Category: Tradeshows

SoftBank Robotics Pepper SDK platform for emotional humanoid robot

Posted by Charbax – March 27, 2017
Category: Robots, Exclusive videos, CeBIT

SoftBank acquired Aldebaran Robotics in 2013 and has been developing Pepper, inviting developers to develop new ideas for Pepper at http://developer.softbankrobotics.com they sold over 10 thousand of these Humanoid robots making it the world’s most popular advanced humanoid robot. Sold mostly in Japan but also expanding Pepper sales to several different markets in Europe and USA and around the world, some examples being to supermarkets/stores/malls, on cruise ships, to telecom stores, to hospitals, at public information centers, government information/services offices and more. SoftBank Robotics presents some of its software partners who are developing use case software solutions such as for airlines to be used as humanoid conversational check-in kiosk in luxury hotels or at airports, guiding and entertaining people at retail shops/malls and more. You can see my 2013 interview with Bruno Maisonnier founder of Aldebaran Robotics here.

Rakuten Institute of Technology Computer Vision and Human Computer Interaction R&D

Posted by Charbax – March 24, 2017
Category: VR, Exclusive videos, CeBIT

Rakuten Institute of Technology is the R&D organization of Rakuten Inc. in Japan. It is not a subsidiary company of Rakuten Group, but one department in charge of research and development for Rakuten Inc. Areas of research include Natural Language Processing, Multimedia Processing, Data Mining, and Massive and Distributed Computing. Rakuten is the largest e-commerce site in Japan, they have signed a 4-year $200M deal for global sponsorship with Spanish Club FC Barcelona until 2020.

SCEWO stairclimbing wheelchair from ETH Zurich using Toradex at Embedded World 2017

Posted by Charbax – March 23, 2017
Category: Robots, Internet of Things, Cars, Exclusive videos, NXP, Embedded World, Toradex

SCEWO is a stairclimbing wheelchair equipped with a Toradex Apalis iMX6 SoM – born from a master’s degree thesis from Zurich University (ETH), which demonstrates what can be done using Toradex Computer on Modules (CoMs)/System on Modules(SoMs) in safety-critical applications. Other engaging demos included TAQ, the balancing robot, featuring Toradex’s Colibri iMX7 SoM with NXP i.MX 7 processor, a rover using the Apalis TK1 SoM with the NVIDIA TK1 to recognize street signs, and many more at Toradex’s booth at Embedded World 2017. Toradex also mentioned its launch of two new SoMs based on NXP i.MX 8QuadMax and NXP i.MX 6ULL: Apalis iMX8 and Colibri iMX6ULL respectively. The Colibri iMX6ULL offers a low-cost and power efficient platform, along with integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, targeting the emerging IoT and connected market; and the Apalis iMX8 offers high-performance and powerful graphics for Computer Vision applications.

Project developers and industry insiders can contact Toradex here:
lakshmi.naidu@toradex.com
https://www.toradex.com

Qualcomm Snapdragon at Embedded World 2017

Posted by Charbax – March 20, 2017
Category: Cameras, Robots, Internet of Things, Development Boards, Exclusive videos, Qualcomm, Embedded World, Android, Ubuntu, Windows

The Qualcomm Snapdragon platform is originally designed for mobile, but now can be embedded into Interactive kiosks, Digital signage, Robotics, High-tech toys, in flight entertainment, medical imaging and all kinds of ideas for any advanced IoT. Qualcomm positions their Snapdragon processors for Embedded to provide a superior performance, low power consumption and integrated connectivity to make devices more aware, connected, intelligent and interactive. The Snapdragon platform offers development kits, single-board computers and scaling up to customer solutions, integration services and production-ready, customizable System-on-Modules (SOMs). At Embedded World 2017, Qualcomm talks about Snapdragon 410E, Snapdragon 600E and also talks about the upcoming 820 series for embedded all with long term support (at least until 2025) to provide their maximum performance. With many projects to be born out of the Dragonboard 410c and showing off other solutions such as the Geniatech Developer Board 4, the small Geniatech DB4x 410 based module, the Altierre Systems powered embedded vision real-time synchronized multi-camera 130-degree panorama 4K system that is in the Panacast 2, eInfoChips eragon 820, Inforce, Kiteboard Snapdragon 410 board with a LTE sim card slot and more. All these Qualcomm Snapdragon based Embedded products can support multiple operating systems Android, Linux thanks to the availability of the open source Freedreno GPU driver and Windows 10 support also.

Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 at Embedded World 2017

Posted by Charbax – March 20, 2017
Category: Wearables, Internet of Things, Development Boards, Exclusive videos, Nordic Semiconductor, Embedded World

Nordic Semiconductor is showing various demos showcasing their nRF52 series microcontrollers, showcasing the nRF52840 specifically, which supports all the new features introduced in Bluetooth 5.0, while also adding 802.15.4 and Thread support to the Nordic platform.

World’s first ARM Cortex-M23 in Nuvoton M2351

Posted by Charbax – March 20, 2017
Category: Internet of Things, Development Boards, Exclusive videos, Embedded World, Nuvoton

Nuvoton M2351 is a secure microcontroller platform powered by ARM Cortex-M23 core with ARMv8-M architecture, TrustZone technology, security technologies, peripherals and tools. The ultra-low-power 32-bit microcontroller works in low voltage range from 1.62V to 3.6V and can operate at up to 48 MHz frequency, with up to 512 Kbytes embedded Flash memory in dual bank mode supporting OTA firmware update and up to 96 Kbytes embedded SRAM. It is suitable for applications such as IoT secure connections, fingerprint authentication, EMV card reader, security alarm system, smart home appliance, wireless sensor node device (WSND), auto meter reading (AMR) and portable wireless data collector.

The M2351 series is equipped with 32 Kbytes Secure Boot ROM as root of trust, multiple firmware programming tools by In-System Programming (ISP), In-Circuit Programming (ICP) and In-Application Programming (IAP). In addition to TrustZone software protection mechanism, it also supports eXecution Only Memory (XOM), LDROM (user program loader) and multiple cryptographic hardware accelerators which are used to protect the core software and data assets on a microcontroller system. The M2351 series also integrates a 8 COM x 40 SEG controller with internal charge pump for segment LCD panel and provides high performance connectivity peripheral interfaces such as UART, SPI, I²C, GPIOs, USB and ISO 7816-3 for smart card reader.

As to Power efficiency, the M2351 series supports Brown-out detector, Power-down mode with RTC turn on, RAM retention less than 2.0 uA, deep power-down mode with RAM retention less than 1 uA and fast wake-up via multiple peripheral interfaces.

Security Features:
ARM Cortex-M23 TrustZone Technology
8 Memory Protection Units (MPU)
8 Security Attribution Units (SAU)
Implementation Defined Attribution Unit (IDAU)
2 KB OTP ROM with additional 1KB lock bits
Hardware Crypto Accelerators
CRC calculation unit
Up to 6 tamper detection pins
96-bit Unique ID (UID), 128-bit Unique Customer ID (UCID)

Zephyr Project, open source OS for IoT

Posted by Charbax – March 20, 2017
Category: Internet of Things, Exclusive videos, NXP, Embedded World, Linaro Connect

Matt Locke, Director of the Linaro IoT and Embedded Group (LITE) and Maureen Helm of NXP, one of the maintainers of the Zephyr Project which is a Linux Foundation hosted open source collaboration project, uniting leaders from across the industry to build a best-in-breed small, scalable, real-time operating system (RTOS) optimized for resource constrained devices, across multiple architectures. The Zephyr Project’s goal is to establish a neutral project where silicon vendors, OEMs, ODMs, ISVs, and OSVs can contribute technology to reduce the cost and accelerate time to market for developing the billions of devices that will make up the majority of the Internet of Things of the future.

The Zephyr Project is perfect for building simple connected sensors, LED wearables, up to modems and small IoT wireless gateways. Because the Zephyr OS is modular and supports multiple architectures, developers are able to easily tailor an optimal solution to meet their needs. As a true open source project, the community can evolve the project to support new hardware, developer tools, sensor and device drivers. Enhancements in security, device management capabilities, connectivity stacks and file systems can be easily implemented.

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.

NXP i.MX8, ARM Cortex-A72, ARM Cortex-A53 and ARM Cortex-M4

Posted by Charbax – March 18, 2017
Category: Cars, Exclusive videos, NXP, Embedded World, Android

NXP i.MX 8 series of applications processors is a feature and performance scalable multicore platform that includes single-, dual- and quad-core families based on the ARM Cortex-A72, ARM Cortex-A53, ARM Cortex-A35 and ARM Cortex-M4 based solutions with advanced graphics, imaging, machine vision, audio, voice, video and safety critical applications also including its Vivante GC7000LiteXS/VX GPU. NXP i.MX8 supports Android, Linux, FreeRTOS, QNX, Green Hills, Dornerworks XEN and more with 10-year long term support for the chip provided by NXP.

BeagleBone Blue with System-in-Package Octavo Systems OSD3358

Posted by Charbax – March 17, 2017
Category: Robots, Internet of Things, Development Boards, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, Embedded World

BeagleBone Blue is as a new Robotics and IoT development board based around the Octavo Systems OSD3358 System-In-Package featuring a Texas Instruments AM3358 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8, 512MB of DDR3 and power management enabling easy and affordable customization and re-design of the PCB using Autodesk EAGLE. BeagleBone Blue has 2 cell (2S) onboard LiPo battery management with charger and battery level LEDs, 8 real-time software controlled PWM/PPM outputs for 6V servo motors or electronic-speed-controllers (ESCs), 4 PWM-enabled DC motor drivers, 4 quadrature encoder inputs, on-board sensors including a 9-axis IMU and barometer, a wide array of GPIO and serial protocol connectors including CAN, 4 ADC inputs, a PC USB interface, a USB 2.0 host port, a reset button, a power button, two user configurable buttons and eleven user configurable LED indicators. BeagleBone Blue can run Debian, ROS, Ardupilot, Graphical programming, Cloud9 IDE on Node.js and more to come. You can order the BeagleBone Blue for $79 at https://www.arrow.com/en/products/bbblue/beagleboardorg

Nvidia Tegra X2 in Jetson TX2 Developer Kit, dual Denver2 + quad ARM Cortex-A57, Pascal GPU

Posted by Charbax – March 17, 2017
Category: Set-top-boxes, Cameras, Robots, Internet of Things, 4K UHD, Development Boards, Cars, Exclusive videos, Nvidia, Embedded World, Android, Ubuntu

Nvidia Tegra X2 features two Nvidia custom Denver 2 cores, four ARM Cortex-A57 cores with Nvidia’s Pascal GPU (made of 256 CUDA cores) made on TSMC’s 16nm FinFET+. Nvidia Tegra X2 (codenamed “Parker”) delivers up to 1.5 teraflops of performance, about 50% more performance than Nvidia Tegra X1. Enabling Artificial Intelligence (AI), for building advanced robots, drones, smart cameras, portable medical devices, enabling the processing of complex deep neural networks on the edge of the IoT world. While X1 could do 4K at 30fps encode, 4K 10bit 60p decode, X2 can encode 4K H265 at 60p and decode 4K 12bit 60p. Memory bandwidth has more than doubled from 25.6GB/s to 58.3GB/s, you can buy the Nvidia Jetson TX2 Developer Kit for $599 at https://store.nvidia.com/store?Action=DisplayPage&Locale=en_US&SiteID=nvidia&id=QuickBuyCartPage

Cypress PSoC 6 dual-core ARM Cortex-M4 and ARM Cortex-M0+

Posted by Charbax – March 17, 2017
Category: Internet of Things, Exclusive videos, Cypress, Embedded World

The Cypress Semiconductor PSoC 6 is a dual-core microcontroller featuring all Cypress’s peripherals and configurability of previous generations, to build low-power designs with a high degree of security, for IoT. Cypress PSoC 6 features ARM Cortex-M4 and ARM Cortex-M0+ cores, in an ultra-low-power 40-nm process technology, with integrated security features required for next-generation IoT. The architecture is intended to fill a gap in IoT offerings between power-hungry and higher-cost application processors and performance-challenged, single-core MCUs. The dual-core architecture lets designers optimize for power and performance simultaneously, alongside its software-defined peripherals. The two cores can achieve 22 µA/MHz and 15 µA/MHz of active power on the ARM Cortex-M4 and Cortex-M0+ cores, respectively. The dual-core architecture enables power-optimized system design where the auxiliary core can be used as an offload engine for power efficiency, allowing the main core to sleep.

The PSoC 6 MCU architecture provides a hardware-based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) with secure boot capability and integrated secure data storage to protect firmware, applications and secure assets such as cryptographic keys. PSoC 6 implements a set of industry-standard symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic algorithms, including Elliptical-Curve Cryptography (ECC), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and Secure Hash Algorithms (SHA 1,2,3) in an integrated hardware coprocessor designed to offload compute-intensive tasks. The architecture supports multiple, simultaneous secure environments without the need for external memories or secure elements, and offers scalable secure memory for multiple, independent user-defined security policies.

Software-defined peripherals can be used to create custom analogue front-ends (AFEs) or digital interfaces for innovative system components such as electronic-ink displays. The architecture offers flexible wireless connectivity options, including fully integrated Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.0. The PSoC 6 MCU architecture features the latest generation of Cypress’ CapSense capacitive-sensing technology, enabling touch and gesture-based interfaces. The architecture is supported by Cypress’ PSoC Creator Integrated Design Environment (IDE) and the ARM ecosystem.

In this video, Cypress shows PSoC 6 using a wearable demo and the PSoC 6 pioneer kit. You can read more about PSoC 6 here: http://www.cypress.com/event/psoc-6-purpose-built-iots

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

ARM Cordio-N NB-IoT as ARM shipped 100 Billion chips

Posted by Charbax – March 14, 2017
Category: Internet of Things, Exclusive videos, MWC, ARM

ARM announces that 100 Billion ARM Processors have shipped. And in this video, ARM talks about their acquisition of Swedish Mistbase and British NextG-Com to enable ARM’s new Cordio-N NB-IoT narrowband IoT communications standard.

Ubuntu Core, Snapcraft.io IoT package support/update, Dragonboard 410c, Raspberry Pi and more

Posted by Charbax – March 7, 2017
Category: Internet of Things, Exclusive videos, Qualcomm, Broadcom, MWC, Ubuntu

Canonical shows some of the latest development boards where Ubuntu Core is supported, includes the 96Boards Qualcomm Dragonboard 410c, Raspberry Pi 3, Raspberry Pi Nano expecting to ship on a coin sized board. Also shipping on Samsung Artik, NXP i.MX6/i.MX7/i.MX8 and on Intel powered development boards also. Canonical also promotes their http://build.snapcraft.io platform to package any app for every Linux desktop, server, cloud or device, and deliver updates directly.

MotoMods on Indiegogo and Hackathons for the ultimate Moto Z modular Smartphone platform

Posted by Charbax – March 5, 2017
Category: Smartphones, Exclusive videos, Qualcomm, MWC, Android

The Lenovo Moto Z MotoMods ecosystem team got 700 submitions, launching 35 of those campaigns for ideas for new MotoMods on Transform the Smartphone challenge on Indiegogo with ideas ranging from barcode scanners, Edge Light LED lights for notifications wireless charging, sliding physical keyboard and many more ideas for new MotoMods that can be made for the Moto Z ecosystem. Motorola organized a Hackathon in San Francisco and one New York You can also see my video of the Moto Z and its MotoMods here and my 32-minute interview with the Motorola team about the Moto Z and its MotoMods ecosystem here

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.

549€ Avegant Glyph, dual 720p DLP headmounted personal mobile theatre

Posted by juliusaugustus – March 5, 2017
Category: Projectors, VR, Smart Glass, Texas Instruments, MWC

The Avegant Glyph is a VR headset with a 720p DLP resolution display in each eye. The Avegant Glyph offers cinematic experience similar to a real movie theater. The displays use DLP technology to project an image onto your eye for the best viewing experience. The Glyph works over HDMI with supported devices. There is a built headset for sound. The price is 549€.

Nokia Android Phones are finally coming, 139€ Nokia 3 , 229€ Nokia 5, 189€ Nokia 6

Posted by juliusaugustus – March 5, 2017
Category: Smartphones, MediaTek, Qualcomm, MWC, Android

Nokia branded Android smartphones are being launched by ex-Nokia employees having formed a new company HMD Global. Nokia Android phones are aimed at providing highest possible specs at budget prices running stock Android 7.0. The Nokia 5 and 6 features a unibody Aluminum design while the Nokia 3 features a polycarbonate design.

The Nokia 6 is the most fully featured device offered featuring a featuring FHD 5.5″, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor. The front camera is 8-megapixel and the back camera is 16mp. The Arte Black version of the Nokia 6 features 4gb of ram and 64gb of storage. The Arte Black version will sell for 299 euros. The Standard Nokia 6 will retail 229 euros.

The Nokia 5 has is similar to the Nokia 6 but has a curved edge display. The Nokia 5 has a 5.5″ (720p) display, Snapdragon 430 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and microSD. The Nokia 5 will sell for 189 Euros.

The Nokia 3 features a 5″ (720p) display, an MTK 6737 quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and Microsd support. The Nokia 3 will sell for a price of 139 Euros.

HP Elite x3 with Lapdock with 1D and 2D barcode scanner

Posted by juliusaugustus – March 5, 2017
Category: Laptops, Smartphones, Qualcomm, MWC, Windows

HP Elite x3 and Lapdock was my “Best of MWC 2016” as you can see in my video from last year, the HP Elite X3 can be docked into a Lapdock or desktop dock via USB Type C connectivity and be used in Windows Continuum mode offering functionality similar to a full computer. The Lapdock offers a full hd 12.5″ screen and full laptop keyboard.