Sector News

Carrier board saves space by streaming four cameras 

Fri, Dec 03, 2021

Four high performance USB3 board level cameras can be streamed simultaneously and at full bandwidth, says Teledyne Flir, as the company introduces the Quartet TX2 carrier board.

The custom carrier board is based on Nvidia’s Jetson TX2 and is suitable for space constrained applications, says the company, as it eliminates the need for peripheral hardware and host systems. The Quartet TX2 Embedded Solution comes pre-integrated with Teledyn Flir’s Spinnaker software development kit, allowing developers to create scalable performance options.

The Quartet TX2 carrier board combines power and data transmission over a single cable per camera, yet, it has a compact footprint of 138 x 92 x 18.2mm. 

Integrators can now design compact vision systems using the tried and tested Jetson TX2 module, integrating a powerful single board computer (SBC) into space constrained vision systems, says Teledyne Flir. The Quartet TX2 carrier board supports plug and play compatibility with up to four Blackfly S USB3 board level cameras. The Nvidia Jetson deep learning hardware accelerator also allows for a complete decision-making system on a single compact board. 

Teledyne Flir is a Teledyne Technologies company, specialising in intelligent sensing solutions for defence and industrial applications.

Founded in 1978, the company creates advanced technologies to “help professionals make better, faster decisions that save lives and livelihoods”. 

Teledyne Technologies provides digital imaging products and software, instrumentation, aerospace and defence electronic, and engineered systems. Teledyne’s operations are primarily located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Western and Northern Europe. 

http://www.teledyneflir.com

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Wireless modules offer direct to cloud connectivity

Fri, Dec 03, 2021

Two wireless modules, smaller than the earlier Talaria TWO models, have been announced by InnoPhase. The fabless semiconductor company has introduced the 

Talaria TWO INP1014 and INP1015 Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth Low Energy 5 modules.

They combine wireless connectivity and an integrated microcontroller for edge-of-network IoT devices that require low power consumption and a direct-to-cloud connection, says the company. The modules ar3 40 per cent smaller than the INP1010 and INP1011 models introduced in 2020. 

The Talaria TWO INP1014 and INP1015 Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth Low Energy 5 modules are designed for the development of smart IoT products, such as connected sensors, security cameras, asset tracking devices, health monitoring wearables and audio speakers.

The INP1014 and 1015 modules are claimed to provide the industry’s lowest power Wi-Fi connectivity by virtue of its programmable, digital radio architecture. They include multi-protocol Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy 5 long range for wireless data transfer, an embedded Arm Cortex-M3 for system control and user applications, plus advanced security elements for device safeguards. They can operate in standalone mode, in conjunction with an external microcontroller or in a hybrid mode. The miniaturised form factor includes various antenna options and global certifications for extended battery life. 

“By 2025, ABI Research expects the IoT Wi-Fi segment that can benefit from such low power innovations to reach over 1 billion devices,” said Andrew Zignani, principal analyst, ABI Research. 

To showcase the ease of integrating the INP1014 and INP1015 into smaller IoT devices, InnoPhase developed a low power sensor board reference design that enables product creativity and shortens time to market.

InnoPhase is headquartered in San Diego, California, USA and is a fabless wireless semiconductor platform company specialising in extreme low power wireless IoT solutions. It developed the Talaria TWO multi-protocol chipset with what is claimed to be the world’s lowest power Wi-Fi radio using a programmable digital polar radio architecture. 

http://www.innophaseinc.com 

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Infineon partners with AWS to accelerate IoT product development

Thu, Dec 02, 2021

Support for the AWS IoT ExpressLink standards and specifications has been announced for the AIROC IFW56810 cloud connectivity manager by Infineon Technologies.

The combination enables developers to connect products such as industrial sensors, home appliances, irrigation systems and medical devices to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Developers can also use it to implement IoT applications to offload the complex work required to securely connect devices to AWS. According to Infineon, this allows developers to focus on core competencies to build products, while reducing design efforts and accelerating time to market. The cloud connectivity manager is pre-certified with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

“Traditionally, connecting devices to the cloud has been a difficult and time-consuming process that requires developers to possess a wide range of technical competencies in Wi-Fi, embedded systems, antenna design and cloud configuration along while creating complex code,” said Rob Conant, vice president of Software and Ecosystem at Infineon. “We are excited to continue our work with AWS to help engineers focus on building products that get to market faster and to create new revenue streams,” he said.

The AIROC allows developers to use simple configuration commands, such as “connect” and “send” to establish a connection and start streaming data to AWS. This can be done within hours, instead of weeks, says Infineon.

It also enables OEMs to transform products into IoT devices without merging large amounts of code, or without requiring a deep understanding of the implementation. There is also the ability to connect various devices to AWS, while preserving the original application software and avoiding costly redesign.

The system is software upgradable via over the air (OTA) upgrades and there is also support for host OTA upgrades for security and future proofing. Regardless of scale, data is securely transmitted to and from the cloud via Wi-Fi, confirms Infineon.

The system supports CIRRENT Cloud ID, which ensures that each device has a unique identity and assignment to a product company stored in a secure hardware element to ensure a fail-proof mechanism.

Infineon’s AIROC wireless products, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combinations. The family leverages a common software framework across Android, Linux, RTOS platforms and are pre-integrated with Infineon’s ModusToolbox software and tools. 

http://www.infineon.com

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People counting keeps the workplace safe

Wed, Dec 01, 2021

For people detection and counting in indoor spaces, such as office space and municipal areas, Analog Devices has developed the EagleEye ADSW4000 which uses the PeopleCount algorithm.

It is the first in a series of application-level software algorithms forming part of the ADI EagleEye platform that includes a hardware subsystem based on ADI’s Blackfin embedded DSP and a set of application-level software building blocks enabling users to quickly develop their own people counting system. The ADSW4000 algorithm provides system edge node analytics to allow intelligent insight into use of space, and how people move safely within that space with distance monitoring. It is also useful to gather intelligence on the energy efficiency of spaces within ‘smart’ buildings. 

The EagleEye counts people in indoor areas, based on the x and y co-ordinates of a person’s location. It uses zoned performance, enabling multiple areas for wider coverage and edge processing. The metadata is output over UART and no captured images are transmitted. 

EagleEye can solve workspace needs and maximise worker wellbeing and productivity, says ADI. For maximum coverage area applications, accuracy of 80 per cent can be achieved in a 5m radius.

The Eval-ADSW4000KTZ evaluation kit with embedded ADSW4000 algorithm and cloud dashboard access is available now. 

Analog Devices offers a suite of analogue and mixed signal, power management, radio frequency (RF), and digital and sensor technologies for customers in the industrial, communications, automotive, and consumer markets. 

http://www.analog.com

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