Category Archives: Newsworthy

CHIP Competes With the Raspberry Pi

The extremely popular tiny, credit card sized, inexpensive, single board computer, the Raspberry Pi or the RBPi may soon have a rival. So far, the contender, known as the CHIP, is waiting for its crowdfunding project to complete. In the future, expect more of such similar devices jostling the market place.

Unlike the RBPi, CHIP is completely open source – for both its software and its hardware. Once in the market, the design and documentation will be available to people to download. Therefore, with the schematic available, people will be free to make their own version and add improvements or tweaks to the design.

CHIP’s operating system is based on Debian Gnu Linux, which means it will support several thousand apps right out of the box. On the hardware side, there are some improvements on the specifications of the RBPi. As against the 700MHz CPU of the RBPi, CHIP runs on a single core CPU at 1GHz. Users can do without the SD Card, as CHIP has storage memory of 4GB built into the card. The 512MB RAM is the same as that in the later models of the RBPi. While users have to add separate dongles for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when using the RBPi, CHIP has both built on-board.

CHIP can connect to almost any type of screen. Its base unit offers composite video output, but there are adapters for both VGA and HDMI. An optional case for the CHIP enables it work with a touchscreen and a keyboard. The entire package is the size of an original Game Boy.

All this may not be surprising since there have been prior competitors with better specifications and more features than those of the original RBPi do. However, all the competitors so far were unable to beat the price factor – they were all more expensive than the RBPi. This is the first challenger bringing the price lower than that of an RBPi – the basic unit of the CHIP costs only $9. The Next Thing Co., the manufacturers, call this the “world’s first nine dollar computer,” and in their opinion, CHIP is “built for work, play and everything in between.”

Along with a lower price tag, CHIP has a smaller profile than the RBPi. As it has a more powerful processor and more memory, CHIP could easily replace RBPi as the primary choice for projects. The entire board is packed with several sockets and pins. Its hardware features include a UART, USB, SPI, TWI (I2C), MIPI-CSI, Eight digital GPIOs, parallel LCD output, one PWM pin, composite video out, mono audio in, stereo audio out and a touch panel input.

Users of CHIP will learn coding basics and play games on the tiny computer that may soon usurp the title of king of the budget microcomputers, so far being enjoyed by the RBPi. CHIP measures only 1.5×2.3 inches and is compatible with peripherals such as televisions and keyboards. It runs on Linux, works with any type of screen and comes with a host of pre-installed applications. Therefore, users can simply make it work out of the box, without having to download anything.

Converting Scanned Images into Editable Files

The printed world and the electronic one are primarily connected through computers running the OCR or Optical Character Recognition software programs. Traditional document imaging methods use a two-dimensional environment of templates and algorithms for recognizing objects and patterns.

Current OCR methods can recognize not only a spectrum of colors, but can also distinguish between the forefronts in a document from its background. They work with low-resolution images that mediums such as cell phone cameras, the internet and faxes provide. For this OCR methods often have to de-skew, de-speckle and use 3-D image correction on the images.

Primarily, OCR software programs use two different methods for optical character recognition. The first is feature extraction and the second is matrix matching. With feature extraction, the OCR software program recognizes shapes using mathematical and statistical techniques for detecting edges, ridges and corners in a text font so that it can identify the letters, sentences and paragraphs.

OCR software programs using feature extraction achieve the best results when the image is clean and straight, has very distinguishable fonts such as Helvetica or Arial, uses dark letters on a white background and has at least 300dpi resolution. In reality, these conditions are not always possible. To allow reading words accurately in less ideal circumstances, OCR techniques have switched to matrix matching.

Matrix matching falls in the category of artificial intelligence. For example, organizations such as law enforcement agencies include matrix matching in the software they use for recognizing images within video feeds. The process combines feature extraction together with similarity measurements.

Similarity measurement utilizes complex algorithms and statistical formulas to compare images relative to others within the same image or within the document. This helps to recognize images within a spectrum of colors even in 3D environments. This technology allows OCR software to recognize crooked images, images with too much background interference and images that need alteration for correct reading and interpretation. Matrix matching techniques are also better at recognizing images at a lower resolution.

Today, several OCR software packages include features that can de-speckle and de-skew the image. They can also change the orientation of the page. A special technique called the 3D correction can straighten images that the camera captured at an angle.

OCR has been traditionally linked with scanning software. The scanning process offers clues that make the OCR results more accurate. However, not all images are available in a hard copy, and a scanner may not be readily available. Sometimes, text to be extracted is available only in a PDF file or some other graphic file downloaded from the Internet. While older PDF files did not allow you to copy text, most of the modern PDF files created today have a cursor mouse pointer. That allows copying the text from the document on to your clipboard.

However, advanced PDF creating software includes features to protect the text in the converted document using a password. If you want to extract text from such protected PDF documents, your OCR software program will ask you for the password.

Incandescent Bulbs May Not Be Dead Yet

If you thought that incandescent bulbs were dead and buried, well, you need to think again. Although incandescent bulbs had many things going in their favor such as a warm glow, dimming capability and low cost, efficiency was not one of them. Most of the energy that went into an incandescent bulb was wasted as heat and only a little was converted into visible light. Now, scientists at MIT and Purdue University are developing an ultra-efficient new incandescent light bulb. It reuses the heat it gives off by converting the heat into light.

Traditional incandescent bulbs heat a tungsten filament, causing it to glow. This also creates both visible and infrared light. While the visible light is useful, the infrared wavelength is dissipated as heat and is hardly of use. In the new type of incandescent bulb, scientists have coated the filament with a structure called photonic crystals.

Photonic crystals are made from abundant elements and applied on the filament using conventional material deposition technology. Although the crystals allow visible light to pass thorough unimpeded, they reflect the infrared wavelengths back into the filament. This heats the filament further, keeps it glowing and emitting more of the visible light, while the bulb itself uses much less electricity than it does otherwise.

According to the scientists, the bulb can have a high luminous efficacy, a measure of how well a light source produces visible light – a ratio of luminous flux to consumed power. For instance, regular incandescent bulbs show a luminous efficacy of 2-3 percent, CFLs come in at 7-15 percent (excluding ballast loss) and LEDs at 5-20 percent. The new, two-stage incandescent, once developed further, would be able to manage greater than 40 percent luminous efficacy.

For those who perceive luminous efficiency in lumens per watt, the maximum luminous efficiency of 100 percent, is 683 lm/W. That means, incandescent bulbs have a luminous efficiency of 13-20 lm/W, CFLs of 47-103 lm/W and LEDs are 34-136 lm/W. Comparatively, it is expected the new incandescent bulb would show a luminous efficiency of 273 lm/W.

To make the concept successful, scientists had to design the photonic crystal such that it worked for a very wide range of wavelengths and angles. They had to make the photonic crystals in the form of a stack of thin layers, which they deposited on a substrate. The efficient tuning of how the material interacts with light depends on the right thickness and sequence of the layers, according to the scientists.

The photonic crystals cover the filament, allowing only visible light to pass through. The crystals reflect infrared light just as a mirror would, adding more heat to the filament. As only the visible light goes out, the heat waves keep bouncing back into the filament until they can come out in the form of visible light.

Although at present the luminous efficacy reached is only about 6.6 percent, it is rivaling that of the commercial LEDs and CFLs. However, it is too early to say the two-stage incandescent will be able to beat the LEDs, because research on LEDs is also progressing very fast.

Sneaker Technology: Headlights on Your Foot

Sneaker technology is going places. Not that it is traveling, but manufacturers are imbibing the humble sneaker with special powers that help the wearer. One of such gadgets is the Smart Concept Sole from Vibram. Sneakers made by the company have a remote controlled LED lighting system. Wearers can choose to illuminate the ground ahead at night as they walk. In addition, Vibram is planning to embed more sensors within the soles of their sneakers to warn the wearer of environmental hazards invisible to him/her.

The LED lights on the Vibram sneaker soles work like mini flashlights. This concept is useful for tactical boots, running shoes, work shoes and more. In addition to the front LED lights, the sole also has a red tail light, making the wearer visible from behind. Vibram demonstrated their Smart Concept Sole at the Outdoor Retailer trade show in the Salt Lake City at Utah.

According to Vibram, inspiration for the Smart Concept Sole came from tactical needs for things such as firefighting, law enforcement, and military operations. The sole has an integrated electronic board controlling the integrated hardware and a fob-sized remote control unit. The user can replace the standalone remote with an application on his/her smartphone.

The lighting system forms the most universally useful application for the Smart Concept Sole. Switched on by the user, the integrated LEDs throw a diffused array of light on the path ahead. This allows the user to see where they are going in the dark. This is a better than using a hand-held flashlight, as the lights on the sole allow the user to maintain a low profile. The front LEDs come with three brightness settings, with a flash setting for the red LED tail light. That increases the wearer visibility when indulging in activities such as running at night.

Although kids have been using flashing lights on their shoes for long, the Smart Concept Sole has unique capabilities going farther than path illumination alone. According to Vibram, they are planning to stock the sneaker soles with a variety of sensors that can provide a warning system for users. For example, a gas sensor could monitor for hazardous gases. This is particularly useful in law enforcement and for firefighting.

Similarly, a proximity sensor on the foot could monitor if there were any obstacles in scenarios such as in smoke-filled buildings, unfamiliar territory, and dark places. In the same way, a temperature sensor could warn of high temperatures underfoot.

Apart from LEDs on the soles, Vibram also makes special soles that allow the user to have maximum grip on ice, slippery terrain, and wet surfaces. That improves the safety of the user in difficult conditions. They make the sole from three layers. The outer layer is made of rubber, the next from a special fabric and the inner layer is of a polyurethane compound. These layers help in improving the grip of the sole in slippery terrains.

The special sole from Vibram is highly adaptive to low temperature conditions because of its soft make. The rubber and fabric provide perfect adhesion without the risk of delamination or abrasion.

Scientists Develop Power Paper for Storing Charge

Swedish researchers at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics of Linkoping University have prepared a special kind of paper that can store electrical charge. The paper constructed from Nano cellulose and a variety of conductive polymer can stock up as much charge as stored by super capacitors available currently.

Improving upon thin film capacitors

Xavier Crispin who is the professor of organic electronics explains that the paper capacitors are superior to the very thin film capacitors, which have been around for some time. Being few tenths of a millimeter in thickness, they can be considered to have a three dimensional structure compared to the film capacitors. The paper can be produced in varying thicknesses.

Details of the fabrication of the paper capacitor have been published in Advanced Science. Apart from Crispin, who is the principal author of the scientific paper, several other scientists from the Technical University of Denmark, University of Kentucky, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Innventia have also contributed to the article, based on their research.

A 15cm wide sheet can store about 1Farad of electricity, which is roughly the same capacity as that of the super capacitors. The paper can be charged up to hundreds of time and each charging cycle takes up only a few seconds.
The researchers feel that these paper capacitors could provide diverse storage capacities for stocking up energy from renewable energy sources for different weather conditions including sunny, cloudy, calm, and windy.

Robust structural foundation

The basic material of the paper is Nano cellulose. This consists of fibers of cellulose broken down into strands as narrow as 20 nm by passing water at very high pressure through it. The Nano cellulose fibers are made into a suspension with water. This is treated with an electrically charged emulsion of a PEDOT:PSS polymer in water. The polymer coats the fibers to give it a plastic feel.

The space in between the tangled fibers is filled with the water-based electrolyte. The conductivity for electrons and ions in the electrolyte is a record high. This makes for the especially high energy storage capacity. The scientists expect that the capacity can be increased further by adjusting the fabrication process.

Advantages over conventional storage units

Since it is derived from easily accessible raw materials like renewable cellulose and polymer, the researchers expect that power paper will gain popularity as a storage device. It is light and wieldy. Furthermore, it is environmentally friendly, as the manufacture process does not require heavy metals and other harmful chemicals. A particularly convenient feature is that it is waterproof.

The technique for making the power paper is almost the same as used for making regular paper from wood pulp. The difference lies in the addition of polymer coating on the Nano cellulose strands. Professor Magnus Berggren of Linkoping University reveals that the real challenge is developing the paper on an industrial scale. He hopes that the grant of SEK 34 million awarded by the Swedish Foundation of Strategic Research will help them in their endeavor to develop a machine for their production. The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation are supporting the research, as well.

Virus for Converting Mechanical Energy to Electrical

The most common device that converts mechanical energy to electrical is the electrical generator – it is actually a motor run in reverse. Other ways of converting motion into electrical energy is also available, for example by using piezoelectric devices. Now, scientists have developed a new means of converting energy – using a harmless but specially engineered virus.

The device is an electrode the size of a postage stamp. The virus coating on the electrode produces enough current to drive a liquid crystal display, simply by tapping a finger on the electrode. Scientists claim they have used the piezoelectric properties of a biological material for the first time.

Electrical charge that mechanical stress can build up in solid materials is termed piezoelectricity. This principle is commonly used to harness energy from everyday events, such as walking, doors closing or opening, or even typing on a notebook. However, many of the piezoelectric material we use today are toxic.

To encourage the widespread use of safe piezoelectric materials, scientists tried using a particular virus M13 common to laboratories all over the world. M13 not only shows piezoelectric properties, it targets bacteria and is harmless to people.

The scientists wanted to confirm the piezoelectric behavior of the M13 bacteriophage. For this, they made a film from the virus and exposed it to an electric field. Inspection through a special microscope revealed moving helical proteins. These proteins coat the rods of the virus. Their movement was the final confirmation of the piezoelectric effect shown by the virus.

By genetically engineering the virus, scientists were able to boost the charges induced in the virus still further. For this, they added an extra four negatively charged amino acid residue to one end of the helical proteins of the virus. This added benefit to the use of the modified M13.

According to the scientists, the viruses self-arrange the film, enabling it to regenerate itself. The virus reproduces by infecting bacteria, generating millions of copies of its self by overnight. Scientists are of the view that such replication and self-arrangement can prove beneficial for self-assembly of Nano-technology. They boosted the charge further by stacking several virus films into layers. A stack of 20 layers provided the strongest piezoelectric effect.

The modified M13 stacks of virus made by the scientists can develop a potential difference of over 400 millivolts and capable of generating an electric current of nearly six Nano-amperes. This is enough to drive an LCD.

Imagination is the only factor limiting the applications of an M13 virus film. For instance, your laptop casing may be painted with a layer of this film. The viruses will convert any pressure from your hands into electricity and this will constantly charge the battery. In fact, when painted on the keyboard, each time you hit a key, the generated electricity will augment the battery power.

Since you can power the M13 by any kind of motion, you could conceive of powering your house by simply walking over a virus-coated floor, or power your smartphone by jiggling it in your pocket.

Controlling Gestures with the Gest Glove

With the adjustable palm strap, it is easy to fit the Gest Glove on to any hand and you simply slip on the four moldable mounts on the fingers. The Gest Glove offers the best efforts so far for improving on the human-to-computer interface presently in use all over – the keyboard and mouse combination. The Glove provides gesture controls similar to those depicted in Minority Report. The Gest is a four-finger glove-like design from Apotact Labs, allowing control of a computer and mobile devices with hand movements.

Apotact Labs describes Gest as a digital toolkit with two components – the gesture controller to slip on to your hand, and an SDK or Software Development Kit to allow building new applications for the platform. The gesture controller has four moldable finger mounts and fits any hand because of its adjustable palm strap. With 15 distinct sensors on each hand, two Gests may allow typing on any surface. Each finger has the same standard magnetometer, gyroscope and accelerometer combination found in most smartphones, contributing to its controller’s finer precision and accuracy.

The Gest has software to allow sensing small movements. That allows the software to create a personalized model based on monitoring and learning the movements of a user’s hands. The software adapts to a user over time, with the model being unique to each user. According to Apotact Labs, Gest offers highly accurate and precise gesture control.

There are other gesture controls available in the market. One of them is the Myo armband manufactured by Thalmic Labs. This device utilizes extensive gestures from muscle-controls to control a large number of devices. Another is the Leap Motion controller, which is smaller. This device uses infrared cameras and rays to create a model from your hand movements. Compared to the above, the Gest Glove from Apotact Labs offers a higher degree of accuracy using smaller movements. That will certainly appeal to designers and artists looking for more precision.

For example, you can use the Gest Glove right out of the box, as it will come built-in with a five standard gesture library for use with the Adobe Photoshop. A twitch of a finger allows switching between apps. The mouse cursor moves along when you point your finger at the screen and move it. You can adjust the Photoshop sliders with a simple twist of your palm. If you have 3D objects on the screen, just grab them and rotate them in your hand – they will rotate on the screen as well.

Designers who do not want to use the skeletal models and motion-processed data custom-built into Gest, can access its raw sensor data. With the Java and Python APIs provided, designers can use the raw sensor data to create their own models. Future generations of the Gest may make use of a typing proof-of-concept being worked on at the Apotact Labs. This is likely to use a neural net to handle word prediction. The concept will use tow Gest Gloves, one on each hand, allowing the user to turn any surface into a keyboard. However, this is still in the experimental stages.

The Raspberry Pi Goes to Zero

If you thought the legendary Raspberry Pi or RBPi was the smallest single board computers could get, well, you need to think again. Not only has the famous SBC shrunk in size, it has become a lot cheaper as well. The charitable Raspberry Pi foundation that launched the best selling computer in the UK is now offering their next model, the RBPI-Zero and in the US, it costs just $5.

RBPi-Zero comes with a 512MB RAM and a core that boasts of being 40-percent faster than what the RBPI-1 came with. The miniaturized SBC sports a Mini-HDMI port and two Micro USB ports, one of them for power. While comparing the RBPI-Zero with the first RBPI, the Raspberry Pi Foundation says the RBPI-Zero is equally revolutionary. They explained it would be manufactured in Wales, run the full Raspbian, while including other applications such as Minecraft and Scratch.

Similar to the requirements for the RBPi, the RBPi-Zero requires the user to attach their own power supply, keyboard, mouse or any other input device and the display screen. The cost of the new board is low because several components from the RBPi board are no longer present or have been simplified for the RBPi-Zero. According to Uben Upton, the founder of Raspberry Pi, all components on the new board justify their existence.

However, cutting features was not the sole process of getting the RBPI-Zero down to the bare-bones pricing of $5. The major contribution comes from the grand success of its predecessor, the RBPi, being the most successful computer in the UK for decades. The massive sales have enabled the Foundation to cut costs to unimaginable levels. The sheer numbers in sales have given them the economies of scale.

One of the processes in reducing the cost of the RBPi-Zero was keeping all components on one side of the board instead of two – it simplified manufacturing by removing half the assembly costs. According to Upton, they have moved the physical product around and the cost of metal connections has made an impact.

By redesigning the RBPi-Zero, the engineering solution to the necessities of space and cost has resulted in an extraordinarily aesthetic board. The precision and beauty of Zero comes out in its compactness and its symmetry. Just like its predecessor, nothing is hidden and all its inner workings are exposed to anyone with an interest. As Upton says, it is nice when things look attractive because they are functional.

The small form factor of the RBPi-Zero makes it simple for the board to be used in many more projects, whether it is robotics or Internet-connected devices. The easy to use board massively increases creative possibilities. You can use the RBPI-Zero in places where the RBPi would be difficult to fit. Presently, the Zero, a full-featured computer, will provide raw power somewhere between the first generation of the RBPi and its second generation.

The launch plans for the Zero are massive, with tens of thousands ready to ship. Raspberry Pi magazines such as the Magpi will feature a freebie RBPi-Zero with its 10,000 issues. Upton is expecting five such launch partners.

The 64-bit x86 SOC from AMD

Advanced Micro Devices or AMD is offering a new Embedded, R-Series SOC processor. Targeted at a range of application markets, the System-On-Chip processor will handle industrial control and communication networking along with digital signage, high-end gaming and media storage. The new AMD device follows the Platform System Architecture, Specification 1.0, of the HSA Foundation. The Heterogeneous System Architecture offers greater efficiency in parallel processing.

In the new Embedded R-Series SOC, AMD as combined its next-generation x86 Cores called Excavator, with its third-generation GCN or Graphics Core Next architecture. According to Colin Cureton, Senior manager for embedded products in AMD, this combination offers a substantial boost in performance as compared to their previous generation.

This is evident from the presentation made by Cureton. Benchmark scores show nearly 25% increase in the performance of the CPU with about 23% increase in the graphics performance as compared to present devices. Not only this, the chip also incorporates the Southbridge chip. As this is an external chip for current devices, the new chip offers developers a footprint reduction of 30% on the board.

As the R-Series SOCs have advanced power management built into them, the feature allows a performance boost without requiring any increase of power input. Cureton explains that the BIOS and the Operating System control the thermal envelope within which the device can operate safely.

Developers can use the cTDP or configurable Thermal Design Power to specify a tradeoff between the power consumed by the chip and its performance. They can adjust the TDP anywhere between 12-35W in increments of 1W. According to Cureton, even when running at 15W, the power level of operation of previous generation chips, the R-series has greater graphics performance.

Although the device offers raw performance specifically for embedded applications, there are other features as well. Within the chip, a dedicated secure processor performs an HVB or Hardware Validated Boot. That creates a trusted boot environment for the SOC before it can start up its x86 cores. The chip can handle upcoming changes in memory technology with ECC – presently supporting either DDR3 or the DDR4 types of memory. Other industry interfaces supported include USB3.0, POIe Gen.3, SPI, SATA3 among others. As industrial embedded designs require long product lifecycles, AMD assures a 10-year supply for their R-Series SOCs with plans of extended-temperature versions.

Apart from industrial, the R-Series SOC targets other application spaces also. The chip can support two or three displays simultaneously, while providing 4K graphics and video decoding as demanded by high-end gaming machines such as those in a casino. The device can also replace FPGA and DSP combinations presently used for medical imaging and image transformations. This is possible because of the HSA architecture, which eases the task of software-defined beam forming. As its GPU allows processing of several algorithms, the x86 architecture of the R-Series is gaining in dominance in the control plane for communications as well.

The HSA architecture that the R-Series has adopted gives it the ability to use the GPU as an auxiliary compute engine for non-graphics applications also. Rather than being only a slave to the CPU, the HSA turns the GPU into another computing node, increasing the efficiency.

Non-Volatile Memory from Carbon

So far, many problems have inhibited development of carbon based memory devices. Not any more, as IBM and the EMPA have solved those problems and come up with the possible use of oxygenated amorphous carbon for non-volatile memory applications. The new non-volatile memory is based on a Redox reaction that takes place in thin films of oxygenated amorphous carbon known as a-COx. The film is a process of PVD or Physical Vapor Deposition.

EMPA, the Swiss Electron Microscopy Center and IBM, Zurich, have published the details of their research. The latest release about their work discusses the results of device measurements. IBM is now a holder of a patent in this area.

Earlier research in this field has shown carbon and carbon nanotubes to possess some potential for NV memory application. However, development in the direction of products did not proceed because of lack of reproducibility, processing difficulties and limited write/erase endurance.

Amorphous carbon, because of its high electrical resistance, has not been receiving much attention. People have been studying the electrical properties of other allotropes of carbon. They have been focusing on carbon-based electronics as a challenge to silicon or as its follow-on.

However, the high electrical resistance of amorphous carbon is of immense importance as far as memory applications are concerned. The latest research on the use of oxygenated amorphous carbon for NV memory application has the added advantage of being able to use the conventional silicon-compatible process of thin-film deposition.

Manufacturers fabricate memory devices on a 500nm thick thermal film of silicon dioxide, which forms on a substrate of silicon wafer. A tungsten film forms the bottom electrode and it has circular pores delineating its active contact area. The pores are etched in the 35nm thick silicon dioxide film overlaying the tungsten and the pore diameters range from 100nm up to 4µm.

In the next step, manufacturers use a graphite carbon target in oxygen for physical vapor deposition of the a-COx active material into the pores, which then makes contact with the bottom electrode. A platinum top electrode metal deposition finally completes this planar sandwich construction. However, before the deposition of the COx, any native oxide is removed from the surface of the tungsten electrode by sputter cleaning. This is an important step, as it ensures non-contamination and non-compromise of the part of the Redox action involving the tungsten and Cox interface.

The next stage necessary is the forming step for bringing the memory device to its normal operating state. For this, a triangular shaped pulse of positive polarity is applied to the bottom electrode. As the applied voltage nears the forming voltage Vf of around 4-5V, a function of the thickness, there is an abrupt increase in the current flow through the cell. This switches the cell from its virgin state to an LRS or low-resistance state, which is also called its SET state. A sequence of 1µs-wide triangular pulses may also be used for forming the a-COx cells.

The device can be brought back to its HRS or high-resistance state or RESET state by applying a 10ns pulse of negative polarity to the bottom electrode. This does not require the use of the built-in current limiting resistor.