Winter sports like skiing and snowboarding are often group activities. Groups of skiers and snowboarders traditionally use folded paper maps or board-mounted larger-scale maps near ski lifts to aid decision making: which slope to take next, where to have lunch, or what hazards to avoid when going off-piste. To enrich those static maps with personal content (e.g., pictures, prior routes taken, or hazards encountered), Anton Fedosov (twitter: @antonfedosov), HCI researcher, Università della Svizzera italiana (twitter: @USI_INF), Lugano, Switzerland developed SkiAR, a wearable augmented reality system that allows groups of skiers and snowboarders to share such content in-situ on a printed resort map while on the slope.
Belenos Clean Power, a subsidiary of Swatch Group, has developed a new type of battery based on vanadium, with electrical energy storage capacity up to 50 to 100% higher capacity than the battery technologies that exist today. Electric cars and drones might start using Belenos batteries starting this year already, production of Belenos batteries will start this Summer by Swatch Group subsidiary Renata in Switzerland, further Belenos batteries may also get produced in Asia depending on the demand. George Clooney and the Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier are on Belenos’s board of directors, Belenos is 51% owned by Swatch Group and will be put on the Hong Kong stock market with a possible valuation between 5 and 20 Billion dollars. The goal is to power Swatch Smartwatches and other wearables with the Belenos battery, creating a Smartwatch and wearable technologies that never needs to be recharged.
As a half-Swiss, I hope Swatch will release smart watches to put Apple Watch to shame, made in a really smart way, with Swatch’s own ultra low power displays or with E Ink behind the dials of a Swatch Sistem51 based automatic watch, and with low power Bluetooth and Novasentis flexible actuator vibrations in the wrist band. Part of the watch may function as energy harvester, perhaps solar on the watch casing/sides, to recharge the Bluetooth low energy and E Ink or other low power display.
Microsoft Windows 10 IoT Core is Windows 10 for the IoT market. Windows 10 IoT Core is free, Windows 10 IoT Core Pro is licenced and sold to OEMs like Inventec here showing their Qualcomm APQ8009 powered Inventec Avatar also connecting to Microsoft Azure, bringing advanced Bluetooth beacon platform with Wi-Fi cloud access to upload the log on Azure. Windows 10 IoT Core is also shown running on Raspberry Pi. From a Universal Windows app a developer can talk directly to the sensors and modules on the Raspberry Pi. Windows 10 IoT core is Windows 10 that can run on lower spec ARM devices, taking up about 200megabytes of space, can run on just 256MB RAM.
Microsoft is proud to present their Windows 10 Continuum running super smoothly on Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 based Microsoft Lumia 950 and Microsoft Lumia 950XL, the Microsoft branded devices resulting from the acquisition of Nokia, following a huge work by Microsoft together with their partners such as Qualcomm, to bring a full Windows 10 experience to ARM, powering the future of the Desktop and the Laptop through an ARM Powered smartphone, outputting a full Windows experience to an external display using DisplayPort over USB Type-C through a desktop dock or a laptop dock.
Backwards compatibility of x86 Windows apps can be supported through a cloud solution, such as the one HP is providing with their HP Elite x3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 based Windows Continuum phone coming out a few months from now.
I believe the best solution for Microsoft will be to support Windows 10 on Android, so when you dock an Android phone through a desktop dock or a laptop dock, then Microsoft needs to make sure that a full Windows 10 Continuum on ARM experience can be outputted from the Android phone on that secondary display. Microsoft needs to make Windows 10 an “external-only” home replacement which needs to work on any Android device.
Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) Executive Director Bill Lempesis (who I previously interviewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4PGoVR3ENo) introduces DisplayPort 1.4 A/V standard, which VESA developed, with input and cooperation from more than 230 global members. DP 1.4 includes a number of next-generation features, including capabilities for High Dynamic Range (HDR) and 8K video across the USB-C connector. It also features, for the first time, VESA’s Display Stream Compression Standard (DSC) standard, which enables up to 3:1 video compression with visually lossless performance. Stephane Boisclair, senior hardware designer for Hardent, provides an in-depth description of the latest DSC specification update, v1.2. A VESA member company, Montreal-based Hardent develops IP cores to support DSC encoding and decoding. DSC 1.2, which supports up to 16 bits per color and HDR, has great implications for high-end TVs and PCs, as well as automotive applications, where the growing number of camera sensors requires less cabling and greater range.
George Grey, Linaro CEO, gives the opening keynote of Linaro Connect Bangkok. He discusses Linaro’s activities across the ARM ecosystem from sensor devices to the data-center. New initiatives including end-to-end open source software platform solutions, ARM Based Developer Cloud, $299 Lemaker Cello using AMD 64bit Server SoC following the 96Boards Enterprise Edition specs are announced and demonstrated.
Eric Hennenhoefer, ARM VP Research talks about ARM Reasearch in the High Performance Computing area and more.
Launching now on Indiegogo http://igg.me/at/unuiga it’s a 64bit Amlogic S905 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 with Mali-450 MP5 GPU, runs Remix OS 2.0 Android for productivity, with two options:
Early birds, first 100 orders get $5 discount. Add to that Shipping price and you may have to pay import duty when receiving the package, depending on which country you receive it at, it’s shipped worldwide from Shenzhen, China. Read more at http://igg.me/at/unuiga
faytech is a leading German manufacturer of touchscreen devices with their own manufacturing facilities in Shenzhen, China. Here is a 38-minute tour of faytech’s US headquarters in New York with managing founder Arne Weber, visiting Infotek, faytech’s maintenance and repair services servicing partner in Manhattan and MetroClick, faytech’s project development partner in Manhattan, and showing off several projects being deployed using faytech touch displays in New York:
– ButterflyMX Intercom System, an 11.6’’ intercom system produced in cooperation with ButterflyMX. Cyrus Claffey, the CEO of ButterflyMX, presents an already installed and operating system at one of the residential buildings in downtown New York.
– Christie & Co. Salon and Spa with the owner Lois Christie, one of the TOP 20 beauty salons in USA, tells how putting a faytech 55’’ Touchscreen PC Kiosk in their salons helps expand her business and encourage customers to engage using social media after their beauty procedure.
– Proof 7, one of the last remaining big printing companies in New York, uses faytech to improve the reliability of their service.
– Lexus Installation at Madison Square Garden, faytech devices are part of something luxurious and technologically advanced.
– Hercules installed in 400 Hercules laundry shops in New York, faytech touch devices are being used for faster more reliable customer support when a laundry machine stops working.
faytech can deliver large stock of standard touch devices and they have the flexibility and competence to realize any touch device project. You can contact faytech at sales@faytech.com.
Qualcomm Atheros, Inc. shows off 802.11ad, the next generation Wi-Fi over 60Ghz, that enables data transfer speeds at up to 7Gbit/s. The 60 GHz signal cannot typically penetrate walls but can propagate off reflections from walls, ceilings, floors and objects using beamforming. When roaming away from the main room the protocol can switch to make use of the other lower Wi-Fi bands on 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz at a much lower rate, both of which can propagate through walls. 802.11ad is supported in Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, Qualcomm Atheros Qualcomm Internet Processor (IPQ) 8064 reference designs combined with its QCA9500 802.11ad chipset. Letv’s first Snapdragon 820 smartphone will support it. New Wi-Fi Access points from Elecom, NEC and TP-Link support it, and Acer and Asus plan to release laptops with 802.11ad. SiBEAM, Inc., a Lattice Semiconductor company, and Peraso Technologies, Inc. will also deliver Adapters to the market.
Sharp Robohon (which I previously filmed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiZSL3o8L7M) is Sharp’s vision for the future of the smartphone. A pocket-sized humanoid Robot, with built-in Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, LTE Sim card slot, it has a built-in projector, microphone, speaker. The concept is to use AI conversations to bring usefulness as a notification robot. I think Sharp needs to mass manufacture it, sell it worldwide for the price of an iPhone, and load all kinds of AI apps so it can be powered by Google, Amazon, Microsoft or anyone else who is making an AI voice assistant.
Interview with Intrinsiq Materials at the Printed Electronics USA event. Intrinsiq Materials is an advanced materials company with expertise in the manufacture, functionalisation and dispersion of nanoparticles and ink formulation. Specialising in low cost nanoparticle-based copper conductive inkjet inks and screen print pastes for the printed electronics industry, Intrinsiq also supply prototyping and production laser precision sintering systems (LAPS-60) for use with their ink and paste products. Newly released products include copper seed layer ink for glass and plastic substrates which activates commercially available electroless copper chemistry, nano phosphors for security inks and thermoelectric materials. For more information see http://www.intrinsiqmaterials.com and http://www.IDTechEx.com
Interview with BeBop Sensors at the IDTechEx Wearable USA event. BeBop uses smart fabrics to create sensor solutions for OEMs. Where things or people interact, BeBop Sensors comprehend force, location, size, weight, shape, motion and presence across any size, resolution and geometry. BeBop uses a proprietary Monolithic Fabric Sensor Technology that integrates all of the sensors, traces and electronics into a single piece of fabric. BeBop technology senses and displays 3D maps of pressure, bend, location, rotation, angle, and torsion. For more information see http://www.bebopsensors.com/ and http://www.IDTechEx.com
This is an interview taken with the Renesas Electronics Corporation at the Printed Electronics USA event. Renesas Electronics Corporation is a supplier of microcontrollers and of advanced semiconductor solutions including microcontrollers, SoC solutions and a range of analog and power devices. For more information see http://am.renesas.com and http://www.IDTechEx.com
Altierre shows their low power and scalable wireless “IoT for Retail” network deployed in retail stores in almost every major city in the US, France, and elsewhere. Altierre has established itself in the market for the electronic shelf label, in huge expansion as every supermarket is interested to have dynamic smart price labels on everything in every store. This network carries the price changes of millions of price labels every day. Filmed at the IDTechEx Show!
Seshu Madhavapeddy, VP of Product Management, responsible for the mobile compute product line at Qualcomm, presents the awesome HP Elite x3 phablet powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 running Windows 10 Mobile with Continuum. Qualcomm is working with Microsoft to bring Windows to Qualcomm ARM SoCs, running the Universal apps and enabling Continuum using the dock.
Remix OS is shown here running super smoothly on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 Octa-core quad ARM Cortex-A57 and quad ARM Cortex-A53, here on a tablet reference.
After my interview with Mark Shuttleworth, here’s my 17-minute Ubuntu booth tour video. Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition comes with 5.7″ 1080p Exynos7420 octa-core ARM Cortex-A57/53, 3GB RAM. At MWC 2016, Canonical is showing Ubuntu Convergence running on a Nexus 4, running a “Full Ubuntu” Unuity 8 out of the phone on the slimport HDMI output from the phone. Running the exact same Ubuntu on desktops and on ARM Powered Smartphone. Canonical is really excited to see more powerful hardware to come out running this Ubuntu Convergence solution, here poiting out that the phone runs LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP, xchat, gedit, making it possible to use this as a desktop device.
BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition Tablet runs on the MediaTek MT8163A Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 with Mali GPU and 2GB RAM. It runs a full Ubuntu, enabling to set it to Desktop mode to run any Ubuntu app.
Snappy Ubuntu Core delivers applications for Drones, Robots and the IoT market. Here showing off the UAVIA Snappy Ubuntu Core powered drone, running on a Toradex Freescale i.MX6 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 System on Module, making a more intelligent drone better to enable autonomous flight thanks to sense and avoid technologies. It also facilitates maintenance of drones by making remote software deployments secure, effective and failsafe. Snappy Ubuntu Core also is being demonstrated for home automation running on a Qualcomm Dragonboard 410c.
Samsung also showcases their new Samsung Artik 1, Samsung Artik 5 dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 with Mali400MP2 GPU, 512MB RAM, 4GB eMMC flash, built in wireless WiFi, Bluetooth, BLE, ZigBee, 6LoWPAN based Thread protocol for Google Nest. Samsung Artik 10 octa-core quad ARM Cortex-A15 and quad ARM Cortex-A7. All Samsung IoT Artik modules are offered using their new ePoP (package-on-package) design, optimized for the IoT market. Artik includes also cloud-based device management based on SmartThings Open Cloud providing SDKs to help connect endpoint devices to the cloud using Java, Android, iOS, PHP, and Python tools. Open Cloud is partially based on the Samsung SAMI data driven development platform. The Atik 5 development board with the module is available for $100 at digikey
Also at the Ubuntu booth is the lead developer for the Etherum decentralized software platform, using blockchain to power the IoT market. Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference. The Ethereum team now works on Slock.it, where the vision is that an unused bicycle in your shed gets a new lease on life. Parking spots can be sublet on demand. Airbnb apartments become fully automated. It’s the future infrastructure of the Sharing Economy, Slock.it was shown at the Lift Conference here
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.
Lego Education launches Lego WeDo 2.0 robotics kit at https://education.lego.com/en-us/elementary/shop/wedo-2 to teach elementary students all over the world about science and to give them a taste for building robots based on lego. It includes bluetooth controlled motors with apps on Android and iOS to let the students program the behavior of each lego robot.
KEP works with Foxconn and Intel to manufacture a Rockchip Intel 3G-R Android smartphone then when outputting to an external display using MHL it outputs Debian Linux on the external display. It also shows the Android in a window on the side of the Linux. This is a kind of Android to Linux.
