Category: Speakers

NXP i.MX RT106A Arm Cortex-M7 MCU for Alexa

Posted by Charbax – October 28, 2019
Category: Speakers, NXP, Embedded World

Turnkey, low cost i.MX RT solution speeds time to market. Cloud-based voice assistants, led by Amazon’s Alexa, have become common in many homes, embedded in smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo products. Soon, the newly emerging trend to build voice assistants directly into smart devices such as light switches, ceiling fans, appliances, smoke detectors, and thermostats, will make voice control ubiquitous throughout the home. Voice assistants conveniently and unobtrusively located throughout the home enable a family’s entire network of connected smart devices to be controlled by voice commands from any room. For example, “Alexa, turn off all the lights,” or even more powerful routines can be created such as, “Alexa, good morning,” which can turn on music, start the coffee pot, adjust the thermostat settings, and more.

Today, a few smart home device and appliance makers are introducing versions of their products with built-in voice assistants. Until now, the technology required to embed cloud voice assistants has required a powerful multicore microprocessor unit (MPU), similar to the application processor in smart phones, with large Flash and SDRAM memories, and complex power management. Such implementations have not been a fit for cost sensitive consumer devices, which has impeded the proliferation of smart home devices with built-in voice.

At Embedded World this week, NXP Semiconductors announced the first MCU based implementation of an Alexa client, based on a new member of NXP’s popular i.MX RT crossover processor family of devices. This new solution enables device makers to build Alexa into products using a low cost, low power microcontroller unit (MCU), a device that is typically already required in any connected smart home product, meaning that OEMs can now add voice to their products at very low incremental cost (not much more than the cost of the microphones). Running on Amazon FreeRTOS, NXP’s new MCU-based AVS solution leverages the power of AWS IoT Core to minimize the processing resources needed to build Alexa into a product. Compared to previous implementations running Linux with large memory footprints, requiring more than 50 MB RAM and several Giga-Bytes of Flash, NXP’s MCU solution needs less than 1 MB of on-chip RAM and fewer than 16 MB of Flash, significantly reducing cost and size.

The i.MX RT106A (“ten-sixty-a”), has a 600 MHz Arm™ Cortex-M7™ processor, 1 MB of on chip SRAM, an LCD display, camera interface, advanced security and flexible communication, combined with a complete turnkey AVS software solution and a production ready hardware design, to enable OEMs to quickly and easily add Alexa to their product designs.

With this solution, device makers realize further benefits of shorter time to market, lower development and lifetime costs. It brings together the Alexa Voice Service, AWS IoT Core, and Amazon FreeRTOS to provide complete and best-in-class security, deployment, and device monitoring.

NXP’s i.MX RT MCU-based AVS solution is available as a complete kit for evaluation, development and prototyping. The hardware consists of two small, 30 mm x 40 mm (1.2” x 1.6”) boards. The MCU system on module (SoM) carries the i.MX RT106A processor, 32 MB of HyperFlash memory, a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module and an optional NXP A71CH secure element. The audio board has three MEMS microphones and connects to a speaker driven by NXP’s TFA9894D smart audio amplifier. The hardware ships with software that includes everything necessary for a developer to, out-of-the-box, connect to the Alexa Voice Service and immediately start prototyping. This one-stop-shop software package includes far-field voice processing (echo cancellation, noise suppression, beam forming, barge-in), an Alexa wake word inference engine, an AVS client application, API and all necessary drivers.

Samples of the i.MX RT106A processor and the SLN-ALEXA-IOT solution kit are available to qualified early access customers now.

€299 Archos Diamond bezel-less, Archos Oxygen, Smart Speakers, Smart Lights and 101S Oxygen Tablet

Posted by Charbax – March 7, 2019
Category: Tablets, Smartphones, Speakers, Exclusive videos, MediaTek, MWC, Archos, Android

Archos Diamond has a 6.39″ HD+ 2160×1080 AMOLED display, powered by the MediaTek Helio P70 ARM Cortex-A73/A53 octa-core CPU with an ARM Mali-G72 GPU. Archos Oxygen 68 at 149eur, 63 at 129eur, 57 at 99eur. Archos also shows their Amazon Alexa smart speakers, the 19.90eur Archos Smart LED Lights that work with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Archos 101S Oxygen Tablet based on MediaTek X20 deca-core with 3GB RAM and 32GB Flash, comes with a special charging and speaker dock.

Baidu DuerOS voice assistant at Linaro Connect

Posted by Charbax – September 8, 2018
Category: Speakers, Exclusive videos, Linaro Connect

DuerOS is Baidu’s voice assistant. Since Baidu can leverage its expansive data set, its voice assistant called DuerOS has accumulated more conversation-based skill sets than Alexa, Siri or Cortana.

BOE Flexible Phone, 8K, 5644PPI micro-display (17x Retina), Printed OLED, QLED and more

Posted by Charbax – June 2, 2018
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Smartphones, Displays, VR, Robots, Internet of Things, Speakers, 4K UHD, Exclusive videos, SID Display Week

BOE presents their latest flexible AMOLED display solutions for the future of smartphones that can be bent, folded, and rolled and even flap in the wind. BOE’s flexible displays is demonstrated for robots with touch control, smart loudspeakers, an S-shaped in-car flexible AMOLED display. 8K displays, micro displays, QLED displays and other IoT solutions such as their TFT based AMOLED fingerprint recognition system that works in any spot of the display area

The foldable all-screen WQHD AMOLED display launched by BOE can achieve minimum dynamic bending with a radius of only 1mm. It can be bent more than 100,000 times and has an NTSC color gamut up to 118%. BOE is exhibiting a 5.99″ FHD+ 2160×1080 Flexible AMOLED foldable mobile phone and a 7.56″ foldable tablet. The display can be used for mobile phones when it is folded up and for tablets or monitors when it unfolds.

As one of the upcoming possibly revolutionizing OLED technical directions, BOE demonstrates their OLED printing technology to possibly just print the future of Smartphone displays showing their 5.5″ FHD (1920×1080) printing flexible OLED display.

UHD has become a keyword of SID 2018 for material and equipment suppliers and device manufacturers, signaling the advent of the 8K era. In addition to the 110-inch 8K, 75-inch 8K, and 65-inch 8K glasses-free 3D displays, BOE also presents 13.3-inch 8K display products, promoting the development of small and medium-sized 8K products.

BOE has gathered speed in building an 8K ecosystem ever since it launched the “8425 strategy” which means “promoting 8K, popularizing 4K, replacing 2K and making good use of 5G”. BOE has recently launched the 8K solution that incorporates BOE’s 4K/8K image service cloud, 8K decoder player, and 8K display device, making it possible to shoot, edit, transmit and broadcast 8K content. This helps to solve problems like the costliness and massive size of traditional decoder players, as well as the lack of 8K content, thus promoting the faster popularization of 8K.

Among several micro displays at BOE’s booth is a silicon-based OLED AR product which features monocrystalline silicon as the active drive backplane as well as high resolution, high level of integration, low power consumption, small size, and light weight. The AR product is backed by a 0.39-inch silicon-based OLED which has the world’s leading pixel density of 5644PPI, 17 times that of a Retina display, and a contrast ratio over 10000:1, which enables the overlapping and interaction between virtual 3D images and real scenes. All these secure an ultimate experience for users as well as bright prospect in the field of education and training, video games, home decoration, etc.

Moreover, BOE shows its cutting-edge technologies and products such as QLED, mini-LED displays, a number of new applications and products including curved in-car display instruments and BOE iGallery.

Actions S900 in Cubiedboard9 dev board, ATB1103/ATB1109 ARM Cortex-M0

Posted by Charbax – April 20, 2018
Category: Robots, Internet of Things, Speakers, Development Boards, Exclusive videos, Actions, HKTDC Electronics Fair, Android

Actions S900 is a Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53, the Actions S500 is a Quad-core Cortex-A9. Actions also shows some other products for video smart speaker, smart door bell, smart kids robots, Actions also provides their MIPS based chipset for Bluetooth speakers, here also they are launching their new ATB1103/ATB1109 ARM Cortex-M0 system for their upcoming Bluetooth and perhaps also low cost smart speakers platform.

Allwinner R18, R16, R6 for Amazon Alexa and other smart speaker systems, B288 for E Ink e-reader

Posted by Charbax – April 19, 2018
Category: Robots, Internet of Things, Speakers, Development Boards, Exclusive videos, Allwinner, China Sourcing Fair

Allwinner Smart Home solutions including their chipsets and development kit for the R18 which I also filmed here the $26 (169rmb) Allwinner R16 powered Xiao’ ai Classmate Smart Speaker Mini by Xiaomi to be delivered in over 5 million units quantity, smart speakers by DIngDong. The Allwinner R6 enables even lower priced smart speakers with a maximum of 2 microphone in the microphone array for devices that will be closer to the user. The Allwinner B288 enables E Ink e-reader supported by DongDong which is China’s leading online book store. The Allwinner MR100 powers the fully open source drone project by Kudrone. The Xiaomi Drone uses the Allwinner R16 too. The Allwinner FC1600 powers the Niutingting Early Learning Machine by Benew which reads stories for kids for 2-6 years old. Allwinner T3 for car dashboard and smart mirror, T8 for in-car entertainment. The Xiaomi Robot Vaccum Cleaner uses the Allwinner R16 and uses lasers to calculate distance to walls and navigate to vaccum and mop the floor.

Rockchip RK3229 Smart Speakers Solution runs Android Things with Google Assistant

Posted by Charbax – February 25, 2018
Category: Speakers, Exclusive videos, Rockchip, CES, Android

Rockchip has optimized their RK3229 and RK3036 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 System on Module solution to run Android Things or another optimized Linux OS to be able to support Google Assistant, Alexa, iflyertek, DuerOS for high-end to low cost smart speaker products and intelligent voice interactive products, supports sound source localization, sound field enhancement, echo cancellation and noise suppression technology. This Rockchip RK3229 Solution supports 8 channel digital silicon microphones directly connected chip solution, and thus achieves an overall solution of cost-effectiveness and high expandability for the Smart Speakers market.

eARC with HDMI 2.1, Enhanced Audio Return Channel at up to 40mbit/s

Posted by Charbax – February 10, 2018
Category: Speakers, Exclusive videos, CES, HDMI

eARC in HDMI 2.1 simplifies connectivity and supports the most advanced audio formats such as object-based audio, such as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, highest audio quality, and ensures compatibility between audio devices and upcoming HDMI 2.1 products, enabling to deliver those formats via an eARC-enabled HDMI port on a future HDMI 2.1 TV. eARC also provides support for the TV’s over-the-air tuner, streaming apps received by the TV, and audio from HDMI sources connected to the TV.

A key advantage of eARC is that it enables a TV-centric living room or home theater configuration that can provide a more seamless experience. Today, an AV receiver—or a similar repeater device—is necessary to extract high quality audio from an HDMI link, while the video is processed and passed through to the TV. The user may have to switch inputs on both the TV and an audio device to find the source of their content, and content sourced within the TV and from TV inputs is frequently limited to stereo or, in the best case, one of a very small number of compressed formats.

With eARC, it will be possible to connect all sources through the TV and send audio to the sound system completely uncompromised. Furthermore, eARC will make possible a new breed of audio-only receivers that will yield greater value and ease-of-use by eliminating a video subsystem. So, in theory anyway, overall video and audio performance will improve with eARC.

Allwinner Alexa Solution Dev Kit for cheaper Voice ARM devices

Posted by Charbax – January 19, 2018
Category: Robots, Internet of Things, Speakers, Exclusive videos, Allwinner, CES

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

LaMetric Air real-time Smart Dashboard Clock

Posted by Charbax – September 11, 2017
Category: Displays, Internet of Things, Speakers, Exclusive videos, IFA, Android

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.

Allwinner VR9, 6K30p, 4K60p for VR, Allwinner A63, 28nm Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 with Mali-T760MP2

Posted by Charbax – April 18, 2017
Category: Tablets, VR, Smart Glass, Speakers, 4K UHD, Development Boards, Exclusive videos, Allwinner, Qualcomm, China Sourcing Fair, Android, POS

Allwinner launches their new Allwinner VR9 Octa-core ARM Cortex-A53 with Mali-T760 GPU for higher performance All-in-one VR. 6K VR can render about 6000×3000, thus upcoming VR displays with something around 3000×3000 for each eye. Then Allwinner A63 is Allwinner’s new Quad-core 64bit ARM Cortex-A53 with Mali-T760MP2 GPU with support for 2K displays, on a lower power consuming 28nm process, for longer battery life, to come to the marketing within the next 1-2 months from now. At the Allwinner booth is the Seegene.com Allwinner H8 Octa-core ARM Cortex-A7 powered Augmented Reality headset with dual 1280×800 OLED micro-displays reflected through a prism for sale for about $1000. Allwinner also shows some of their latest tablets, kids tablets, AI speakers with Amazon Alexa API support, baby monitoring tablet and camera, panning camera tablet, A64 Powered Tablets and 2-in-1 with Android 7.0 GMS tested. The Aikun Morphus X300 having features like the Nintendo Switch but having been released a while before Nintendo. POS machines, the new Allwinner Y10 quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 for interactive connected photo frames with gesture control support. All-in-one VR. A64 development board by Occocci, LTE connected solutions with Qualcomm, and solutions for the Smart Assistant Speakers market.

ST booth tour: STM32L4, STM32H7, startups, students at Embedded World 2017

Posted by Charbax – March 18, 2017
Category: Wearables, Internet of Things, Speakers, Development Boards, Exclusive videos, STMicroelectronics, Embedded World

ST shows their best-in-class ultra-low-power STM32L4 microcontroller which delivers 100 DMIPS based on its ARM Cortex-M4 core with FPU and ST ART Accelerator at 80 MHz offering dynamic voltage scaling to balance power consumption with processing demand, low-power peripherals (LP UART, LP timers) available in Stop mode, safety and security features, smart and numerous peripherals, advanced and low-power analog peripherals such as op amps, comparators, LCD, 12-bit DACs and 16-bit ADCs (hardware oversampling). STM32L4 is available in these skews: STM32L4x1 (Access line), STM32L4x2 (USB Device), STM32L4x3 (USB Device, LCD), STM32L4x5 (USB OTG) and STM32L4x6 (USB OTG, LCD).

ST also shows their new STM32H7 platform, taking advantage of an L1 cache, STM32H7 can deliver the maximum theoretical performance of the ARM Cortex-M7 core, regardless if code is executed from embedded Flash or external memory: 2010 CoreMark /856 DMIPS at 400 MHz fCPU. STM32H7 supports AXI and multi-AHB bus matrixes for interconnecting core, peripherals and memories, 16 Kbytes +16 Kbytes of I-cache and D-cache, Up to 2 Mbytes of embedded dual-bank Flash memory, with ECC and Read-While-Write capability, high-speed master direct memory access (MDMA) controller, two dual-port DMAs with FIFO and request router capabilities for optimal peripheral management, and one additional DMA, Chrom-ART acceleration for efficient 2D image copy and double-precision FPU are also part of the acceleration features available in the device, peripheral speed independent from CPU speed (dual-clock support) allowing system clock changes without any impact on peripheral operations, even more peripherals, such as four serial audio interfaces (SAI) with SPDIF output support, three full-duplex I²S interfaces, a SPDIF input interface supporting four inputs, two USB OTG with dedicated power supply and Dual-mode Quad-SPI interface, two FD-CAN controllers, a high-resolution timer, a TFT-LCD controller, a JPEG codec, two SDIO interfaces and many other analog peripherals including three fast 14-bit ADCs, two comparators and two operational amplifiers. STM32H7 has 1 Mbyte of SRAM with a scattered architecture: 192 Kbytes of TCM RAM (including 64 Kbytes of ITCM RAM and 128 Kbytes of DTCM RAM for time-critical routines and data), 512 Kbytes, 288 Kbytes and 64 Kbytes of user SRAM, and 4 Kbytes of SRAM in backup domain to keep data in the lowest power modes, Security Authenticate and protect software IP while performing initial programming in production or firmware upgrades in the field.

This ST booth tour video at Embedded World 2017 in Nuremberg also features several demos from the STM32 Fan Zone area at Embedded World 2017 featuring demos including a Gameboy emulator and a color LED light display system from students from the Thomas More college, Seavus smart Shopping cart, Bixi gesture controls in the car, Xped IoT systems and ST is giving away more than 5000 development boards at the Embedded World.

Aiptek Pico Projectors: i70 (smallest), AN100 (smart), i120 (HDMI input), iBeamBlock (x86 stackable)

Posted by Charbax – March 17, 2017
Category: Projectors, Speakers, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, Samsung, MWC, Android

Aiptek demonstrates how they are the world leader in TI DLP pico projectors offering a whole range of innovative portable, pocket and pico projectors including the following for their latest range of pico projectors: i70 world’s smallest bright mirroring projector, AN100 an affordable compact 100lumen Android Smart projector, i120 with dual HDMI (input and output), iBeamBlock with pogopins for x86 computer module, tablet touch module, powerback and the 400lumen 720p TI DLP TRP pixel projector. P800 Boombox projector with 360 degree boombox speaker 8 Speakers (40 Watt), 5″ touchscreen Smart Android projector with 4 hour battery at 800lumen 1280×800 for an all-in-one outdoor cinema device running on the Samsung Exynos 5260 Hexacore dual ARM Cortex-A15 and quad ARM Cortex-A7 with Mali-T624 GPU, 2GB RAM, 16GB Flash and MicroSD card slot. AN500VT is world’s first mobile interactive projector with an ir camera to be used with an IR stick to be able to interact with the projector directly on the wall. Aiptek i400 projects 720p with short-throw 400lumen, wireless and USB projection using their USB based codec for easy display mirroring from Windows/Mac computer or from iOS/Android. Aiptek is looking forward when it might be possible for them to also make 1080p and soon after 4K Projectors once the TI DLP 4K solution can be made to fit into a compact size which should be by late 2018. Aiptek iBeamBlock will have a 500lumen 1080p 0.33″ TI DLP module to come. Also driving the LED light from OSRAM, also looking into using up to 2000lumen laser source. Aiptek has been making and shipping the largest amount of TI DLP Pico projectors since 2008 you can watch a whole range of Aiptek videos that I have filmed since 2008 here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Charbax/search?query=Aiptek

Voice control powered by NXP i.MX ARM Processors in Amazon Echo, Google Home and more

Posted by stromium – March 5, 2017
Category: Internet of Things, Speakers, Exclusive videos, NXP, MWC

NXP Semiconductors has on display the Amazon Echo, for which they are partners. An NXP representative explains the different applications for which NXP provides solutions, and how voice recognition can be run on multi-core ARM processors for power-efficient computing. The IMX 6, 7 and 8 series cover the full range from low-power to high-performance solutions, with applications for the 8 being consumer high-performance video and audio, automotive, and heavy industrial usage. NXP supplies everything from the CPU to the I/O to the software. The Kindle series use IMX 6 and 7 processors, for example. NXP talks about the upcoming i.MX8 Quad max, i.MX8M for multimedia and another i.MX8 coming for the embedded world.

iview shows Allwinner 2-in-1, Smart Speaker, All-in-one VR and more

Posted by Charbax – January 25, 2017
Category: Tablets, Laptops, VR, Speakers, Exclusive videos, Allwinner, CES, Android

Iview, brand of Wiltronic Corporation, shows their latest Allwinner products including 2-in-1 Convertible and Detachable Touchscreen Laptops with Allwinner Double OS, all-in-one VR 3D Goggles and Camera, Smart Speaker, Smart Home, Tablet, and Converter Box. They do FHD Tablet, A83 all-in-one VR and more.

Azpen HYBRX A1160 Allwinner A64, Smart Assistant Robot Alexa, Bluetooth Smart Hub

Posted by Charbax – January 25, 2017
Category: Tablets, Laptops, VR, Speakers, Exclusive videos, Allwinner, CES, Android

Azpen is showing some of their latest Allwinner powered products, the Azpen Hybrx A1160 which I filmed previously here and here they have the Allwinner powered Smart Robot Home Assistant that can potentially be connected to the Amazon Alexa service, the AzpenHome SmartHub based on Allwinner R16 with a rotatable security camera and an 8″ 1280×800 display.

Allwinner at CES 2017, A64, R16, A33, A83T, All-in-one VR, Smart Speakers

Posted by Charbax – January 20, 2017
Category: Tablets, Laptops, VR, Robots, Internet of Things, Speakers, Development Boards, Exclusive videos, Allwinner, CES, Android

Allwinner is showing off some of their latest technologies at their CES 2017 showroom. Allwinner claims to have a leading market share of the all-in-one VR market. They are entering the Amazon Alexa and Google Home compatible Smart Speakers market. Allwinner Double OS is being pushed for the affordable 2-in-1 market changing the UI from Tablet mode to Productivity mode. Allwinner partners with Qualcomm for their affordable LTE enabled Tablet range. A64 is being pushed for the Laptop market. The Allwinner R16 with Tina OS powered sweeping robot is sold on the Xiaomi ecosystem. The end of this video also mentions the roadmap where Allwinner will have over 16 new chipsets in 2017 and they are working to introduce a 16nm solution the end of the year.

$6 TAIDE Waterproof Bluetooth speakers and headphones

Posted by stromium – December 23, 2016
Category: Speakers, Exclusive videos, China Sourcing Fair

Dongguan-based Taide Industrial Co., Ltd. was established in 2001 as a manufacturer of Bluetooth headsets and speakers, with a turnover of over US$600 million. Here we see their Bluetooth speaker range coming in at various sizes, and a waterproof range that starts for as little as US$5. There are versions specifically for iPhones and iPads. There is an FM radio dock on demonstration as well, with a capacitive ring covering the colour gamut that can be used to control the light strip along the side of the receiver unit. The company also makes 2.1 and 2.2 stereo speakers.

Bluetooth Karaoke mic with speaker

Posted by stromium – December 23, 2016
Category: Speakers, Exclusive videos, China Sourcing Fair

On display here we see a Karaoke mic with speaker that can connect to devices via Bluetooth. It comes with a battery inbuilt. Another model advertised features two speakers such that one plays back the music playing from a connected Bluetooth device (presumably playing instrumental audio) and the other speaker plays back one’s own voice in real time.

Imagination GPU With Raytracing, Wireless Audio Streaming and MIPS

Posted by juliusaugustus – December 22, 2016
Category: Speakers, Exclusive videos, CES

Imagination PowerVR offers graphics IP for the ARM SOC market. PowerVR graphics technologies are used in set top boxes from Google, Apple, Amazon and other. Imagination also shows its standard for streaming wireless audio. MIPS systems on a chip are used in embedded devices such as in cars, Virtual Reality, wearables, and networking. MIPS processor designs can offer simultaneous multi threading similar to hyperthreading. MIPS devices have the ability to run multiple virtual machines if necessary. MIPS technology is licensed by Ingenic, Broadcom, Mediatak, Cavium and some other. Approximately 800 million MIPS processors are shipped every year. The PowerVR Wizard GPU was shown for the first time in silicon with a working benchmark demoing raytracing. PowerVR Wizard GPUs can be scaled from mobile all the way to desktop and console.