Category: Internet of Things

Zephyr Project with Linaro, Open Source Foundries, Nordic, Intel, Bluetooth Mesh demos


The Zephyr Project is a scalable real-time operating system (RTOS) supporting multiple hardware architectures with more than 82 development boards supported already, with additional hardware support being added regularly, optimized for resource constrained devices, and built with security in mind. The Zephyr Project wants to be the open source “Linux of Embedded”. Zephyr Project members include Linaro and the Open Source Foundries, Intel, NXP, Synopsys, Nordic Semiconductor, DeviceTone, runtime.io, Texas Instruments, Oticon and more. This video features functional prototype devices using the Zephyr kernel, including a functional Bluetooth Mesh network, a low energy Bluetooth controller, and an OpenThread demo. Other demos include the World’s first Bluetooth 5.0 qualified, open source low energy Bluetooth Controller that features open source code from Application to Radio, a BlueZ Bluetooth Host stack, a Zephyr kernel, low energy link layer, OS Host Controller Interface, the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52, and the Arm Cortex M4F + Bluetooth 5 and Radio SoC. This demo will take a closer look at the different layers that make up a full BLE protocol stack helps explain this capability. Bluetooth Mesh in action on BBC micro:bit boards available since Zephyr OS v1.9 showcases the many-to-many BLE communication, how every node can be a relay and the user interface. A functional Bluetooth Mesh Network with Lightweight Machine to Machine Device Management showcases the Cloud Device Management System using Linux-based IoT gateways and Zephyr-based IoT devices for real-world project prototypes and smart objects. A demonstration of OpenThread integration, benefits from the Zephyr infrastructure and how it works with Nordic nRF52840 and OpenThread 6loWPAN Thread Stack. The flow of IP traffic is handled seamlessly by both the Zephyr native IP stack and OpenThread: 802.15.4 traffic received by radio driver is forwarded to the OpenThread stack, where it is processed by the 802.15.4 MAC, 6loWPAN and IPv6 layers implemented in OpenThread.

Arm RTX5 RTOS for safety-critical systems development on ARM Cortex-M

Posted by – March 8, 2018

Reinhard Keil, Senior Director Embedded Tools, Arm talks about the Arm Keil MDK which is a complete development environment and supports over 5000 microcontrollers. At Embedded World, Arm introduced the TrustZone-M firmware project for security and a runtime software system for safety applications that accelerates software development for Cortex-M press release The certification enables the use of the runtime system in projects that run on Arm Cortex-M0, Cortex-M0+, Cortex-M3, Cortex-M4 and Cortex-M7, and target certification according to ISO 26262 and IEC 61508 up to ASIL D and SIL 3, respectively. Certification for Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33 is planned for 2019.

TechNexion Android Things dev kits, modules, embedded systems at the Embedded World 2018


TechNexion shows off its Android Things development kits, modules, embedded systems and more new products at the Embedded World 2018. The TechNexion product lineup has grown once again in size. The company is showcasing Android Things development kits based on PICO-PI-IMX7 Low-cost system on modules that are modular, scalable and versatile. The Android Things development boards are based on the NXP i.MX7 applications processor. TechNexion is also launching several wireless communication modules, including PIXI-41Z and the PIXI-9377 low-cost, certified, 1×1 802.11 AC/BT4.1 module that deliver high transmission rates, low latency and improved range.

TechNexion is a provider of embedded systems and system-on-modules, in 2017, TechNexion was chosen by Google as a partner to develop the reference design for its Android Things development kit. That kit based on the PICO-PI-IMX7 board has been the go-to development kit distributed at developer shows and used for demoing the potential of Android Things.

The New TechNexion PIXI series is a communication module that delivers all IoT multi-mode communication needs in one ultra-compact and secure module series. It is specifically designed to enable better transmission rates, lower latency, better range and higher resistance to interference when two or more communication protocols – for example, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Thread – are needed to run concurrently on one system-on-chip. Multiple communication protocols in one chip means users can collect more data from disparate communication protocols, while also having the flexibility to use the right protocol to suit the type of data and distance from your hub.

Panel PCs – TechNexion has three human-machine-interface (HMI) panel computing series: TC, TEP and TWP. The TEP Series is available with either ARM or x86 architecture and has an IP65 anodized aluminum enclosure and a flux mounted projective capacitive touch, high brightness LCD display – ranging from 5 to 15.6 inches. The TWP Series is a fully waterproof, IP69K, panel PC designed to withstand extreme temperatures, high vibration, and cleaning with a jet spray. It is also available with either ARM or x86 architecture – ranging from 10 to 15.6 inches. The TEP-1560-IMX6 is their 15” panel computer based on i.MX6 and the TWP-1560-IMX6 is their NEW model that is waterproof, stainless steel, panel computer.

Fanless Box PCs – The TEK Series fanless computing systems are enclosed in a compact, fully ruggedized enclosure, and are perfect for controlling versatile end-equipment.

System-on-Modules – TechNexion continues to expand its SoM options through its two series, EDM and PICO. These series have an exhaustive range of options around size, processor capability and connector type enabling the creation of almost any kind of embedded device. They are designed to be scalable and come with fully open source software – Linux and Android – and schematics.

WandPi-8M community board – TechNexion were also showing the latest version of their community development board. It is based on NXP’s i.MX8M Quad application processor with ARM Cortex-A53 + M4 architecture to deliver 4K UltraHD with HDR video quality with pro audio fidelity. The WandPi-8M is available for pre-order and is expected to ship in Spring of this year.

Philips Smart Mirror with Smart Toothbrush, Smart Shaver, Skincare

Posted by – January 23, 2018

Philips shows their newest range of Bluetooth smart connected devices that are on the market connecting to their prototype Smart Mirror that helps guide the toothbrushing, shaving and skin care hydration level sensor, as well as a balance weight and blood pressure monitor.

Allwinner Alexa Solution Dev Kit for cheaper Voice ARM devices

Posted by – January 19, 2018

Allwinner launches their ARM SoC-Only 3-Mic Far-Field Dev Kit for Amazon Voice Service (AVS) with all the acoustic and distance challenged voice processing done fully on the Allwinner R18 Quad-core 64bit ARM Cortex-A53 SoC eliminating the need for a more expensive and more complicated digital signal processor (DSP) to do Alexa Voice Services, reducing complexity and expenses, increasing flexibility for OEMs, ODMs, IDH partners, Allwinner currently supports Amazon AVS with their R18 dev kit running their Allwinner Linux based optimized embedded Tina OS platform, with support for Android Things probably also to come later. Allwinner not only provides the R18 “open source family” SoC, they also provide Wi-Fi, analog-to-digital converters (ADC), PMIC, algorithms (via partner GMEMS) for a Total package for the device developer.

Industry insiders and project creators can contact Allwinner at service@allwinnertech.com and at: http://www.allwinnertech.com/index.php?c=market&a=index&id=59

Thundersoft CTO Pengcheng Zou talks Open Source Automotive and more


Thunder Software Technology Co., Ltd. is a smart device operating system and platform technology provider since 2008, providing smart device operating system solutions, speeding-up time to market for smart phone, IoT, automotive, robots, drones, cars, smart logistics, with years of R&D investment in mobile OS technology such as Android, Linux, Windows and HTML5, from the hard drive, operating system kernel, and middleware to upper application, and has accumulated extensive experience along with a large number of IP including protocol stack, deep learning, computer graphics techniques, operating system optimization, security solutions, etc.

Canonical shows EdgeX on ARM


First demo of EdgeX on ARM in cross-host setup featuring Ubuntu Core and Ubuntu systems both running the EdgeX cluster. The Dell 5k Edge Gateway, based on Ubuntu Core Snappy, has been running the core EdgeX services (basically 11 out of 12) using the official Docker snap. The RPi3, based on Ubuntu, has been running EdgeX device virtual service.

The EdgeX Foundry Project is a vendor-neutral project launched by the Linux Foundation, aligned around a common goal: the simplification and standardization of the foundation for edge computing architectures in the Industrial IoT market, while still allowing the ecosystem to add significant value. The seed for the new project is a fully-functional, Alpha-grade edge platform based on over 125,000 lines of code donated by Dell with references to other open source projects and developed with feedback from their partners, customers, and even competitors. The EdgeX project has already garnered a diverse and experienced membership base of supporting companies that is continuing the development of the architecture and code base. The goals of EdgeX include to provide a flexible microservices architecture that can support the use of any combination of heterogeneous ingredients plugged into a common interoperability foundation, to be agnostic to hardware CPU (e.g., x86, ARM), OS (e.g., Linux, Windows, Mac OS), and application environment (e.g., Java, JavaScript, Python, Go Lang, C/C++) to support customer preferences for differentiation, to allow services to scale up and down based on device capability and use case and more.

ilika Solid State battery for Industry 4.0

Posted by – November 11, 2017

ilika Technology is a UK based company who is mainly working in Material science and innovation in various electronics products.They have collaboration with Rolls Royce and Toyota for research and development.here they are showcasing their Solid state sub milliamp hour battery for the constant temperature measurement and broadcasting via Bluetooth beacon. Filmed at the IDTechEx Show!

Icohup Rium Radioactivity sensor, Ikalogic Wireless Oscilloscope

Posted by – November 10, 2017

Icohup is showcasing Rium which is a consumer device for measuring the pollution level and the radio activity at the home, it’s a radioactivity sensor, a powerful gamma spectrometer, it can also detect the nature of the different type of radioactive rays. The device can be connected to the mobile app via Bluetooth and keep them updated about the environment, that informs users about the level of risk and proposes protection means adapted to each situation, as the Rium instrument is geolocated and connected to the Internet, the data received allow us to build radioactivity maps in real time. Icohup also develops tailored sensors in different fields such as fluids leaks, gas, anti-counterfeiting, etc.

Next to them is Ikalogic who is making the wireless oscilloscope probe which can be connected to desktop or mobile phone via WiFi and sends the data to it wirelessly. They also made the software to view the in detailed pattern of the signal. Ready to make uncompromised measurements, right out of your pocket. Anywhere. Anytime.

Cerevo VR Shoes, Robot Projector, Robot Lamp, IoT

Posted by – November 7, 2017

Cerevo is a company that was founded in 2008 that specializes in niche IOT products. Cerevo adds shoes to the virtual reality experience. The Shoes enable easier movement with VR applications.  The shoes also enable a more tactile experience and can send sensations to your feet. The VR shoes should range from $800-$1200. The Cerevo Tipron projector is a Robot with a built in projector that moves around on wheals. The Projector robot costs $2299 and offers a display size of up to 80″ with 1280×720 resolution. The lumigent is a robotic voice activated desk lamp. Lumigent technology is integrated into other devices such as cameras, bicycles and other IOT applications.

Screenly NFC Retail Tags on Ubuntu Core

Posted by – November 7, 2017

Screenly is a London based company. Screenly technology enables interaction between smartphones and consumer devices inside of stores using NFC technology. When an NFC smartphone is placed on a tag an experience appears on the screen. The technology utilizes NFC, Raspberry PI and Ubuntu Core. Screenly can be remotely managed from the web. The services costs around with $995 per screen per month with lower prices for higher volumes.

ARM Innovation Ecosystem Accelerator (ARM Accelerator)


ARM Innovation Ecosystem Accelerator (“ARM Accelerator”) is an international global startup accelerator recruitment network in Mainland China, UK, U.S, Israel, Canada, France, Hong Kong, and Taiwan area, helping startups accelerate development in areas such as VR/AR, Robotics/AI, Smart Car, Smart Healthcare, Smart Home, Smart City. ARM Accelerator is an innovation and acceleration platform featured among ARM’s ecosystem. ARM Accelerator focuses on smart hardware and IoT ecosystem. The core advantage of ARM Accelerator is to create an one-stop platform for China and overseas startups and integrates the world-leading IC design companies and scarce, high-value labs to provide the customers all kinds of incubation and acceleration services, such as professional technology consulting, design service, and global promotion and investment matchmaking.

David Rusling, Linaro CTO talks Trebble, Servers, HPC, Tiny Linux IoTL, Automotive, Machine Learning

Posted by – October 10, 2017

David Rusling says this has been the best Linaro Connect for him thus far in the 7 years since Linaro was started. He talks about how Google recognizes the part Linaro can play to help with Project Trebble, to help keep longer term support for each LTS kernel release also as part of the Linaro Mobile Group. The Linaro Enterprise Day showed how far Linaro has gotten to with all the work coming together towards ARM Servers taking market share in the server market. Kanta Vekaria works towards Linaro’s involvment with High Performance Computing (HPC) as she talked about in her keynote Nicolas Pitre is working on making the Internet of Tiny Linux (IoTL) to make Linux suitable for IoT you can see his talk here persuading the kernel developers that making changes that benefit the embedded market. Linaro is very active with Zephyr which is kind of the Linux Kernel of the embedded world, working on it in in the Linaro IoT & Embedded Group (LITE). Talking about the establishment of the Open Source Foundries spin-off of Linaro where they can pursue business opportunities to work more closely together with customers who need help implementing open source on ARM solutions such as the IoT solutions shown in this video also introducing the Associate Membership Level for smaller members such as small to medium companies and Universities to be able to join Linaro in the coming months trying to involve everyone in the open source ecosystem. Linaro also is looking into getting involved with open source for the Automotive market possibly related to the software needed for self-driving cars and more. Linaro getting involved with open source for artificial intelligence, machine learning. You can see my previous videos with David Rusling over the past 5 years here.

Open Source Foundries IoT Zephyr, Linux, IoT Gateways, Bluetooth Mesh microPlatforms demo


Open Source Foundries is a spin off company off of Linaro, composed of a talented group of engineers to work more directly with companies, OEMs, ODMs, small, medium to large companies to bring new open source products and solutions more rapidly to the market. Leveraging all the work done by Linaro and speeding up the time to market, enable rapid product development, here demonstrating some of the open source IoT solutions provided based on Zephyr on ARM Cortex-M and Linux on ARM Cortex-A using the Linaro Technologies Division (LTD) microPlatforms system.

The lack of a secure IoT solution has the industry scrambling. The Open Source Foundries team believes that a world can exist in which all connected devices can be secured and updated in a timely fashion. In this demonstration shown at the Linaro Connect San Francisco 2017, the team showcases its secure end to end FOTA (firmware over the air) solution implementing the latest in connected technologies.

At Open Source Foundries, software is their passion, hacking hardware is their favorite past time, so they have created the OSLight project to convert off the shelf hardware into secure connected devices. They have inserted a Red Bear NRF52 BLE Nano 2 into these lamps, to allow them to communicate over BLE with various cloud services. In the first demo, they demonstrate creating a secure BLE mesh network with these lamps. They show the ability to securely pass messages through the mesh network to control the state of the LED lamp. The next demo shows a set of 96Boards Nitrogens sending temperature data to the SoftBank IoT Cloud with the ONEM2M protocol using 6lowpan over BLE. The third and final demo introduces a variant of the OSLight project, a fully 3D printed light bulb. Instead of a simple LED array it has a 12 LED WRGB NeoPixel which is powered by line voltage, stepped down to 5VDC.

For microcontrollers, they offer their Zephyr microplatform, an open source software reference based on Zephyr RTOS and MCUboot. This software stack implements secure boot, unified microkernel, and IP (TCP or UDP) using 6lowpan over BLE. At the protocol level they’ve embraced industry standards such as LWM2M/ONEM2M/HTTPS/MQTT to provide an array of options for their customers, whilst ensuring no vendor lock in. Open Source Foundries subscribers are offered continuous validated software updates throughout the life of their product for a fixed monthly subscription fee.

On the gateway, they offer their Linux microplatform, which is again, an open source reference based on the latest Linux kernel version, and a minimal Yocto based userspace with a container runtime (Docker). By isolated the OS from the containers, each can be updated independently while providing limitless potential for the applications it can run. For updates they again implement standards, and stay vendor neutral to allow their customers to choose the solution that is right for them. Continuous validated updates for the OS and containers are also offered for this platform for a reasonable fixed monthly fee.

Gordon Kruberg, Gumstix CEO, inventor of the HDMI Stick at Linaro Connect San Francisco 2017


Gordon Kruberg, President, CEO and Founder of Gumstix Inc. In 2004, they launched the world’s first HDMI Stick Computer and they also invented the first SOM running Linux and computers were officially introduced with Gumstix first motherboard alongside the Waysmall computer, about the size of a stick of gum. Apple bought many of these to do their initial testing of iOS on ARM to try to have a smooth UI to work on ARM early. Gumstix now has an online tool called Geppetto that allows users to design their own PCB boards which can be used in combination with boards from TechNexion and Toradex, in 2013 it started a crowd-funding service to allow a group of users that want to get a custom design manufactured to share the costs to start manufacturing any new PCB idea. A new PCB idea can be made through Gumstix Gepetto for a $2000 setup manufacturing fee then payments for each board. They estimate that any project needing to design and manufacture custom PCB boards in quantities lower than 20 thousand pieces, that they are providing the most cost effective and fastest time to market.

Kurt Keville of The MIT Supply Response Supercomputing Lab at Linaro Connect San Francisco 2017


The MIT Supply Response Supercomputing Lab has been investigating opportunities to get cycles when they are cheapest, either through an innovative sensor system that utilizes a hyperlocal weather monitoring application that watches clouds, or a clever scraping of PUC utility websites to ramp compute resources up when electricity is inexpensive. They are currently testing a number of projects that are based around ARM and utilizes every bit of the energy-aware programmability of big.LITTLE and Slurm Workload Manager.

#DIV/0! Is their Solar-Powered Supercomputing cluster. It is named for the error they got in Excel when they tried to calculate their performance per dollar.

http://tinyurl.com/SPSCapeCod

They maintain the Debian ports of every HPC code they can get their hands on (please send some along if you have additions).

http://soc.mit.edu/opennovation.htm

IoTNet is the network in Boston and Cambridge which only handles IoT comms. It is low bandwidth, high latency and lossy which they are hoping will keep humans, with their real-time protocols, off. Machines and CPS like it because it is asynchronous, asymmetric and low power. If you have a key dongle for your car you are probably already using the TTN in your city.

http://ttn.mit.edu/

Interested parties can contact them at MITARM@mit.edu

MIT SPS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6rrsQPkFKQ
ARMfest http://www.iotfestival.com/
Micro-Datacenter Design Challenge (past) http://www.inveneo.org/designchallenge/

$25 Hoperun Uranus 96Boards IoT board with TI CC3220 ARM Cortex-M4


This development board runs the TI CC3220 is for IoT applications featuring an ARM Cortex-M4 with an associated network processor that runs the whole Wi-Fi, TCP/IP and TLS stack so the main chipset doesn’t have to do any of the networking or security freeing up the whole ARM Cortex-M4 for the IoT application use. At Linaro Connect San Francisco 2017 they are showing it running TI RTOS and Zephyr. This board also features the LiPo battery connector. Adding also IPv6 support and TLS suite, an ARM Cortex-M4 with 1MB Flash, 256KB RAM running at 80Mhz. It’s very low power it can run for years off 2 AAA battery cells with the right duty cycle.

Panasonic Robots, IoT, AI: Better Living Tomorrow

Posted by – September 17, 2017

Panasonic presents their kids robot, robot fridge, laundry robot with clothes folding, smart kitchen features and more.

LaMetric Air real-time Smart Dashboard Clock

Posted by – September 11, 2017

Nazar Bilous, CEO and Founder of http://lametric.com presents their prototype for their next generation LaMetric smart clock/dashboard, their current version is a very nice looking Smart Clock, notification dashboard with a very readable and colorful LED display, hackable with APIs, IFFT behaviors, to receive and to act on notifications, tasks, workout timers, business metrics, emails, news and more. You can have your LaMetric clock always on in the back of your room and it can activate, make a sound, each time for example that your YouTube channel gets a new subscriber, each time that you pass a certain YouTube views amount, each time Donald Trump tweets, or any other notification that you would like to be always aware of in your home or in your office.

AGC Asahi Glass, foldable Glass, AR virtual concierge, talking Glass and AR mirror

Posted by – September 10, 2017

Asahi Glass, more commonly known as AGC, one of the core Mitsubishi companies, is the largest glass company in the world, headquartered in Tokyo Japan, here showing their future glass performance at SID Display Week 2017 promoted under the key words “Glass-as-a-platform” showing their advanced glass solutions that they think will help shape the future for the displays industry. AGC Asahi Glass shows the talking window for a future self-driving car with artificial intelligence, coordinating the total experience during travel, they show flexible cover glass, foldable Smartphones, Rollable PC, Seamless design PC, Cover glass for fingerprint authentication, together with the Shoichi Hasegawa Lab, AGC Asahi Glass presents the Optical performance of their Glascene in which high transparency and a good screen gainstand side by side will suitably provide a projected image based on augmented reality. Where the AGC Virtual concierge is effectively put into practice as a projected image on Glascene. Shoko Asahina, an animated character personifying AGC, is the virtual concierge aiming to have a social presence, waves her hand to attract your attention naturally. Together with Yasuaki Kakehi, AGC Asahi Glass presents also the Mirrorge which is a revolutionary display system on mirror for augmented reality. A highresolution display image and a good reflectivity just like an ordinary mirror stand sideby side in Mirrorge system. Mirroge proposes a creative space design and a brand new application in an architectural interior, enabling a new interactive AR (Augmented Reality) installation using high definition images displayed on the surface of the mirror.