I always thought Android and related issues were only Google. Maybe I was reading too fast but I had not heard of the Open Handset Alliance, until I was investigating the company Audience.
Audience makes a unique noise control chip for cell phones. Noise control is performed in software in many phones. The Audience chip reduces and compensates for background noise for both listening and talking, and takes advantage of a second microphone in the handset for noise detection.
Of course this adds cost (maybe $5 or more) so will not be found in all phones. Look for it in your next phone, but I don't think the ATT store will be able to tell you if the phone has a noise chip.
Anyway, The Open Handset Alliance is a group of 65 technology and mobile companies who have come together to accelerate innovation in mobile and offer consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience. Together we have developed Android™, the first complete, open, and free mobile platform. We are committed to commercially deploy handsets and services using the Android Platform.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Really big photographs and camera robots
The IEEE consumer electronics society is having a speaker on Gigapan tools on April 27 at NVIDIA. I am going to try to get there even though I am planning to be at the Embedded Systems Conference all day at the TI day event. The object is to try to make some engineering contacts at both events with a plus of some interesting technology presentations.
Anyway, Gigapan is about processing multi giga pixel digital images. There is also a Gigapan robot for automating the capture of panoramic pictures with a digital camera. This reminded me about the Gigapxl project that I read about several years ago. Also another camera robot, the Sony Party-shot IPT-DS1 is a face snapping robot - not much practical use I think.
There are also a number of unrelated gigapixel project on the web now.
GIGAPAN -
The Gigapan system was developed by Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with NASA Ames Intelligent Robotics Group, with support from Google.
http://www.gigapan.org/ is a site that stores and displays large panorama photographs. They provide software for uploading to their site. http://www.gigapansystems.com/ makes and sells the robotic panorama contraption that can be used with any camera. The panoramas can be made of 100 or more pictures when captured with the panorama robot that is programmed to step through the desired angle vertically and horizontally and press the shutter release. You program the number of vertical and horizontal pictures you want taken. The robot comes with stiching software to put them all together.
This works best when there is no fast moving objects in the scene that will be cut off or show up multiple times if they are moving the same way the camera steps.
GIGAPXL -
This is a project in the opposite extreme operating before 2003. The http://www.gigapxl.org/ site describes the film based project. They built a really big camera for big film (9x18 inches) that directly takes 4 gigapixel pictures with one exposure.
They then digitize the results with a scanner. The ultimate resolution is determined by the scanner used. They also produce wall size (like 20 feet) prints of the results. The advantage is that with one exposure they have no trouble with moving objects. They have photographed natural and historical sites across the country.
SONY PARTY-SHOT -
The Party-shot IPT-DS1 can be combined with either the Cyber-shot DSC-TX1 and Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 cameras that have face detection and smile detection. This device is still current and being sold, though I have never seen it advertised or promoted. The party shot is a small motorized platform that the camera is mounted on. The robot can pan, tilt, and zoom until it finds faces in the picture and then take a picture. It can be programmed to control the range of motion and frequency of picture. The cameras also have "smile shutter" that uses the detection of a smile to trigger the picture. It sounds like a way to quickly get a lot of bad casual candid photos in group settings. I can imagine pictures with at least one face in the group with a strange expression or bad camera or back of head.
But it does have a reasonable application as a more convenient way to get yourself in a group picture - it is a expensive self timer. Just set it up and then form your group in front of the camera , it will find the group, compose, focus and take several pictures automatically.
Anyway, Gigapan is about processing multi giga pixel digital images. There is also a Gigapan robot for automating the capture of panoramic pictures with a digital camera. This reminded me about the Gigapxl project that I read about several years ago. Also another camera robot, the Sony Party-shot IPT-DS1 is a face snapping robot - not much practical use I think.
There are also a number of unrelated gigapixel project on the web now.
GIGAPAN -
The Gigapan system was developed by Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with NASA Ames Intelligent Robotics Group, with support from Google.
http://www.gigapan.org/ is a site that stores and displays large panorama photographs. They provide software for uploading to their site. http://www.gigapansystems.com/ makes and sells the robotic panorama contraption that can be used with any camera. The panoramas can be made of 100 or more pictures when captured with the panorama robot that is programmed to step through the desired angle vertically and horizontally and press the shutter release. You program the number of vertical and horizontal pictures you want taken. The robot comes with stiching software to put them all together.
This works best when there is no fast moving objects in the scene that will be cut off or show up multiple times if they are moving the same way the camera steps.
GIGAPXL -
This is a project in the opposite extreme operating before 2003. The http://www.gigapxl.org/ site describes the film based project. They built a really big camera for big film (9x18 inches) that directly takes 4 gigapixel pictures with one exposure.
They then digitize the results with a scanner. The ultimate resolution is determined by the scanner used. They also produce wall size (like 20 feet) prints of the results. The advantage is that with one exposure they have no trouble with moving objects. They have photographed natural and historical sites across the country.
SONY PARTY-SHOT -
The Party-shot IPT-DS1 can be combined with either the Cyber-shot DSC-TX1 and Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 cameras that have face detection and smile detection. This device is still current and being sold, though I have never seen it advertised or promoted. The party shot is a small motorized platform that the camera is mounted on. The robot can pan, tilt, and zoom until it finds faces in the picture and then take a picture. It can be programmed to control the range of motion and frequency of picture. The cameras also have "smile shutter" that uses the detection of a smile to trigger the picture. It sounds like a way to quickly get a lot of bad casual candid photos in group settings. I can imagine pictures with at least one face in the group with a strange expression or bad camera or back of head.
But it does have a reasonable application as a more convenient way to get yourself in a group picture - it is a expensive self timer. Just set it up and then form your group in front of the camera , it will find the group, compose, focus and take several pictures automatically.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Digital optical interfaces
Intel light peak - The article in the San Jose Mercury today about the Intel optical cable technology reminded me about Infinera PIC technology, that I will describe below.
Anyway Intel is marketing an optical interface cable solution for the consumer/PC market to provide multi-gigabit data transfer. It is unique because the cable connectors include the diodes and driver circuits already attached to the fiber cable. They are proposing a single light peak port on the computer (they seem to emphasize the space savings of a single small connector on notebooks) that will daisy chain to many peripherals. The cable takes advantage of a particular fiber technology that allows smaller bending radius without signal loss. The cable is 4 single mode fibers used as 2 pairs - each pair is one transmit fiber and one receive fiber (and maybe some copper to provide power). Maybe in a couple of years this will make sense, but it seems awkward to me, to daisy chain all your peripheral. It makes sense maybe for disk drives and networks, but many devices like printers, scanners, and displays do not have very high data rates or do not need high speed in both directions. Intel will be making the controller device that goes in the PC and peripherals. They are partnering for the cable and optical parts.
Infinera - They make a PIC (photonic integrated circuit). The technology here is very exotic and cool.
The goal is to provide a high bandwidth digital network products to telcom equipment vendors for their 100 Gbps and higher networks. The technology is using mulitmode fibers that support many modulated frequencies in one fiber. This has been done with discrete laser drivers and multiplexors made into bulky modules and boards.
The Infinera PIC is a monolithic integrated , non-hybrid indium phosphide chip that takes 10 electrical inputs, and outputs 10 light frequencies onto one cable fiber. The chip has 10 diodes of different frequencies along with waveguides and light control logic that combines the 10 waves into one. They also make a receiver chip that does the reverse. As you can imagine indium phosphide optical fab is not a commodity technology so they run their own local production. Infinera also makes a full line of switching, routing, and management hardware and software. The Infinera website has lots of details on their technology.
Anyway Intel is marketing an optical interface cable solution for the consumer/PC market to provide multi-gigabit data transfer. It is unique because the cable connectors include the diodes and driver circuits already attached to the fiber cable. They are proposing a single light peak port on the computer (they seem to emphasize the space savings of a single small connector on notebooks) that will daisy chain to many peripherals. The cable takes advantage of a particular fiber technology that allows smaller bending radius without signal loss. The cable is 4 single mode fibers used as 2 pairs - each pair is one transmit fiber and one receive fiber (and maybe some copper to provide power). Maybe in a couple of years this will make sense, but it seems awkward to me, to daisy chain all your peripheral. It makes sense maybe for disk drives and networks, but many devices like printers, scanners, and displays do not have very high data rates or do not need high speed in both directions. Intel will be making the controller device that goes in the PC and peripherals. They are partnering for the cable and optical parts.
Infinera - They make a PIC (photonic integrated circuit). The technology here is very exotic and cool.
The goal is to provide a high bandwidth digital network products to telcom equipment vendors for their 100 Gbps and higher networks. The technology is using mulitmode fibers that support many modulated frequencies in one fiber. This has been done with discrete laser drivers and multiplexors made into bulky modules and boards.
The Infinera PIC is a monolithic integrated , non-hybrid indium phosphide chip that takes 10 electrical inputs, and outputs 10 light frequencies onto one cable fiber. The chip has 10 diodes of different frequencies along with waveguides and light control logic that combines the 10 waves into one. They also make a receiver chip that does the reverse. As you can imagine indium phosphide optical fab is not a commodity technology so they run their own local production. Infinera also makes a full line of switching, routing, and management hardware and software. The Infinera website has lots of details on their technology.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
PV Solar power
I have found companies that have interesting products related to PV solar power, while researching companies for positions.
Enphase - makes micro-inverters. All large PV arrays (larger than simple panels used to charge batteries or appliances) use inverters to convert DC to AC and tie it to the grid. Primarily many panels are connected in series to increase the voltage (and keep the current low to minizime losses) and connect to one large inverter to tie to the grid. The panels must be layed out carefully regarding orientation and the number of panels in each series . The drawback here is that a bad cell or panel , or a panel in the shade affects the power output of the whole array.
Micro-inverters are low power devices that are used , one per PV panel. Thus each panel outputs 120V (or maybe 240V) at a low current ( 1-2 A). The micro-inverter output of each panel are all effectively connected together in parallel, through one junction box to the grid.
The advantage is that each micro-inverter monitors its own panel and can turn it off if the output is marginal for any reason. The Enphase system enhances this by networking all of their inverters with power line networking. Their special router inside the house connects to the home internet. Enphase monitors the output of every inverter that is in use. Enphase can monitor units for failure as well as let the home owner view their power generation history. Additionally, panels can be mounted on various roof faces for installations that do not have a large south facing roof. For example a house could have a few panels facing south, east , and west if it did not have a single optimum mounting area. The panels that are shaded at any moment do not degrade the outputs of the sunny panels.
The one drawback is reduced reliability due to the increased number of inverters, but a single failure probably does not bring down the whole array. Also each inverter is a low power device and is monitored so any failure can be tracked. This inverter is used in the Akeena PV panels (175 watts) sold at Lowes now, and it is what allows you to buy and install one panel at a time.
XET (XSLENT Energy Technologies) - also makes inverters. Their feature is power factor correction built into the inverter. Their inverters provide Impedance matching and power factor management. This allows their inverters to output reactive power (used by motors and switching power supplies used in most electronics now). They also make micro-inverters. They supply off grid inverters as well as battery charger PV controllers.
Smart Meters - smart grid - I just checked and the new smart meters can measure active and reactive power separately. Active power does the work, but reactive power is still provided by the power company and creates heat. Previously large industry was charged based on their power factor. I wonder if some of the higher power bills that are blamed on smart meters are due to PGE charging a penalty for reactive power ( like caused by air conditioning)?
Enphase - makes micro-inverters. All large PV arrays (larger than simple panels used to charge batteries or appliances) use inverters to convert DC to AC and tie it to the grid. Primarily many panels are connected in series to increase the voltage (and keep the current low to minizime losses) and connect to one large inverter to tie to the grid. The panels must be layed out carefully regarding orientation and the number of panels in each series . The drawback here is that a bad cell or panel , or a panel in the shade affects the power output of the whole array.
Micro-inverters are low power devices that are used , one per PV panel. Thus each panel outputs 120V (or maybe 240V) at a low current ( 1-2 A). The micro-inverter output of each panel are all effectively connected together in parallel, through one junction box to the grid.
The advantage is that each micro-inverter monitors its own panel and can turn it off if the output is marginal for any reason. The Enphase system enhances this by networking all of their inverters with power line networking. Their special router inside the house connects to the home internet. Enphase monitors the output of every inverter that is in use. Enphase can monitor units for failure as well as let the home owner view their power generation history. Additionally, panels can be mounted on various roof faces for installations that do not have a large south facing roof. For example a house could have a few panels facing south, east , and west if it did not have a single optimum mounting area. The panels that are shaded at any moment do not degrade the outputs of the sunny panels.
The one drawback is reduced reliability due to the increased number of inverters, but a single failure probably does not bring down the whole array. Also each inverter is a low power device and is monitored so any failure can be tracked. This inverter is used in the Akeena PV panels (175 watts) sold at Lowes now, and it is what allows you to buy and install one panel at a time.
XET (XSLENT Energy Technologies) - also makes inverters. Their feature is power factor correction built into the inverter. Their inverters provide Impedance matching and power factor management. This allows their inverters to output reactive power (used by motors and switching power supplies used in most electronics now). They also make micro-inverters. They supply off grid inverters as well as battery charger PV controllers.
Smart Meters - smart grid - I just checked and the new smart meters can measure active and reactive power separately. Active power does the work, but reactive power is still provided by the power company and creates heat. Previously large industry was charged based on their power factor. I wonder if some of the higher power bills that are blamed on smart meters are due to PGE charging a penalty for reactive power ( like caused by air conditioning)?
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Image processing
I have found many companies making interesting image processing or sensor chips.
They all fill some niche market. Here are several of them.
Pixim - makes a cmos sensor and processor that independently controls the exposure of each pixel. This means the shadows get increased exposure so you get the details without washing out the bright areas. It is low resolution but targets markets like security cameras.
Stretch Inc.- makes an image processor chip with stretch instruction set extension fabric. The ISFE is a on the fly programmable logic that is configured as a logic block that executes software. Stretch is able to examine the customers C code and optimize parts of it into custom instructions that are executed in the programmable logic.
Canesta - cmos sensor and processor chip that measures distance for each pixel in real time. This means it creates a 3d map of the image in the picture since it measures the distance from the camera to each point in the image. Part of the system is a IR source that pulses for each pixel measurement. Also low resolution but target applications like auto bumper cameras and video game controlling.
Marseille Networks - makes decoder chips for quad HD tv. Now it is a niche market for large business displays or advertising.
They all fill some niche market. Here are several of them.
Pixim - makes a cmos sensor and processor that independently controls the exposure of each pixel. This means the shadows get increased exposure so you get the details without washing out the bright areas. It is low resolution but targets markets like security cameras.
Stretch Inc.- makes an image processor chip with stretch instruction set extension fabric. The ISFE is a on the fly programmable logic that is configured as a logic block that executes software. Stretch is able to examine the customers C code and optimize parts of it into custom instructions that are executed in the programmable logic.
Canesta - cmos sensor and processor chip that measures distance for each pixel in real time. This means it creates a 3d map of the image in the picture since it measures the distance from the camera to each point in the image. Part of the system is a IR source that pulses for each pixel measurement. Also low resolution but target applications like auto bumper cameras and video game controlling.
Marseille Networks - makes decoder chips for quad HD tv. Now it is a niche market for large business displays or advertising.
In the beginning.
Writing this blog while I am looking for a new engineering position in silicon valley, California. I like to comment about some of the products and companies I have found from friends and job postings.
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