accommodated in an extremely small space, such as eye tracking in virtual reality (VR) headsets. It can also be applied in user presence detection, to support automatic power on/off controls in home and building automation (HABA) applications such as air conditioning, home robotics, appliances and smart lighting.

The NanoVision demo kit for the NanEyeC is based on an Arduino development platform. It includes all necessary drivers to interface the sensor’s single-ended interface mode (SEIM) output to an Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller. It also supports image processing including functions like colour reconstruction and white-point balancing.

The second board is the NanoBerry, designed for more demanding operations like eye tracking or stereo vision systems. This evaluation kit uses a NanEyeC image sensor add-on board to the Raspberry Pi port and includes firmware to interface to the Raspberry Pi host processor. Engineers can use the Arm Cortex-A53-based processor to perform demanding operations such as object detection, object tracking and computer vision functions provided by the OpenCV library.

The NanoBerry kit is suitable for high frame-rate and low-latency applications such as eye tracking. When integrated into the NanEye PC viewer, it enables full evaluation of the NanEyeC with access to all registers and raw image data.

The NanoVision board is available now to customers on request and the NanoBerry kit will be demonstrated at CES 2020 (the Venetian Tower, Suite 30-236) and will be available to customers in Q1 2020.

https://ams.com

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Flexible tags communicate with standard touchscreens

Fri, Dec 20, 2019

Research hub, imec, with TNO, and Cartamundi have developed a flexible capacitive identification tag that communicates with standard touchscreens. The C-touch tags can be integrated in a range of paper and plastic based objects such as tickets, certified documents and payment cards. Connection to the internet is established simply by placing the tagged object on the touchscreen or vice-versa.

C-touch tags are thin and flexible chips that have a unique identifier which can communicate via any touchscreen. Smart cards or other objects with embedded C-touch tags can securely interact with mobile phones used worldwide, as well as with the large number of touchscreens integrated in cars, booths, walls, coffee machines and everyday objects, says imec.

No additional hardware and major reconfigurations or additional costs for the users are incurred, confirms imec. The tags offer security thanks to the very short communication range and have the potential to be produced at low cost thanks to the monolithically integrated antenna. Compared to existing RFID technologies such as NFC, the C-touch tag does not require an external antenna. The tiny antenna is part of the chip, making the tag much smaller than current NFC tags. The small size enables C-touch tags to be integrated in all use cases where interaction via touchscreens is feasible, but RFID/NFC tags are either too large or too expensive or where contactless reading is a disadvantage; this can range from board games to providing higher security in payment cards, or to replace difficult to service and manage hardware readers and access control points with easy to service and update apps on standard mobile devices.

The C-touch tag is based on thin-film transistor technology and is powered by a thin-film battery or a thin-film photovoltaic cell that converts light from the touchscreen. The 12-bit thin-film capacitive identification tag achieves up to 36bits per second data transfer rates at 0.6V supply voltage, which is compatible with commercially available touchscreen devices without requiring modifications. The flexible thin-film integrated circuit has a 0.8cm² on-chip monolithic antenna and dissipates only 38nW of power at 600mV supply voltage.

http://www.imec.be

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SYSGO and STMicroelectronics demonstrate secure telematics

Thu, Dec 19, 2019

Real-time operating system (RTOS) for certifiable embedded systems company, SYSGO has jointly developed the Automotive Secure Gateway, based on STMicroelectronics’ Telemaco3P SoC.

The Telemaco3P SoC is an automotive processor for secure telematics and connectivity, which is combined with SYSGO`s PikeOS hypervisor-based RTOS, which brings avionics-grade safety and security to the automotive market, says the company.

The Telemaco3P platform ensures a secure connection between the vehicle and the cloud. Its asymmetric multi-core architecture is built upon powerful application processors as well as an independent controlled area network (CAN) control sub-system with optimised power management. Its ISO 26262 silicon design, embedded hardware security module and automotive-grade qualification up to +105 degrees C ambient temperature enable it to be used in a range of secure telematics applications supporting high-throughput wireless connectivity and over-the-air (OTA) firmware upgrades.

PikeOS extends the concept of secure telematics by encapsulating all communications channels and all applications in individual partitions, using a positive-security concept. This means that individual partitions cannot communicate with each other unless explicitly allowed and configured by the developer. The strict separation on the kernel level ensures that any malfunction or malicious attack will not impact the software running in partitions other than the one originally affected. PikeOS is currently the only RTOS/hypervisor certified to Common Criteria (EAL 3+). It has been used in a range of critical safety and security applications in the avionics, railway, and automotive industries.

The Automotive Secure Gateway implements a comprehensive security concept including a virtualised firewall, an intrusion detection system (IDS), fast and secure boot capabilities and a secure OTA update process. It supports secure cloud communications via LTE, as well as secured Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet and CAN connectivity within the car.

At CES 2020, ST and SYSGO will demonstrate how the Automotive Secure Gateway can detect and effectively mitigate OTA attacks. Demos will take place at CES 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, in the Automotive Grade Linux showcase in the Smart City exhibition (Westgate Booth 1815) and in SYSGO’s hospitality suite in the Westgate Hotel (floor 18, suite 1830).

https://www.st.com

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Renesas collaborates with Xilinx on Versal ACAP reference designs

Wed, Dec 18, 2019

Power semiconductors from Renesas and timing solutions from its subsidiary, IDT, support the Xilinx Versal adaptive compute acceleration platform (ACAP) devices featured on the Xilinx VCK190 evaluation kit and the Renesas VERSALDEMO1Z power reference board.

The 7nm process Versal is the industry’s first ACAP platform that addresses applications in data centre, automotive, 5G wireless, and wired and defence markets, says Renesas.

The company provides turnkey clocking and power reference boards that help system developers jumpstart Versal ACAP designs. For developers creating complex, compute-intensive systems that demand flexible and high-performance power delivery and timing, the collaboration has resulted in pre-validated reference designs that allow developers to rapidly develop and optimise system performance and power efficiency.

The Xilinx VCK190 is the first Versal AI Core series evaluation kit. It is based on the VC1902 Versal AI Core series ACAP, providing AI inference and signal processing throughput for cloud, network, and edge applications. The kit features complete timing solutions including the 8A34001 ClockMatrix system synchroniser for IEEE1588 and eCPRI applications, 8T49N240/8T49N241 Universal Frequency Translators for low-jitter and flexible transceiver SerDes clocking, a programmable clock generator and clock buffer/multiplexer for PCIe interface.

The Renesas VERSALDEMO1Z power reference board provides full power rails for the Versal ACAP’s adaptable engines, AI engines, scalar engines, and external DDR memory. The board is a complete power supply solution featuring one member of the ISL68xxx digital multiphase PWM controller family and multiple members of the ISL99xxx smart power stage family to provide high-efficiency and scalable Vcore power. There are also ISL91211A power management IC (PMIC) and DC/DC regulators.

The Renesas VERSALDEMO1Z power reference board is available now from Renesas Electronics.

Renesas Electronics delivers semiconductors that enable billions of connected, intelligent devices, microcontrollers, analogue, power, and SoC products for automotive, industrial, home electronics, office automation, and information communication technology applications.

http://renesas.com

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Image sensor evaluation kits support VR and smart buildings

Flexible tags communicate with standard touchscreens

SYSGO and STMicroelectronics demonstrate secure telematics

Renesas collaborates with Xilinx on Versal ACAP reference designs

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