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Tomi Engdahl says:
The world’s first intelligent mobile phone shell
Consumer electronics giant CES fair still exudes the news. I-Blades introduced in Vegas in conjunction with the sensor manufacturer Bosch Sensortechin mobile phone shell, which for the first time in the world are integrated in embedded electronics.
The company’s development of shell platform will be integrated with Bosch BME680 environment sensor (only 3 x 3 millimeters component).
When your smartphone is slipped i-Blades-shell, this will be the device extension. It may contain new features, such as the Bosch sensor, extra battery, more memory, or even a variety of security functions.
I-Blades recalls that the smartphone more shells are already sold eight billion dollars a year, and the market is growing.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3825:maailman-ensimmainen-alykas-kannykkakuori&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ultra-Thin Sensors Flex for Medicine
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328660&
he future of medical monitoring should be small, flexible and very, very thin according to MC10. The Massachusetts-based wearable company announced several flexible body-worn sensors at International CES, one of which is less than half the thickness of a human hair.
MC10’s “conformal” electronics look a bit like Band-Aids embedded with chips. Like many medical wearable companies, MC10 hopes to take medical monitoring out of the lab with patches that can be worn for a long period of time and send collected data to the cloud.
“We’re building a system that’s hardware, mobile-based application, cloud-based analytics storage, and visualization tools,” said Don Fuchs, vice president of marketing and strategy for MC10. “The idea is that we start with the research community because it’s small…but ultimately we’re moving toward tools that could be used with a specific disease.”
MC10’s BioStamp Research Connect System (BioStampRC) targets researchers with what Fuchs called “a Swiss Army knife” of connectivity and sensors. The flexible device has a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis gyroscope, as well as integrated electrodes for surface electromyography and electrocardiography. The device has Bluetooth connectivity, a rechargeable battery, amd comes with a tablet and web applications that connect to the cloud for real-time data sharing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA’s Mars Orion program featured at CES 2016
http://www.edn.com/design/consumer/4441161/NASA-s-Mars-Orion-program-at-CES-2016?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20160113&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20160113&elq=b85fac9416184b8093c742a8a482c1f1&elqCampaignId=26471&elqaid=30279&elqat=1&elqTrackId=f9052b0ee2ac4566a30085bc95074552
To my surprise (a pleasant surprise) NASA was at CES! The focus of their exhibit was the Mars Orion program. The following are some photos and commentary of how each item on display is contributing to the Orion program.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Community > Blogs > Brian’s Brain
7 top trends from CES 2016
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4441181/7-top-trends-from-CES-2016?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20160113&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20160113&elq=b85fac9416184b8093c742a8a482c1f1&elqCampaignId=26471&elqaid=30279&elqat=1&elqTrackId=1ccc4b7fb7ea44ce96f52b75ea42044f
Every year, on the plane flight back home from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I vow to not attend any longer. The crowds, the noise, the superficiality, the debauchery … next year, I vow, I’ll just stay home and cover the event remotely via vendor press releases and product briefings, along with dispatches from the poor fools who are still in attendance. The following January rolls along … and I’m back on a plane to “Lost Wages” again.
Part of the reason, I forced myself to admit this year, is that the demo video shoots and other interactions that I have with member companies of the industry alliance that represents my “day job” can’t be done remotely. And more generally, I realize, there’s still something to be said about the verbal and nonverbal nuances that I can pick up in a face-to-face briefing versus a teleconference alternative (or, heaven forbid, a press release-only interaction).
Still … I’m tired. And sick
Unsurprisingly, 2015′s explosion of wearable devices, predominantly fitness bands and fuller-featured smart watches, promises to further expand this year.
The drone market has now exploded, of course, a situation symbolized by the dozens of drone manufacturers inhabiting the lower level of the LVCC South Hall last week. And, as with wearables, the manufacturers are attempting to differentiate themselves via a combination of lower prices and added features. Parrot, for example, augmented its conventional drone line last week with the inclusion of a glider form factor.
Unsurprisingly (probably), augmented reality and virtual reality were also both big at this year’s CES.
The Detroit Auto Show is happening this week, but you’re understandably excused if you thought it already took place.
Last year, “4K” resolution displays began to hit their full stride, and this year they were everywhere, supplemented by next-generation “8K” units. The UHD Alliance has unveiled official specs, covering not only resolution but also color gamut, black level, and other parameters. And companion Ultra HD Blu-ray players are also beginning to appear.
The “smart home” term means a lot of things to a lot of people … intelligent thermostats and smoke detectors, for example, or analytics-capable consumer webcams, or voice- and remote software-controllable lights, or multiple of these. And it’s been long promised, and has long under-delivered on that promise. But slowly but surely I’m seeing signs of maturation and critical mass in this market.
Finally, I was as-usual blown away by the large number of semiconductor and software suppliers exhibiting at CES, in pursuing both the previously mentioned and other applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smartphone receiver to connect cars unveiled at CES 2016
http://www.edn.com/design/consumer/4441157/Smartphone-receiver-to-connect-cars-unveiled-at-CES-2016
It’s hard to miss automotive electronics here at CES 2016. One that caught my eye was the Pioneer Electronics display (Don’t they make stereos?).
Pioneer released the Apple CarPlay-compatible fourth generation AppRadio 4 (SPH-DA120). AppRadio 4 brings the use of cloud and device sourced content from compatible iOS devices (iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5, iPhone 4s, and iPhone 4), Android smartphones, and MirrorLink-enabled smartphones to your car (more on MirrorLink to come in a later report from CES). It also provides feature enhanced smartphone control, voice control for Siri Eyes Free and Google Voice Recognition, Bluetooth hands-free calling and audio streaming, and a new graphical user interface.
Drivers and passengers can have a connected car using their smart phone for calling, streaming music, and even controlling supported apps.
CarPlay Ready
Siri Eyes Free
Bluetooth – To maximize the connectivity options available in today’s most popular smartphones, AppRadio 4 offers both Bluetooth hands-free calling and Bluetooth audio streaming and wireless control of compatible devices.
Enhanced Touchscreen User Interface
Built-in MirrorLink – MirrorLink technology enables consumers to connect compatible smartphones to AppRadio 4 (or other compatible in-dash receivers) via a USB cable to access certain music and map applications for a more convenient and safer in-car experience.
The AppRadio 4 SPH-DA120 ($600 SRP)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bosch sensors make life easier for designers
http://www.edn.com/design/sensors/4441168/Bosch-sensors-make-life-easier-for-designers?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160114&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160114&elq=a12e63c660c348d3be9ba85524867603&elqCampaignId=26520&elqaid=30326&elqat=1&elqTrackId=d974ca67d7be4b89b920fbc6713ee688
At CES 2016, I met with Dr. Thorsten Müller, CEO of Bosch Connected Devices and Solutions. Dr. Müller and his team never fail to impress me with their new developments and he did today as well with his group’s announcement of the BCDS Design Sensor and the XDK Cross Domain Development Kit.
The ambient indoor air quality sensor
Smart homes, hotels, and office buildings are often closed systems where windows are not able to be opened. But even in a smart home where widows can be opened, when they are opened to eliminate a foul or hazardous chemical odor, the temperature balance is disturbed and when the air is finally cleared and the windows closed, the heating/air conditioning system must now work hard to get back to the equilibrium temperature of comfort set by the occupants.
The ambient air sensor (seen in the background of the photo above) demonstrates how temperature equilibrium can be preserved by not opening a window (in this case a hinged top on this box) but instead by monitoring the air quality and when it is deteriorated, allow outside air, warmed or cooled by the HVAC system, to come in to the room through vents and exhausted and filtered through other louvers until the air quality returns to a safe level. This saves a tremendous amount of energy over opening and closing windows.
Bosch has developed sensor devices and actuators that are easily updatable via Bluetooth, smartphone, or ZigBee wireless, and are made flexible so that users can add functions at a later time.
For air quality monitoring, the ambient sensor reminds inhabitants of sufficient home ventilation and helps significantly reduce heating costs
To optimize the environment and improve living comfort in a smart home or connected office building, a smart sensor can integrate the monitoring of ambient conditions such as air quality, light, and noise intensity with the building’s HVAC and lighting systems. The sensor module is in a small form factor with two-year battery life, making it easy to position anywhere.
XDK Cross Domain Development Kit
http://xdk.bosch-connectivity.com/
I’m a prototyping platform for any Internet of Things use case that you can imagine, and more!
Built your prototype?
It’s not over yet, develop further.
Tomi Engdahl says:
All Aboard the Hardware Startup Train
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328676&
After years of software-based funding and tedious development, the crowdfunding tide is turning toward hardware. At International CES, held Jan. 6- 9, officials from Indiegogo said companies throughout the chip and gadget ecosystem are getting on board.
“Everyone from Foxconn to Qualcomm want to talk to entrepreneurs…and offer them all the resources so they can make great products. That’s a new thing,” Evan Cohen, Indiegogo’s senior director of design, technology and hardware, told EE Times. “The whole maker movement has matured into an entrepreneur movement at this point.”
More than 110 products at this year’s CES started on Indiegogo, CEO Slava Rubin said, adding that the company has raised over $800 million in campaigns. Rubin believes one out of six companies on the CES show floor received funding from an Indiegogo campaign.
Direct conversations with larger companies are leading to a serious advancement in developer tools for the Arduinos and Raspberry Pis commonly used by startups, Cohen said. Companies such as Brookstone and GE are also getting in on some of crowdfunding’s benefits—market validation of otherwise unknown products and a built-in audience—with a recently announced enterprise crowdfunding from Indiegogo.
“The higher-up enthusiasm toward the startup world is really exciting. There was a time where you were a maker and you were lucky to get in front of somebody,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT’s Coolest Connections at CES
New IoT for your home
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328631
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT’s Coolest Connections at CES
New IoT for your home
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328631
French company EnerBee developed a micro-generator the size of a nickel that uses a combination of piezoelectric and magnetism to harvest energy for home automation. The company’s prototype light dimmer module harvests power from the rotation of the dimmer’s nob to send a radio communication to a smart light bulb
Startup Nexpaq developed a series of modules for smartphone cases and chargers that connect via Bluetooth but also have a built-in 2,600 mAh battery. The swappable modules include a breathalyzer, battery, LED, temperature and humidity sensor, and USB flash card.
The Cassia Hub from Cassia Networks is a Bluetooth router capable of significantly extending the operating range of a typical Bluetooth device. The Hub can network and control up to 22 devices at a range of 1,000 feet. The Cassia Hub also communicates via Wi-Fi or Etherne
With Nuimo, Senic (Berlin) wants to keep your smartphone in your pocket and make managing IoT easier. The wireless controller can manage smart home devices over a 40-meter range without having to use a separate app to manage each device.
Palm-sized Bixi uses gestures to control connected devices at a 25-cm distance over Bluetooth. Largely made with ST Microelectronics chips, Bixi uses optical and gesture sensors to remotely manage Bluetooth-enabled devices with a wave or hand raise.
Bonjour, the voice controlled alarm clock from Holi (Lyon, France), tracks your sleep and schedule, adjusting your wake up time to match your requirements
In a world where 90% of devices store personal information and the majority of connected devices don’t have sufficient security, the Internet of Things requires more than an attack dog. Cujo is an IoT security system for virtual intrusions.
Lumo Run from Lumo Bodytech (Palo Alto, Calif) are running shorts/capris for men and women with a slip-in sensor that tracks running metrics while providing tips to improve your run. A nine-axis IMU, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer, and vibration monitor track stride, pelvic rotation, bounce, and cadence. Auditory feedback during a run is also available through Bluetooth-enabled headphones.
Chinese company LeTv — the first company to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor in a smartphone — also has a connected bicycle. The Super Bike “rideable” is a premium bicycle that’s connects with Android smartphones. Embedded sensors can track fitness, distance, BMI (body mass index) and also play music or map routes.
Zepp aims to improve your golf, baseball, cricket, or tennis game with a Bluetooth connected sensor hub that monitors movement and provides suggestions.
The Blu-Toque Bluetooth Beanie from Toronto-based Caseco is a waterproof beanie with Bluetooth and cellular connectivity for music and call streaming.
Lego’s WeDo are a series of connected building blocks to teach STEM to second through fourth grade students.
Each kit comes with a “smart hub” — microcontroller, motor, motion sensor and tilt sensor — that communicates with a smartphone or laptop via Bluetooth.
4moms’ connected car seat takes the hassle out of installing a safe seat for your infant. The self-installing car seat uses robotics and a variety of sensors to guide parents through the installation process
The Starling, a clip-on sensor that tracks and analyzes words a baby hears each day with the goal of increasing future intelligence.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can Chip Vendors Set Next-Big-Thing Agenda?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328713&
During CES, I met with Etron Technology, whose new products are mostly built around Virtual Reality. It suddenly struck me that Etron isn’t really showing off chips. It’s demonstrating what VR can do for CE vendors.
TOKYO – After the annual gadget frenzy of the Consumer Electronics Show, where it’s virtually impossible to focus on one product, or even one product category, picking one theme that’s likely to drive the chip industry in 2016 and beyond strikes me as sheer guesswork.
It’s easier to picture new consumer products that represent incremental change — singles and doubles — in the industry. But a home run, out of the park? Who knows?
We do know that “consumer demand is sluggish across a number of categories from smartphones to tablets and laptops,” as illustrated by the 2016 Accenture Digital Consumer Survey. More dire is the reality that “demand for the next generation of devices enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT) is not growing fast enough to offset declines in traditional categories,” as the report put it.
During CES, I met with Etron Technology (Hsinchu, Taiwan), whose new products shown at its booth are mostly built around Virtual Reality. It suddenly struck me that Etron isn’t really showing off chips. It’s demonstrating what VR can do for CE vendors.
I was reminded of what it takes for fabless chip vendors these days to enter the consumer electronics market. Designing a good chip isn’t enough. You need a platform and unique software algorithms that make your chip sing. More important, you need to prototype a system, and develop a business model around it that can inspire CE vendors.
Lu was full of ideas, many already prototyped as good-looking consumer systems on display at his company’s booth.
With Etron’s surround-camera, dubbed “eYsGlobe,” consumers can now easily record in 360 degrees without resorting to the multiple cameras that require images to be stitched together.
Etron’s3D imaging and gesture-sensing technologies reminded me of Intel’s RealSense
Intel’s latest version of RealSense reportedly uses IR. The IR camera projects a stream of dots invisible to naked eye. On nearer objects, the dot pattern spreads out while, for farther objects, the pattern becomes denser. Using this displacement, the depth is calculated.
Etron’s 3D Depth-map technology uses disparity, calculated using a stereo camera. Left and right cameras are spaced some apart, each capturing images. A comparison of left and right images serves to calculate disparity.
There’s nothing new in this stereo concept. What’s new is how Etron implements it on a chip.
One-upping Intel, Etron has figured out a way to run intensive depth-map computing algorithms on its 3D depth-map camera controller itself, instead of using up a host CPU’s processing power.
Etron’s 3D depth-map camera controller executes parallel computational algorithms, and outputs high performance depth-map images up to VGA resolution at 60 frames per second. The camera controller chip simultaneously controls the timing and image quality of two horizontally placed HD cameras to mimic the function of human eyes in capturing 3D images or video, said the company.
At CES, Lu showed off a smartphone prototype embedded with a stereo camera.
I recognized that Etron is going beyond Intel with its 3D depth-map technology applications when Lu started talking about 3D lifelike figurines.
Consumers can even go a step further – by actually printing those 3D images into 3D figurines. Playing with your own 3D figurines might seem to most Americans a little self-indulgent. But I was born in manga-crazy Japan, where I definitely see a market for this sort of thing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amped Wireless Launches APOLLO IP Cameras and Updates Networking Lineup at CES
by Ganesh T S on January 17, 2016 4:20 PM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9971/amped-wireless-launches-apollo-ip-cameras-and-updates-networking-lineup-at-ces
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Will Not Support Upcoming Processors Except On Windows 10
by Brett Howse on January 15, 2016 9:05 PM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9964/microsoft-to-only-support-new-processors-on-windows-10
Microsoft has long been the bastion of long term support for older platforms, so today’s support news out of Redmond is particularly surprising. Intel launched its 6th generation Skylake cores back in August, and support on Windows 7 has been not as strong as Windows 10 right out of the gate. It’s not terribly strange that new features like Intel’s Speed Shift will not be coming to Windows 7, but today Microsoft announced that going forward, new processors will only be supported on Windows 10. Skylake will only be supported through devices on a supported list, and even those will only have support until July 2017.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CES 2016: Cooler Master’s MasterWatt Connected Digital PSU Almost Ready
by Ian Cutress on January 15, 2016 8:01 AM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9954/ces-2016-cooler-masters-masterwatt-connected-digital-psu-almost-ready
As one gets older, or designs PCs for certain users in mind, how much power is being consumed is a key metric. The easiest piece of equipment to use is software, which gives a value but is known for being abstracted from the true value and often wrong due to bad assumptions. The next step up is using a cheap $20 or less wall meter, which most people do, although those readings are skewed by the efficiency of the power supply or assume a constant voltage from the mains. The best reading is at source, and actually probing the component being tested, although that requires digging in with voltage probes on the hardware level. There should be a middle ground, and we saw it back at CES 2015 with Cooler Master.
Back then, we saw an early prototype. The power supply was outfitted with an ARM based microcontroller that could measure certain points of the power supply, giving voltage, current and power at each of those points. This data could be gathered by software using USB, or to another device using Bluetooth because the power supply also had Bluetooth. The idea was that the PSU could be monitored on the system when powered on, or a user could log in to a home server connected via Bluetooth and check via the app.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TRENDnet Announces AC2600 Router and AC1900 USB 3.0 WLAN Adapter at CES
by Ganesh T S on January 15, 2016 10:00 AM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9962/trendnet-announces-ac2600-router-and-ac1900-usb3-wlan-adapter-at-ces
TRENDnet’s CES suite had plenty of networking equipment ranging from outdoor long-range access points to industrial switches. It made clear that TRENDnet is focusing more on SMB, particularly in the emerging markets. However, the two announcements at CES were both related to their consumer efforts – one was the TEW-827DRU, a AC2600 MU-MIMO 4×4 802.11ac MU-MIMO router and the other was the TEW-809UB, a AC1900 USB 3.0 WLAN adapter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CES 2016: It’s all about smartphones
http://www.edn.com/design/consumer/4441266/CES-2016–It-s-all-about-smartphones?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20160127&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20160127&elq=d0775e13f06d49f79fb287153ca03348&elqCampaignId=26686&elqaid=30525&elqat=1&elqTrackId=8e93109ffd8041469550d0d60512a061
Smartphones were at the center of many innovations (Congratulations Apple and Android for your vision!) at the Sands/Venetian at CES 2016.
The Sands/Venetian was where it’s at as far as I am concerned regarding innovations in electronics. The Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) was not even close as far as analog and power technology (except for my visit to the NASA booth; I did not expect to see them there!). The LVCC was more of a place to make deals for distributors and reps with the many new consumer-related innovations; after all it is the Consumer Electronics Show.
Here are only a select few of the smartphone innovations I saw:
Smart phone stabilizers for video or still camera photography by DelTron Intelligence Technology Limited, which announced the launch of Vimble.
Marvell introduced its NFC controller, which enables the smallest antennas for mobile.
GreenPeak Technologies’ smart home solutions, including non-intrusive senior monitoring capability via sensors through a hub for smartphone monitoring, were on display. The Family@Home consists of easily installed interoperable sensors, wirelessly connected, that talk to each other and to the Web, and have cloud intelligence and special algorithms to enable this network to recognize, assess, and make decisions regarding what the smart home should be doing. All managed over the Web on a single dashboard app on a smartphone, users can keep an eye on their family members and pets and monitor their home; their most valuable asset.
Semtech and myDevices partnered for a platform open to all hardware manufacturers with LoRa-enabled device
Bosch’s sensors are in 75% of all mobile phones.
The ZigBee Alliance and EnOcean Alliance came together at CES to combine the benefits of energy harvesting wireless with ZigBee 3.0.
There were so many more like smartphones plugging into the smart car and connecting with the smart home using MirrorLink, and smartphones snapping into augmented reality systems to view your smartphone videos in true stereo, with realistic sound location, even when you turn your head.
Tomi Engdahl says:
7 top trends from CES 2016
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4441181/7-top-trends-from-CES-2016