Weartech-ICs & Semiconductors Archives - Page 37 of 41

Integrated IP and software develop contextually-aware IoT devices

Tue, Jan 07, 2020

At CES this week, Ceva will demonstrate its SenslinQ integrated hardware IP and software platform, designed to streamline the development of contextually-aware IoT devices.

The platform collects, processes and links data from multiple sensors to enable intelligent devices to understand their surroundings, explains the company by aggregating sensor fusion, sound and connectivity technologies.

Contextual awareness adds value and enhances the user experience of smartphones, laptops, augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) headsets, robots, hearables and wearables. The SenslinQ platform centralises the workloads that require an intimate understanding of the physical behaviours and anomalies of sensors. It collects data from multiple sensors within a device, including microphones, radars, inertial measurement units (IMUs), environmental sensors, and time of flight (ToF) sensors, and conducts front-end signal processing such as noise suppression and filtering on this data. It applies algorithms to create “context enablers” such as activity classification, voice and sound detection, and presence and proximity detection. These context enablers can be fused on a device or sent wirelessly via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or NB-IoT, to a local edge computer or the cloud to determine and adapt the device to its environment.

The customisable hardware reference design is composed of an Arm or RISC-V microcontroller, CEVA-BX DSPs and a wireless connectivity island, such as RivieraWaves Bluetooth, wi-fi or Dragonfly NB-IoT platforms, or other connectivity standards provided by the customer or third parties. Each components of these three components are connected using standard system interfaces.

The SenslinQ software is comprised of a portfolio of ready-to-use software libraries from CEVA and its ecosystem partners. Libraries include the Hillcrest Labs MotionEngine software packages for sensor fusion and activity classification in mobile, wearables and robots, the ClearVox front-end voice processing, WhisPro speech recognition and DSP and artificial intelligence (AI) libraries. There is also third party software components for active noise cancellation (ANC), sound sensing and 3D audio.

The accompanying SenslinQ framework is a Linux-based hardware abstraction layer (HAL) reference code and application programming interfaces (APIs) for data and control exchange between the multiple processors and sensors.

https://www.ceva-dsp.com

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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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Infineon showcases smart security

Wed, Nov 27, 2019

At Trustech 2019 (26 to 28 November) Infineon is exhibiting its hardware-based security for digital identification and contactless payment.

Firstly, it will be showcasing Secora ID, a Java Card solution optimised for electronic ID. Based on Infineon’s security controllers, Secora ID comes with an operating system targeted to be certified according to highest security standards, standardised applets and a selection of packages. There will be a live demonstration showing how easily it can be integrated into ID projects and adapted to local needs.

For contactless payment systems, Infineon’s new generation of SLC3x security chips are based on a 40nm geometry which provides performance and scalability for a vast array of smart card applications as well as payment wearables. Smart card manufacturers and payment solution providers will benefit from an Arm-based architecture, Infineon’s contactless expertise, creating what Infineon describes as the industry’s most advanced security controller portfolio.

Biometric authentication for drivers is also featured. Infineon and Next have been working on reference platforms since November 2018, working together to accelerate the adoption of biometric smartcards. Next Biometrics’ fingerprint sensor technology for dual interface smart cards uses a secure element from Infineon. The biometric card module developed by Next operates seamlessly throughout the standard ISO/IEC 14443 near field communication (NFC) range.

Smart ticketing will also be represented with Infineon’s standardised ticket and payment solutions. This includes limited use tickets over seasonal and yearly passes to sophisticated versions for multi-application implementations. Infineon has recently become a gold member of the Calypso Network Association (CNA) and been named member of the board of directors of the CAN, underling the company’s commitment to provide a comprehensive transport ticketing portfolio based on open standards.
Infineon will be exhibiting and demonstrating its security products at Trustech 2019 in Cannes, France from 26 to 28 November, booth RIV C 050.

The company will also be presenting on topics such as “Security by Design” or “JAVA Card”.

http://www.infineon.com/security

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Evaluation kit supports energy harvesting embedded controller

Fri, Nov 01, 2019

For the development of battery maintenance-free IoT equipment, Renesas Electronics has introduced the RE family, which encompasses the company’s current and future line-up of energy harvesting embedded controllers. The RE Family is based on Renesas’ proprietary Silicon on Thin Buried Oxide (SOTB) process technology. SOTB is claimed to dramatically reduce power consumption in both active and standby states, eliminating the need for battery replacement or recharging.

Following the introduction of the RE01 microcontrollers, the first of the RE family, the RE01 Group evaluation kit is now available to allow users working with the RE01

Hiroto Nitta, senior vice president, Head of SoC Business, IoT and Infrastructure Business Unit at Renesas, said: “We hope this will accelerate the spread of IoT equipment powered by energy harvesting.”

The RE01 evaluation kit includes an evaluation board with an RE01 embedded controller, an interface for the energy harvesting device and a rechargeable battery interface. There is also an Arduino-compatible interface for easy expansion and evaluation of sensor boards and a Pmod connector to expand and evaluate wireless functionality. There is also a low power memory in pixel (MIP) LCD expansion board so that users can evaluate display functions faster. The kit also contains sample code and application notes that serve as references for power management design that eliminates the need for battery maintenance, and driver software that supports CMSIS, Arm’s Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard. Sample code for low power ADCs, digital filter and fast Fourier transform (FFT) routines, 2D graphics MIP LCD displays, and secure boot and secure firmware update functions for improved security are available.

The kit can be used to adopt energy harvesting based on RE01 Group devices at the system level and will accelerate the development of equipment that does not require battery maintenance.

IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm which can use the high efficiency IAR C/C++ compiler, and e2 studio (note 2) which can use the free GNU compiler are available as the developmental environment.

The RE01 evaluation kit is available now.

http://www.renesas.com

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Integrated IP and software develop contextually-aware IoT devices

Image sensor evaluation kits support VR and smart buildings

Infineon showcases smart security

Evaluation kit supports energy harvesting embedded controller

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