Category: Internet of Things

Smart Home IoT series by Yifang Digital

Posted by – March 4, 2016

Cathy from Yifang Digital shows their ZigBee gateway that drives the smart devices such as a temperature sensor, light, water leak sensor, fan etc. The company develops smart home solutions and chose ZigBee because of widespread support amongst other OEMs and low power consumption. They have partnered with Lenovo, who sells their products under the brand “Nexturn”.

DS-TAGS E Ink BAGTAG with NXP enables Smart Luggage Tag

Posted by – March 3, 2016

DS-TAGS (http://www.dstags.com) shows off their new BAGTAG solution at the NXP booth. BAGTAG enables passengers on airplanes and the travel industry to speed up the luggage check-in process at airports, it includes a secure electronic E Ink bag tag, an Android/iOS app & SDK and a cloud-based platform that allows secure end-to-end data service. With BAGTAG airlines can now offer “off-airport” baggage check-in, which allows travelers to beat the queues at an airport or terminal thanks to a revamped baggage drop-off process of less than 8 seconds. BAGTAG will become available later this year.

DS-TAGS BAGTAG has “10-year battery life” using an ultra-low power ARM Cortex-M0 to drive a 4” E-INK display. The device powers off instantly when the tag is updated while passively providing routing information to the airline infrastructure due to the bi-stable feature of E Ink. The BAGTAG’s superior barcode readability and integrated UHF results in improved read-rates, reduce the chance of misplaced luggage. A traveler can update the BAGTAG themselves with their own smartphone via either NFC or Bluetooth LE. The security of the device is handled by a secure element provided by NXP, much like the payment card industry is using today.

MWC 2016 Keynote: ARM CEO Simon Segars

Posted by – March 2, 2016

Simon Segars, CEO of ARM Holdings, gives a keynote speech at Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona. Talking about security for the Internet of Things, how ARM is working towards bringing solutions for the market to be mindful of cyber crime, implementing robust security for the IoT to really take off.

You can also watch the official video of this keynote here: http://www.mobileworldlive.com/mwc16-videos/mwc16-keynote-arm/

Svein-Egil Nielsen, CTO of Nordic Semiconductor, enabling wearables, IoT, Bluetooth beacons and more


Nordic Semiconductor provides ultra low power ARM processors, to enable Bluetooth Smart devices, they are in wearables, smartwatches, rings, pens, wireless chargers, bluetooth beacons, smart home IoT. Nordic Semiconductor partners with many module makers who take the Nordic Semiconductor chips to adapt it to every type of suitable market. They showcase their support of Apple HomeKit. Nordic Semiconductor and the community has answered over 10 thousand questions at https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/questions/ to support their customers.

Nordic Semiconductor just launched the nRF52832 SoC, which is a powerful, highly flexible ultra-low power multiprotocol SoC ideally suited for Bluetooth Smart, ANT and 2.4GHz ultra low-power wireless applications. The nRF52832 SoC is built around a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F CPU with 512kB + 64kB RAM. The embedded 2.4GHz transceiver supports Bluetooth Smart, ANT and proprietary 2.4 GHz protocol stack. It is on air compatible with the nRF51 Series, nRF24L and nRF24AP Series products from Nordic Semiconductor.

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical at MWC 2016

Posted by – February 24, 2016

Ubuntu is being used around the world, on servers, to power the cloud, switches, routers, base stations and Snappy Ubuntu works on drones, robots and more for the IoT world. Snappy 3.0 will be on Ubuntu 16.04. Ubuntu also shows off Ubuntu on Smartphones, Tablets, and their Nexus 4 showing convergence running “the same” Ubuntu on the phone and on the external display as a dekstop. Check back for my Ubuntu booth tour video coming up.

ARM Cortex-A32

Posted by – February 24, 2016

ARM Cortex-A32 is the most power efficient 32bit processor, 25% more efficient than ARM Cortex-A7 (performance per mW) in the same process node. ARM Cortex-A32 takes advantage of the ARMv8-A instruction set, it is designed to be the smallest, lowest-power 32bit processor to bring efficiency and architectural improvements to next generation rich embedded 32bit applications, to drive innovation across diverse embedded markets including wearables, consumer, industrial, and IoT. You can read more about it at: https://www.arm.com/products/processors/cortex-a/cortex-a32-processor.php

Devices by MakersHub, startup development firm

Posted by – February 19, 2016

MakersHub is a company that fosters development and growth of new products. On display here is a range of co-developed products: their helmet outfitted with haptic feedback (vibrations), responding to a touch input elsewhere, a glass cube that detects touch and makes a noise, and a doorknob that alerts touch.

Thin Film NFC OpenSense for anti-counterfeiting

Posted by – February 19, 2016

Bill Cummings of Thin Film Electronics interview with Raghu Das from IDTechEx at the Printed Electronics USA exhibition. Thinfilm is creating printed systems that include memory, sensing, display, and wireless communication. Thinfilm’s roadmap integrates technology from an ecosystem of partners to enable the Internet of Everything by bringing intelligence to disposable goods. For more information see http://www.thinfilm.no and http://www.IDTechEx.com

Rockchip RKNanoD ARM Cortex-M3 Wireless Surround Sound 5.1 Channel Audio

Posted by – February 18, 2016

Rockchip demonstrates their RKNanoD ARM Cortex-M3 (previously filmed here) for wireless audio stereo system. It support up to 5.1 audio channels output, includes a left channel, right channel, left surround, right surround, center sound channel and the subwoofer.

Rockchip RKi6000 Ultra Low Power WiFi

Posted by – February 18, 2016

Rockchip RKi6000 (previously filmed here) offers an Ultra-low Power Consumption WiFi solution, even lower power than Bluetooth. Rockchip promotes it as their ideal solution for low power wearble devices that remain always connected on-line without always waking up the main SoC. As well as for tablet, phone, laptop and IoT.

ASUS HG100, RK3066 Smart Home Gateway via Zigbee,WiFi, Bluetooth

Posted by – February 18, 2016

ASUS HG100 is a Smart Home Gateway powered by Rockchip RK3066. It can can coordinate multiple devices and sensors via ZigBee, WiFi and Bluetooth like smart locks, temperature and humidity control, smart door and window sensors switches, intelligent power sockets and more. It is also a home multimedia center with HDMI 2.0 and 4K H.265 decode.

ARM mbed IoT device platform

Posted by – February 17, 2016

ARM mbed OS is an open source embedded operating system for IoT for ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers that can be used to power smart cities, smart homes and wearables. mbed OS accelerates the time to market by providing a core operating system, robust security foundations, standards based communication capabilities, and drivers for sensors, I/O devices and connectivity. mbed OS is built as a modular, configurable software stack to readily customize it to devices being developed for, and reduce memory requirements by excluding unnecessary software components. mbed OS forms the client-side portion of the mbed IoT Device Platform on microcontrollers, and is designed to work in concert with mbed Device Connector, mbed Device Server, and mbed Client. Together this platform delivers comprehensive IoT solutions.

Jones Packaging anti-counterfeiting using T+Sun Touchcode touchscreen sensitive coding

Posted by – February 7, 2016

Jones Packaging specialize in printed packaging, contract packaging and medication dispensing and delivery products. For more information see http://www.jonespackaging.com filmed at at http://www.IDTechEx.com Printed Electronics USA

Infratab Cold Chain Freshness Monitoring System

Posted by – February 7, 2016

Infratab makes Freshtime, a freshness-monitoring system of RFID- and NFC-enabled tags that monitor elapsed time and the temperature of perishable items (food, medicines, flowers , blood, adhesives, ammunition etc). Freshtime integrates these variables in a 100-point metric that tells users concurrently “how fresh” the product is. For more information see http://www.infratab.com Filmed at at the Internet of Things Applications exhibition, part of the IDTechEx Show!

Coursera course about IoT using the 64bit Qualcomm Dragonboard 410c


This Coursera Specialization covers the development of Internet of Things (IoT) products and services—including devices for sensing, actuation, processing, and communication—to help you develop skills and experiences you can employ in designing novel systems. The Specialization has theory and lab sections. In the lab sections you will learn hands-on IoT concepts such as sensing, actuation and communication. In the final Capstone Project, developed in partnership with Qualcomm, you’ll apply the skills you learned on a project of your choice using the DragonBoard 410c platform.

Microduino mCookie, Open-source Magnetic Module Compatible with LEGO Arduino

Posted by – January 29, 2016

Microduino mCookie is a small open-source module with different sensors(Bluetooth,WiFi,GPS,Audio,Motor etc) inside, it comes with colorful shell ,magnetic connector and pogo pins. support AVR, STM32, MS430, 51,MIPS, ARM, FPGA system, compatible with LEGO and Arduino, Makers can use it for projects like 3D printing, Robotics, Drones, IoT, wearable or any of your new ideas. Retailer price at $299 for mCookie kit.

You can contact Microduino here:
Bin Feng, CEO,Co-founder
bin@microduino.cc
https://www.microduino.cc/

Mentor Graphics Customized IoT Gateway platform


Mentor Graphics announced end to end IoT system developer kit with software and hardware reference design. The reference design can be customized to meet specific gateway requirements for various business applications. The gateway platform includes data collection, storage with different connectivity options like Bluetooth, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and USB. The gateway uses Freescale i.MX6 ARM Cortex-A9 processor.

Qualcomm CES 2016 booth tour: Snapdragon 820, 820A, 802.11ad, 802.11ac, Windows Continuum and more


Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 is shown in a real phone in LeTV Le Max Pro, with Qualcomm saying that they have 80+ design wins for the Snapdragon 820 custom 64bit processor, now to be mass manufactured on Samsung’s 14nm process technology. Qualcomm also shows their Snapdragon 820 Adreno 530 GPU demos showing off high-end graphics, virtual reality and new display technologies, also Qualcomm WSA8815 audio technology for better sound coming out of built-in speakers for the Smartphones and Tablets market. Scanning people in realtime using Project Tango type structured scanner, IR camera. Qualcomm shows IoT technologies, Qualcomm Vive 802.11ac WiFi with multi-user mimo. Microsoft Windows 10 running on ultra-cheap Qualcomm 210, 410, and Windows continuum extending the Windows 10 desktop from the phone through to the external display using USB Type-C. Qualcomm Atheros Multi-Gigabit 60Ghz Wi-Fi 802.11ad included with the Snapdragon 820 LeTV Le Max Pro Smartphone! Matterport 360 degre camera supported by Qualcomm Ventures and other startups demonstrated. Qualcomm launches Qualcomm 820A for the automitive market and the modular system to upgrade the ARM Processor and PCB of the car to make it future proof.

Connected Yard pHin IoT Smart Pool Sensor

Posted by – January 22, 2016

A part of Andy Rubin’s Playground Global incubator, Connected Yard presents their pHin Smart Swimming Pool sensor and maintenance service “Uber for Pools”, conceived and developed to simplify caring for swimming pools, pHin consists of a floating water sensor, a mobile app, unique chemical pods and access to an on-demand service network of qualified technicians. pHin simplifies pool maintenance with 24/7 water chemistry monitoring, mobile notifications and convenient chemical delivery. It is estimated that the U.S. market alone comprises more than 14 million residential pools and hot tubs. Connected Yard Phin won the Best IoT Technology Development award at http://www.IDTechEx.com

ARM mbed Smartwatch reference design with 2 months battery life


ARM shows their open source hardware and software Smartwatch reference design with 2 months battery life runs mbed OS on a Silicon Labs EFM32 Giant Gecko ARM Cortex-M3 SoC and memory LCD, it also have an ARM Cortex-M0 for Bluetooth and an ARM Cortex-M4 for the fingerprint sensor. GPS, NFC, 9-axis sensor (accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer), ambient light sensor, capacitive sliders for UI scrolling, buttons and more are on the flexible PCB. The power consumption is around 70microAmps with the animation running on the memory LCD, the battery life should be about 2 month on a compact and light 160mAh battery. ARM is building open source experimental smart wearables to explore the potential of ARM in wearables and IoT, to encourage device makers to use all the latest ARM technologies in combination with innovative display technologies and sensors to to create better concepts, to better use technologies to try to contribute to and improve the internet of things and the wearables market. Some goals for better Wearables can be to last months on a battery, to connect and interact with all devices seamlessly, to enable new forms of trusted interactions and ultimately aim to fade in to the background. These advances are to be integrated into ARM’s open source mbed OS, there might be subsets of mbed OS, less is needed on the Bluetooth chip for example than on the microcontroller of the Smartwatch or other IoT device.

Developing this mbed OS Smartwatch reference design gives ARM the opportunity to get first-hand experience of the realities of building complete and complex physical products – the mechanical design, electronics, software and taking it all through the production process. ARM has taken a complete design from concept through to manufacturing a few hundred working units thus far, and learned a huge amount. This may inspire and encourage device makers to advance and innovate faster to make the Smartwatch market a success.