In this blog, you will find A 2 Z about Arduino, Electronics, microcontroller, Raspberry pi projects, Computers & laptops BIOS & Schematics & New Technologies robotics & automation.
People come to work at Parallel Wireless because we are building the future of telecom. They stay, because they are challenged and driven by an incredible product and team. We take pride in our commitment to employee development, and our culture fosters an atmosphere of empowerment, trust, respect, and communication. Learn more about our mission, […]
The post JOB: QA Ipsec At Parallel Wireless appeared first on Electronics For You.
Role Team Member – Central Product Configuration Job Level/ Designation M1 / Manager Function / Department Central Operations Group / Active Operations / Charging Operations – IN & VAS Job Purpose Flawless implementation of business configurations including short code definition, rating configuration, etopup grid etc. within TAT, Ensuring quick response/fix for revenue leakage related concerns, […]
The post JOB: Manager – Central Product Configuration appeared first on Electronics For You.
This position reports into the senior manager engineering at Mobileum and would be responsible for development, support, maintenance and implementation of small to medium complex components of the assigned module. Job Responsibilities Help define and understand the product in details Find out existing platform components that can be used Find out technical unknowns and get […]
The post JOB: Senior Software Engineer – C++ At Mobileum appeared first on Electronics For You.
While we are challenged to continue our work remotely as protection layer in the current situation we should avoid get in contact with others until the situation will be under control. The main idea is to build a thermal camera detector that can be easily deployed outside your house /lab /office /shuttle… so you […]
The post CoroFence – Thermal Detectorđź–– appeared first on Open Electronics. The author is Emanuele Signoretta
Agriculture is one of the most important industries in the world that not only provides food but also raw materials for other industries like textiles. Still, it is plagued by several issues, both natural and man-made, that make life difficult for the farmers. xFarm, an agtech startup in Milano, was founded in 2017 out of […]
The post The IoT For Digital Farming appeared first on Electronics For You.
What a noisy Week! As if the cacophony of a rancorous presidential election weren’t enough, Apple banged the drums for a quartet of new iPhones, and Amazon trumpeted the first call of the holiday season with its 48-hour deals event, Prime Day.
Prime Day is usually in July, but Amazon was too busy catching up with fulfillment during the pandemic lockdown that it had to push the two-day event to October. The retail world, slammed by Covid-19, proclaimed the 48-hour sales show the de facto start to the holiday season. After Prime Day came and went, Amazon took a breather for a day and then kicked up “Black Friday-worthy deals” in a “Holiday Dash event.”
We used to think it was bad when Christmas dĂ©cor went up the day after Halloween. In 2020, I think we’re all banking on it. People are desperate for feel-goods. Given that Thanksgiving may be largely a bust this year, I’ll bet people want to see snowflakes, Santa Clauses and overstuffed stockings well before the first frost. Deck dem halls!
But Black Friday in October? Wow. Early-autumn online deals have replaced the post-Thanksgiving doorbusters people would trample each other for to get the last $200 laptop out of the three allotted per store.
It’s not a bad thing that those crazy 5 a.m. feeding frenzies are over. I say this from experience as one who had to get to Target at 2 a.m. before I had digested my turkey to report on shopamaniacs trying score a 32-inch TV for $198. I’m dating myself: Go to bestbuy.com today, and you can drop a 32-incher in your shopping cart for $94.99.
Even Alexa is in on the deals thing. Year after year, Amazon suggests I try asking Alexa for deals. The first couple of years were ridiculous with my “digital assistant” recommending things that were clearly in overstock versus something I’d actually buy.
When I asked about deals last week, she was at least in the ballpark with Sengled LED smart light bulbs, though I wasn’t in the market for one. They were $10 off to $4.99, she advised, then added without the slightest bit of self-awareness, “Works with Alexa.” She told me I could say, “Next” for the next deal in the queue. I said, “Next,” shouting louder each time, until I was worried my downstairs neighbors would start banging the ceiling with a broomstick. I never did find out the next deal, but I made some of my own noise.
I never really warmed to Prime Day, other than for getting Amazon devices on the cheap. It’s too hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. I’m not a huge shopper, though I never want to pass on a deal. I’m still wondering if I should have gotten the Bose QuietComfort 35 Series 2 headphones last week at 43% off for $199, since I use mine daily and one of these days they’ll go kaput.
So my Prime Day splurge was upgrading my Kindle Fire tablet, which retails for $89. After a courtesy credit for a dust-up over a Prime Day pre-promo that wasn’t clear, a Whole Foods credit for $10 worth of groceries prior to Prime Day, and $18 trade-in credit for my old Kindle Fire, the Fire HD 8 ran me $26.63. I’d have been an idiot NOT to buy it.
Amazon then made it idiotproof to return the old Fire to its factory settings, reminded me to erase my SD card and linked me to a shipping label to return it. I was happy to do so, hoping my old tablet will end up with a happy refurb owner or broken down into responsibly recyclable parts. All my content was in the cloud, so it’s now sitting available on my new tablet. A tech handoff at its finest.
As I was readying my tablet for return with the free return-shipping label, I remembered I also wanted to return an LED lantern I ordered recently that up and died. I checked my order history, clicked the return button and was wowed to see that I had a week or so to return it, or replace it, for free.
I went through the steps to return and was awed when I saw I didn’t even need to box the lantern up. All I had to do was take it to an authorized shipper and they would do it. If that wasn’t the pieciest of cakes, I didn’t know what was — except I didn’t notice until too late that the return option defaulted to Kohl’s rather than to the UPS option. I was locked into Amazon’s return labyrinth: Rather than being able to trot the lantern across the street to the UPS store, I was committed to taking the nonworking piece of plastic to a Kohl’s in New Jersey.
There was no “oops” button. The lantern and I trudged to the UPS store, hoping the nice man would take a human approach to my return. “Nope, not if it says Kohl’s,” he told me, without looking up. Meanwhile, the nearest Kohl’s is in New Jersey, a $16 inbound toll away.
All of a sudden the great Amazon price I got on that nonworking lantern doesn’t seem like a good deal at all … just a bunch of noise.
The post The Pandemic Pushed ‘Prime Day’ Into October appeared first on EE Times Asia.
It has been a busy couple of weeks for us here at SparkFun. Last week we released the MicroMod line, which allows you easily swap out a variety of processors into function-specific carrier boards. This week we announced À La Carte (ALC), SparkFun's custom printed circuit board production service! We went into some detail about ALC on Wednesday, but we're excited so we're going to talk about it again, as well as a new SparkX product!
SparkFun has been designing boards for more than a decade, and we're the source for the latest and greatest technologies. We've taken all that knowledge built a platform that turns components and modules into easy-to-choose blocks. SparkFun À La Carte allows you to create custom boards by selecting only the blocks you want to use and adding them to your board. Whether you're a test engineer building 15 test fixtures or a Burning Man artist needing 47 light-activated servo controllers, ALC is there to bridge the gap between prototype and production.
Interested in trying ALC? We’re offering 50% off the design fee on all new orders through 11:59 p.m. on 12/31/2020 with promo code: ALCSPARKFUN50
Ever need to fine tune an oscillator circuit or RF filter? It can be tricky and repetitive switching out capacitors on a PCB. SparkX's Qwiic Digital Capacitor, complete with the NCD2400M IC, can be a great solution. Solder the nibs onto any 0603 or 0402 footprint, plug in a Qwiic cable and RedBoard, and change the capacitance in code.
That's it for this week! As always, we can't wait to see what you make! Shoot us a tweet @sparkfun, or let us know on Instagram or Facebook. We’d love to see what projects you’ve made!
Suited for satellites with restrained space and large number of components so that essential spacecraft functions can be incorporated The need to reduce size, weight and power (SWaP) on satellites and other space systems continue to challenge the aerospace market. Now combining more than 20 commonly used functions into a single chip, the LX7720 radiation-hardened […]
The post Rad-Hard Motor Controller With Robust Positioning Circuitry For Satellites appeared first on Electronics For You.
How do you create a 3D model of a historic graveyard? With eight Raspberry Pi computers, as Rob Zwetsloot discovers in the latest issue of The MagPi magazine, out now.
“In the city centre of Dundee is a historical burial ground, The Howff,” says Daniel Muirhead. We should probably clarify that he’s a 3D artist. “This old graveyard is densely packed with around 1500 gravestones and other funerary monuments, which happens to make it an excellent technical challenge for photogrammetry photo capture.”
This architecture, stone paths, and vibrant flora is why Daniel ended up creating a 3D-scanning rig out of eight Raspberry Pi computers. And the results are quite stunning.
“The goal of this project was to capture photos for use in generating a 3D model of the ground,” he continues. “That model will be used as a base for attaching individual gravestone models and eventually building up a full composite model of this complex subject. The ground model will also be purposed for rendering an ultra-high-resolution map of the graveyard. The historical graveyard has a very active community group that are engaged in its study and digitisation, the Dundee Howff Conservation Group, so I will be sharing my digital outputs with them.”
To move the rig throughout the graveyard, Daniel used himself as the major moving part. With the eight Raspberry Pi cameras taking a photo every two seconds, he was able to capture over 180,000 photos over 13 hours of capture sessions.
“The rig was held above my head and the cameras were angled in such a way as to occlude me from view, so I was not captured in the photographs which instead were focused on the ground,” he explains. “Of the eight cameras, four were the regular model with 53.5 ° horizontal field of view (FoV), and the other four were a wide-angle model with 120 ° FoV. These were arranged on the rig pointing outwards in eight different directions, alternating regular and wide-angle, all angled at a similar pitch down towards the ground. During capture, the rig was rotated by +45 ° for every second position, so that the wide-angles were facing where the regulars had been facing on the previous capture, and vice versa.”
Daniel worked according to a very specific grid pattern, staying in one spot for five seconds at a time, with the hopes that at the end he’d have every patch of ground photographed from 16 different positions and angles.
“With a lot of photo data to scan through for something fairly complex, we wondered how well the system had worked. Daniel tells us the only problems he had were with some bug fixing on his code: “The images were separated into batches of around 10,000 (1250 photos from each of the eight cameras), plugged into the photogrammetry software, and the software had no problem in reconstructing the ground as a 3D model.”
He’s now working towards making it accessible and low-cost to others that might want it. “Low-cost in the triple sense of financial, labour, and time,” he clarifies. “I have logged around 8000 hours in a variety of photogrammetry softwares, in the process capturing over 300,000 photos with a regular camera for use in such files, so I have some experience in this area.”
“With the current state of technology, it should be possible with around £1000 in equipment to perform a terrestrial photo-survey of a town centre in under an hour, then with a combined total of maybe three hours’ manual processing and 20 hours’ automated computer processing, generate a high-quality 3D model, the total production time being under 24 hours. It should be entirely plausible for a local community group to use such a method to perform weekly (or at least monthly) 3D snapshots of their town centre.”
The MagPi magazine is out now, available in print from the Raspberry Pi Press onlinestore, your local newsagents, and the Raspberry Pi Store, Cambridge.
You can also download the PDF directly from the MagPi magazine website.
The post The Howff 3D scanning rig| The MagPi 99 appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
How do you create a 3D model of a historic graveyard? With eight Raspberry Pi computers, as Rob Zwetsloot discovers in the latest issue of The MagPi magazine, out now.
“In the city centre of Dundee is a historical burial ground, The Howff,” says Daniel Muirhead. We should probably clarify that he’s a 3D artist. “This old graveyard is densely packed with around 1500 gravestones and other funerary monuments, which happens to make it an excellent technical challenge for photogrammetry photo capture.”
This architecture, stone paths, and vibrant flora is why Daniel ended up creating a 3D-scanning rig out of eight Raspberry Pi computers. And the results are quite stunning.
“The goal of this project was to capture photos for use in generating a 3D model of the ground,” he continues. “That model will be used as a base for attaching individual gravestone models and eventually building up a full composite model of this complex subject. The ground model will also be purposed for rendering an ultra-high-resolution map of the graveyard. The historical graveyard has a very active community group that are engaged in its study and digitisation, the Dundee Howff Conservation Group, so I will be sharing my digital outputs with them.”
To move the rig throughout the graveyard, Daniel used himself as the major moving part. With the eight Raspberry Pi cameras taking a photo every two seconds, he was able to capture over 180,000 photos over 13 hours of capture sessions.
“The rig was held above my head and the cameras were angled in such a way as to occlude me from view, so I was not captured in the photographs which instead were focused on the ground,” he explains. “Of the eight cameras, four were the regular model with 53.5 ° horizontal field of view (FoV), and the other four were a wide-angle model with 120 ° FoV. These were arranged on the rig pointing outwards in eight different directions, alternating regular and wide-angle, all angled at a similar pitch down towards the ground. During capture, the rig was rotated by +45 ° for every second position, so that the wide-angles were facing where the regulars had been facing on the previous capture, and vice versa.”
Daniel worked according to a very specific grid pattern, staying in one spot for five seconds at a time, with the hopes that at the end he’d have every patch of ground photographed from 16 different positions and angles.
“With a lot of photo data to scan through for something fairly complex, we wondered how well the system had worked. Daniel tells us the only problems he had were with some bug fixing on his code: “The images were separated into batches of around 10,000 (1250 photos from each of the eight cameras), plugged into the photogrammetry software, and the software had no problem in reconstructing the ground as a 3D model.”
He’s now working towards making it accessible and low-cost to others that might want it. “Low-cost in the triple sense of financial, labour, and time,” he clarifies. “I have logged around 8000 hours in a variety of photogrammetry softwares, in the process capturing over 300,000 photos with a regular camera for use in such files, so I have some experience in this area.”
“With the current state of technology, it should be possible with around £1000 in equipment to perform a terrestrial photo-survey of a town centre in under an hour, then with a combined total of maybe three hours’ manual processing and 20 hours’ automated computer processing, generate a high-quality 3D model, the total production time being under 24 hours. It should be entirely plausible for a local community group to use such a method to perform weekly (or at least monthly) 3D snapshots of their town centre.”
The MagPi magazine is out now, available in print from the Raspberry Pi Press onlinestore, your local newsagents, and the Raspberry Pi Store, Cambridge.
You can also download the PDF directly from the MagPi magazine website.
The post The Howff 3D scanning rig| The MagPi 99 appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
India is one of the largest importers of defence equipment worldwide. However, the government is now planning to reduce the country’s dependence on imports with focus on indigenous production of defence equipment. With a slew of recently announced reforms, the defence sector will surely gain more momentum in its path to self-reliance in defence production. […]
The post The Changing Face Of India’s Defence Sector In Perspective appeared first on Electronics For You.
The device is capable of powering low to high loads at a high efficiency and complies with a large range of environmental conditions A wide variety of electrically powered traction systems are used in rapid transit systems around the world. Most metros operate from DC power either at 750VDC with a third rail, or 1.5kV […]
The post High Efficiency DC-DC Converter For Light-Rail and Industrial Applications appeared first on Electronics For You.
Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) Job notifications for PHP Developer, JAVA Developer, Android Programmer, UI/UX Developer, Graphic Designer/2D Animator, Technical Writer, Content Developer and Software Test Engineer for work in various projects. Detailed Eligibility PHP Developer/Java Developer/Android Programmer: B.Tech/BE in CSE /IT/ECE or equivalent or MCA with 1-2 years experience UI/UX Developer Any […]
The post JOB: Project Staffs At C-DIT appeared first on Electronics For You.
Siemens Logistics is a leading provider of innovative products and solutions in mail and parcel logistics and automation as well as in airport logistics with baggage and cargo handling. Software solutions and customer services along the complete product life cycle complete the portfolio. The company has an installed base in more than 60 countries worldwide. […]
The post JOB: Electrical Hardware Design Engineer At Siemens appeared first on Electronics For You.
Position Summary A technical person with basic with good SW design and development skills. Experience in SW design, development and validation. Job Responsibilities Understand the requirements and design & develop SW for Connectivity Protocols Ultra wide Band, NFC based connectivity solution for automotive platform Understand the existing features/code and be able debug and solve bugs […]
The post JOB: Associate Engineer ,SW (Connectivity) at HARMAN appeared first on Electronics For You.
A fantastic feature of any WiFi-enabled microcontroller like ESP32 is the ability to update its firmware wirelessly. This is known as Over-The-Air (OTA) programming. More info
The post ESP32 Basic Over The Air (OTA) Programming In Arduino IDE appeared first on Open Electronics. The author is Carlo Palumbo
The collaboration aims to provide smart eyewear solution for rapid AR-enabled smart-glass application and adoption With the aim to meet the technical challenges required for all-day wearable smart glasses, STMicroelectronics has announced the formation of the LaSAR Alliance (Laser Scanning for Augmented Reality), an ecosystem of leading technology developers, suppliers and manufacturers collaborating to develop […]
The post Formation of LaSAR Alliance To Develop Enhanced AR-Based Eyewear appeared first on Electronics For You.
I was just 16 when I made my first meaningful open source contribution. It was the first code contribution I ever made, and I learned a lot from it. I'm 20 now, and I've been strongly attached to free and open source software (FOSS) ever since. I strive to be a friend to my community colleagues and to help others continue growing, learning, and succeeding.
RT-Thread is an open source embedded real-time operating system (RTOS) providing a wide range of components along with more than 250 software packages (and counting) for the Internet of Things (IoT). In previous Opensource.com articles, the RT-Thread project has demonstrated how to code hardware with an RTOS and how to program for IoT using open source tools.
Starting out in the world of electronics and robotics can be quite daunting at first. There are many things to learn at the beginning (circuit design, soldering, programming, choosing the right electronic components, etc) and when things go wrong there are many variables to keep track of (wrong wiring connections, damaged electronic components, or error […]
The post Circuit Learn NANO: One PCB. Easy to Learn. Infinite Posibilities. appeared first on Use Arduino for Projects.
The post PWM TM4C123 – Generate PWM Signals with Tiva C Launchpad appeared first on Microcontrollers Lab.
The post PWM TM4C123 – Generate PWM Signals with Tiva C Launchpad appeared first on Microcontrollers Lab.
European regulators have been coming under increasing pressure regarding the slow pace at which the necessary lower 6-GHz band for Wi-Fi and its successor, Wi-Fi 6E, has been made available in the region.
At the same time, standards setters at the IEEE 802.1 committee have been making good progress in finalizing specifications for the next stage in wireless LANs. A working group has recently released detailed technical criteria for what is now referred to as 802.11be, but which is widely expected to be designated Wi-Fi 7 when the technology becomes a reality, now expected to be late 2024.
Let’s focus on the positive first. The technologists and standards setters working to define 802.11be [or Extremely High Throughput (EHT)] have set themselves hugely ambitious goals so as to meet the ever-increasing connectivity demands as well as ensuring the sector makes even more efficient use of the spectrum.
The developing standard targets higher data rates, lower latency, better power (and cost) efficiency, improved interference mitigation and higher capacity density — achieving all of these incremental improvements together is going to be tough. As is the ability to meet the mid-2024 target date set by the Committee for publishing the 802.11 be amendment, so that certification and interoperability tests can commence under the auspices of the Wi-Fi Alliance by the end of that year.
Of course as with previous iterations of the WLAN, pre-certified end-user gear is likely to appear before late 2024, as is happening now with Wi-Fi 6 and will soon with the next generation to follow — Wi-Fi 6E.
And backward compatibility with previous generations of the WLAN will need to be ensured for a smooth transition to the next generation.
The standards for 802.11be (let’s call it Wi-Fi 7) will still be based on OFDMA, but some key advances are expected that should allow the option to deploy 4096-QAM.
An improved MU-MIMO is being specified (to date referred to as “cooperative” CMU-MIMO), designed to support the defined 16 spatial streams, double that being used in Wi-Fi 6. This is expected increase throughput by 20%, but as noted, this will be offered as an option, and lower modulation schemes will continue to be supported.
The standards setters suggest that making this work could turn out to be perhaps the biggest design challenge for Wi-Fi 7.
The maximum channel size being targeted is 320MHz, also double that used in Wi-Fi 6, such that Wi-Fi 7 will be targeted for deployment in the 6GHz band, the most recent part of the spectrum added for unlicensed use (at least in some countries — see later) and supported by Wi-Fi 6E. Doubling the maximum channel should also double the throughput for Wi-Fi 7. In addition, the specifications will also support 160+160MHz, 240+180 MHz and 160+80 MHz channels so as to combine non-adjacent spectrum blocks.
Multi-link operation is also expected to be mandated for Wi-Fi 7. This will allow devices to simultaneously receive and/or transmit data across different channels or bands, with separation of data and control planes. This is what will give Wi-Fi 7 the ability to significantly increase the throughput to multiple devices, lower the latency and thus offer higher reliability.
These advances are expected to lead to the anticipated much higher maximum data rates to a theoretical 46 Gbps. A more realistic data rate anticipated by the standards setters will peg this back to about 30 Gbps, for real-world deployment shared across numerous devices.
Of course by the time all this is commercialized, the 6 GHz band will already be widely used for other wireless services, not least 5G cellular. It is anticipated that the Automated Frequency Co-ordinator (AFC) under development will be a work-around for this and will ensure efficient spectrum sharing.
And a recent technology brief from Monica Paolini, founder of networking consultancy Senza Fili , and supported by Intel, noted that “Wi-Fi 7 brings more flexibility and capabilities to enterprises,” extending the reach of wireless LANs.
She stresses the two networking technologies will need to work together “to introduce edge computing, distributed and cloud architectures, virtualization and digitalization in the emerging private wireless networks” as well.
Paolini notes that Wi-Fi 7 will also play a major role in supporting applications that require deterministic latency, high reliability and improved QoS.
Still on the impact on enterprises, the improved Wi-Fi should also offer even greater opportunities in IoT and IIoT applications such as industrial automation, surveillance, remote control, AV/VR and other video-based applications.
Paolini also organized and moderated a webinar late last week, in collaboration with the Wi-Fi Alliance, focusing on progress of allocating Wi-Fi spectrum in Europe.
Andreas Geiss, Head of Unit for Radio Spectrum Policy in GD CONNECT of the European Commission, a “special guest” during the webinar, was put on the spot. Host Alex Roytblat, VP of Worldwide Regulatory Affairs at the Wi-Fi Alliance, referenced the landmark ruling of the US FCC to release about 1200 MHz of the 6GHz bands for Wi-Fi 6 and the follow-up Wi-Fi 6E, as well as other more recent moves in the same direction by authorities in South Korea and the UK, and urged Geiss to clarify progress in Europe in this area.
Geiss noted that the process was “very convoluted” as the discussions involve not just the 27 countries in the European Union (soon to be 26 with the imminent departure of the UK) but all the other of the 48 countries within the CEPT (Conference of European Posts and Telecommunications — the regulatory body representing all European countries in all matters relating to telecommunications.
Geiss also stressed that “being limited to on-line meetings over the past months rather than the much easier route of face-to-face meetings has not helped in trying to reach consensus.”
But he then revealed that European regulators are targeting April 2021 as the date for releasing 500 MHz (between 5945 MHz and 6425 MHz) for Wi-Fi use. “We hope to finalize our proposals by the end of November,” said Geiss.
He stressed that after this these proposals “will need to be looked at by other harmonization bodies, including, importantly, the European Radio Spectrum Committee (RSC) that I also chair. It is very important that we get this harmonization effort right.”
Here, it might be apposite to precis the continent-wide rules for making such important decisions as the release of the 6GHz band.
The CEPT’s Electronic Communications Committee (ECC) is, according to Geiss, expected to approve the draft of the Working Group’s proposals for 6GHz regulation very shortly. This will then have to be rubber-stamped by the wider ECC plenary planned for mid- November.
The proposals are then passed up to the European Commission to organize approval by all the countries of the European Union, with input from specialist groups such as the RSC.
If there is broad agreement, the group should then review and adopt the proposals by December, which will then have to be approved by all member states by, as Geiss suggests, next April.
One of the most contentious issues during the discussions within the ECCapparently relates to protection of the so-called CBTC (Communications Based Train Control) signalling regulations that are used by many European train operators.
But stay with us as there is yet another twist in the process. Current rules in the EU oblige all member states to transfer the approved rules into national regulation within six months after adoption. But the wider CEPT rules state countries can take up to two years to fully implement the rules. The expectation, though, is that all countries will in fact nod the new rules through within the six months.
And both groups are expected to adopt harmonized Low Power Indoor (LPI) and Very Low Power (VLP) versions of the 6GHz regulations.
The differences between the two categories of equipment will be transmission power and portability. LPI gear will only be allowed to be deployed inside buildings and have access to the full 480 MHz, while VLP equipment will be sanctioned for both indoor and outdoor use. The spectrum for that will be divided into two categories — 400 MHz and 80 MHz.
Most installations are expected to come under the LPI umbrella, while the newly devised VLP version will focus on consumer applications such as VR/AR glasses and other applications that can be connected to smartphones.
Another of the panel speakers, Chris Szymanski, director of product marketing and government affairs at Broadcom, was keen to get an insight of when the upper part of the 6 GHz band would become available for use.
“We are open to studying this aspect next, but we do need to make more studies into this area, notably regarding connectivity interference issues — notably with 5G operations,” noted Geiss.
“Sharing that spectrum in the correct way is one of the key issues for achieving the European target for a ‘gigabit society’, said Geiss. “But for now, member states want to focus on ensuring they can make best use of the lower 6GHz region, and ensuring there are no mitigation issues.”
Szymanski welcomed the progress in regulation which he said “is set to offer a huge opportunity for companies like ours who are readying the components and end-user equipment at pace Wi-Fi 6 and soon Wi-Fi 6E.
“Yes, at times it has been challenging and frustrating, but we are getting there.”
The post Europe Looks to Open Up 6GHz Band for Wi-Fi appeared first on EE Times Asia.
Auto makers have had the opportunity to establish realistic, minimum safety goals for assisted driving and autonomous driving. They have not. It is time to impose rigorous safety standards on an industry that keeps undermining its own case for less regulatory oversight.
What the industry is passing off as “safety” is simply inadequate.
On Semiconductor senior Vice President Ross Jatou bluntly noted in our recent interview that the “driver monitoring system today is a glorified checkbox.” DMS isn’t the only technology that’s true of, though. The same judgment applies to active advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) such as automatic emergency braking (AEB). Recent AAA test results on AEB, as Jatou said, warn the driving world that, “Hey, they don’t work consistently all the time.”
Recommended:
Lack of ADAS Benchmarks Is Haunting Car Industry
The industry should have rigorous programs to establish safety goals and meet them. Instead what we have are individual auto makers eager to tout new “life-saving” ADAS features, but who will only reluctantly acknowledge those features have suspect reliability. AEB seeing-eyes, for example, sometimes can’t see when the sun is too bright or the darkness too dark.
Perhaps they can’t hear the voices calling for more reliable safety standards, because that advice is being drowned out by “Autopilot” fanboys who tingle with every update from Tesla about “Full Self-Driving” (FSD).
For the longest time, consumers might have been led to believe that safety in the automotive industry was assured by regulation. But let’s not kid ourselves. Remember Ralph Nader’s “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile” published 55 years ago? The U.S. automotive industry has always gotten a free pass through “self-regulation.” Today, in the same vein, we have autonomous vehicle enthusiasts and carmakers promoting “light-touch” regulation and feeding off each other.
Picture a pedestrian in white clothes crossing the street in daylight. Does your car run over him or stop just in time? Imagine driving out of a tunnel, from gloom to daylight and there’s that pedestrian again. Does your car see him and swerve life-savingly? What about a child who enters the roadway from behind a parked car at night? Your car can see the parked car, but can it spot the kid?
We are talking daily driving conditions. These aren’t “edge cases.” But the answer to each question is unsettled.
It’s time for carmakers, institutions that offer car assessment programs, and regulators who look after safety issues to raise the bar. They must conduct additional or gap tests and benchmark all vehicles’ capabilities.
“Pedestrian Detection is vital to ADAS and automated driving and is a fundamental capability for all of motor vehicle safety,” Phil Magney, founder and president of VSI Labs, told EE Times. “Until now, commercial systems have evolved to work reasonably well in daylight conditions using traditional methods that apply visible cameras with radar. But in low light conditions these commercial solutions fail too often.”
Magney made it clear: “Regulators have an opportunity to update testing protocols to be more representative of common driving conditions.”
Flir – VSI Labs partnership
Many ADAS and AV experts know this, but among them, Phil Magney might understand it most acutely. His firm recently issued a white paper on this very topic, based on tests VSI Labs ran in July at the American Center for Mobility (ACM) in Michigan.
VSI got involved because Flir Systems, Inc., engaged it to test the world’s first fused AEB sensor suite. It employs a thermal longwave infrared (LWIR) camera, a radar, a visible camera, and a convolutional neural network (CNN).
Flir’s thesis was that while no single sensor would solve for all the variables a vehicle will encounter on the road, thermal LWIR cameras could be effective, as they ‘see the heat’ given off by objects in the environment.
Flir has an obvious vested interest in promoting the adoption of low vision detection in test suites. The company hopes to see their LWIR cameras designed into active ADAS vehicles.
VSI did its tests according to Euro NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme) standards, said Magney. His firm also designed tests not currently conducted by NCAP. Additional tests included “driving toward a soft pedestrian target (SPT) heated to mimic a human at 25 MPH in a variety of common driving conditions, which are not currently tested as part of NCAP.”
He explained, “We conducted Euro NCAP protocols but did so under lighting conditions not currently tested. Since most pedestrian fatalities happen in low light conditions, we feel it is imminent that the testing protocol be expanded to include this. We simply repeated the test protocol at night and the results speak for themselves.”
This sort of extra tests redounds to Flir’s credit, if it passes. But they also serve to indict AEB systems that fail to perform reliably in many common driving conditions. One could argue that current testing setups not aligned with daily driving conditions such as darkness and sun glare are catering, by omission, to technology suppliers who can’t offer equal performance.
Thermal-enhanced fused AEB system
VSI Lab used a Ford Fusion based on a thermal-enhanced “fused” AEB system, to test against four 2019 production vehicles with AEB systems: Tesla Model 3, Subaru Forester, BMW X7, and Toyota Corolla. All four were equipped with the most current safety features, for that model year, to avoid pedestrian collisions.
The “fused AEB system” came with a thermal LWIR camera, radar, visible camera and CNN.
Asked about specifics, Magney explained, “We fused the data from each of these three sensors. As for cameras, one was a thermal camera (FLIR Boson) and the other was a RGB camera (FLIR Backfly). In terms of radar we used the Delphi ESR 2.5 which is both medium range and long range.” Magney noted, “Each of the two cameras has its own trained neural network for detection and classification. One is trained with thermal images the other with RGB images. The two vision pipelines detect and classify simultaneously with associated confidence values.” Radar data is then attached to classifications associated depth and movement. “The end result enables the system to know (with confidence) when to perform an AEB maneuver.”
So, who developed the neural networks?
“Both neural networks were supplied by Flir as they have their own data annotation department. VSI contributed to the training data sets as part of the development.” Magney reiterated that neural networks are only as good as their training process.
Test setups VSI developed five cases based on Euro NCAP testing protocols. Those tests included modified scenarios not included in standard AEB positive detection tests and identified as potentially challenging cases for standard AEB systems. Day Tests: In daylight, dry conditions at intersection
Night Tests: In dark, dry conditions at intersection
Sun Glare Tests: Vehicle emerging from a dark tunnel to sunrise glare in dry conditions
Testing methodology and test results
Each test was repeated until the vehicle struck the SPT twice or completed a maximum of 5 runs. This was done to reduce potential damage to the SPT and the vehicle, VSI explained.
The fused thermal AEB system ran through entire test plan with five tests for each test case and was successful in 25 of 25 tests at preventing pedestrian injury. In only two instances did the vehicle contact, but did not knock down, the SPT, according to VSI.
All five vehicles did well with the standard dark-clothing/daylight scenario. For the pedestrian in white clothes, the Tesla failed on two of three tests. In general, the four commercially available AEB systems had a positive performance in daytime tests (42 passing grades out of 50 tests).
But tests performed at night were a whole different story. The four cars with four commercially available AEB systems knocked down the SPT in all but two tests. Driving out of the tunnel, the fused thermal AEB system stopped and touched the pedestrian target without knocking it down on one out five tests and stopped well clear on the other four.
How did all the commercial vehicles perform? The fused thermal AEB test vehicle went first when the sun was at its most extreme angle right after sunrise. The Subaru, Toyota and Tesla all did poorly, knocking over the target many times.
By the time the VSI team tested the BMW, the sun was higher in the sky and its system was able to avoid the target all five times.
VSI’s white paper concluded that the AEB system with added thermal LWIR camera “performed significantly better” than existing commercial AEB systems in several real-world scenarios. “The thermal-enhanced AEB system improves the AEB functionality in the most dangerous situations, including low-light conditions, darkness, and when exposed to blinding conditions such as emerging from a dark tunnel into bright light.”
Will AEB testing scenarios evolve?
In its white paper, VSI wrote, somewhat optimistically, “Automotive testing agencies can evolve their AEB testing scenarios to be more rigorous to align with other daily driving conditions such as darkness and sun glare.”
But when pressed, Magney acknowledged, “Well these things take time and these agencies don’t move that quickly.” Perhaps, more important, he added, “Also they are not getting enough push yet from the safety advocacy groups but we think this is going to change.”
So, who are in the business of assessing new cars’ safety? Magney explained, “There is usually an NCAP program for each region or country. Euro NCAP, United States NCAP, Japan NCAP, and so on.” He added, “VSI used Euro NCAP for its test protocol as it is considered more advanced than the US version, especially with AEB Testing.”
There is also the IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety), a non-profit safety agency formed by the U.S. insurance industry. “IIHS does not conduct AEB-P testing as of yet,” according to Magney.
Even if a safety advantage for thermal LWIR is tested and proven, the technology’s remaining hurdle to get designed into commercial vehicles is cost.
According to Flir’s spokesperson, the cost of its themal LWIRto be around $200 per camera at the start of production. The company expects it to decrease as volumes go up.
Magney observed, “Flir is pushing for the adoption of visibly challenged scenario testing and now they have the results to back it up.” He noted that there are RFQs out there calling for thermal for this purpose.
“Up until now, thermal has only been used for night-vision systems which carry a higher price tag because it is a sexy feature. Now we are talking about bringing thermal down-market and making it a vital component that can meet these uses cases for low light detection and emergency braking applications.”
The post Will AEB Systems Testing Scenarios Evolve? appeared first on EE Times Asia.
We love seeing how quickly our community of makers responds when we drop a new product, and one of the fastest off the starting block when we released the new Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 on Monday was YouTuber Jeff Geerling.
We made him keep it a secret until launch day after we snuck one to him early so we could see what one of YouTube’s chief advocates for our Compute Module line thought of our newest baby.
So how does our newest board compare to its predecessor, Compute Module 3+? In Jeff’s first video (above) he reviews some of Compute Module 4’s new features, and he has gone into tons more detail in this blog post.
Jeff also took to live stream for a Q&A (above) covering some of the most asked questions about Compute Module 4, and sharing some more features he missed in his initial review video.
His next video (above) is pretty cool. Jeff explains:
“Everyone knows you can overclock the Pi 4. But what happens when you overclock a Compute Module 4? The results surprised me!”
Jeff Geerling
And again, there’s tons more detail on temperature measurement, storage performance, and more on Jeff’s blog.
Top job, Jeff. We have our eyes on your channel for more videos on Compute Module 4, coming soon.
If you like what you see on his YouTube channel, you can also sponsor Jeff on GitHub, or support his work via Patreon.
The post YouTuber Jeff Geerling reviews Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
We love seeing how quickly our community of makers responds when we drop a new product, and one of the fastest off the starting block when we released the new Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 on Monday was YouTuber Jeff Geerling.
We made him keep it a secret until launch day after we snuck one to him early so we could see what one of YouTube’s chief advocates for our Compute Module line thought of our newest baby.
So how does our newest board compare to its predecessor, Compute Module 3+? In Jeff’s first video (above) he reviews some of Compute Module 4’s new features, and he has gone into tons more detail in this blog post.
Jeff also took to live stream for a Q&A (above) covering some of the most asked questions about Compute Module 4, and sharing some more features he missed in his initial review video.
His next video (above) is pretty cool. Jeff explains:
“Everyone knows you can overclock the Pi 4. But what happens when you overclock a Compute Module 4? The results surprised me!”
Jeff Geerling
And again, there’s tons more detail on temperature measurement, storage performance, and more on Jeff’s blog.
Top job, Jeff. We have our eyes on your channel for more videos on Compute Module 4, coming soon.
If you like what you see on his YouTube channel, you can also sponsor Jeff on GitHub, or support his work via Patreon.
The post YouTuber Jeff Geerling reviews Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
Hello everyone! You may notice that tomorrow there isn’t a new Weekly Deal, but that’s because we’re kicking off a bunch of sales next Monday! We’re going to be spending 23 of November's 30 days with some awesome thing(s) or another on sale, starting with daily deals. Every weekday from Monday, November 2, through Thursday, November 26, we will have something on sale.
Why, you may ask, do the deals end on Thursday, November 26? We have more surprises planned for Black Friday and Cyber Monday! For your planning purposes, Black Friday will run from Friday, November 27, through Sunday, November 29. After that, we’ll be holding a one-day sale for Cyber Monday on Monday, November 30.
Sales are awesome, but they would not be possible without our amazing warehouse team, so a MASSIVE shout out goes to our incredible crew who have been working in the warehouse throughout this pandemic and are making the logistics of these deals possible. These sales are likely to increase our order volume, so please bear with us as we fulfill orders while keeping our team safe. Order ship times may be delayed, as well as the in-transit shipping delays that have become almost normal these days.
So get hyped, get ready for the sales, and maybe go enter all those dates on a calendar?
Rules & Information:
Please note: We will be working hard to get as many orders out as quickly as possible, but we cannot guarantee same-day shipping during the sale days.
The kit incorporates cloud-based connectivity and uses the latest GNSS and LTE technology to provide real-time positioning data It is expected that by 2023, the number of global cellular IoT subscribers will increase to a great extent as machine-to-machine devices drive demand for global network connections. To meet the rising demand, speed to market is […]
The post Tracking and Monitoring Kit For Rapid Development Of IoT Applications appeared first on Electronics For You.
The rugged DC-DC converter series provides good protection against electrical fluctuations and suitable for wide variety of applications For use in convection-cooled equipment and applications, including microcontrollers, datacom, telecom, remote sensor systems and portable electronics, here’s presenting four new ultra-thin converters. They are: PYBJ3-OD: Open frame series in 6 pin DIP package PYBJ3-D: Encapsulated series […]
The post Ultra-Thin and Low Profile DC-DC Converters For Portable Electronics appeared first on Electronics For You.
Explore our new free pathway of environmental digital making projects for young people! These new step-by-step projects teach learners Scratch coding and include real-world data — from data about the impact of deforestation on wildlife to sea turtle tracking information.
By following along with the digital making projects online, young people will discover how they can use technology to protect our planet, all while improving their computing skills.
In the projects, learners are introduced to 5 of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with an environment focus:
Technology, science, maths, geography, and design all play a part in the projects. Following along with the digital making projects, young people learn coding and computing skills while drawing on a range of data from across the world. In this way they will discover how computing can be harnessed to collect environmental data, to explore causes of environmental degradation, to see how humans influence the environment, and ultimately to mitigate negative effects.
To help us develop these environmental digital making projects, we reached out to a number of organisations with green credentials:
The digital making projects, created with 9- to 11-year-old learners in mind, support young people on a step-by-step pathway to develop their skills gradually. Using the block-based visual programming language Scratch, learners build on programming foundations such as sequencing, loops, variables, and selection. The project pathway is designed so that learners can apply what they learned in earlier projects when following along with later projects!
We’re really excited to help learners explore the relationship between technology and the environment with these new digital making projects. Connecting their learning to real-world scenarios not only allows young people to build their knowledge of computing, but also gives them the opportunity to affect change and make a difference to their world!
With Green goals, learners create an animation to present the United Nations’ environment-focused Sustainable Development Goals.
Through Save the shark, young people explore sharks’ favourite food source (fish, not humans!), as well as the impact of plastic in the sea, which harms sharks in their natural ocean habitat.
With the Tree life simulator project guide, learners create a project that shows the impact of land management and deforestation on trees, wildlife, and the environment.
Computers can be used to study wildlife in areas where it’s not practical to do so in person. In Count the creatures, learners create a wildlife camera using their computer’s camera and Scratch’s new video sensing extension!
Electricity is important. After all, it powers the computer that learners are using! In Electricity generation, learners input real data about the type and amount of natural resources countries across the world use to generate electricity, and they then compare the results using an animated data visualisation.
Understanding the movements of endangered turtles helps to protect these wonderful animals. In this new Turtle tracker project, learners use tracking data from real-life turtles to map their movements off the coast of West Africa.
All of our projects are free to access online at any time and include step-by-step instructions. They can be undertaken in a club, classroom, or at home. Young people can share the project they create with their peers, friends, family, and the wider Scratch community.
Visit the Protect our planet pathway to experience the projects yourself.
The post Digital making projects about protecting our planet appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
In a recent Twitter thread , I self-identified as "some days Deanna, some days Riker." Others shared their own "Star Trek Sp...
