近年来日本半导体大厂吹起整并风，日前于横滨举行的嵌入式技术大会(Embedded Technology 2013，ET2013)上，似乎日本知名芯片大厂的参与度也低了许多。除了较少品牌大厂现身，今年展会的另一个特色，是日本半导体业者的摊位上突然增加了许多模块与开发板的展示。
日 本芯片厂商现在很专注于提供可直接运用的模块化解决方案，包含完整的软件、传感器与链接芯片，而且那些模块上的组件并不一定是他们自家产品。这似乎显示日本企业逐渐摆脱“NIH (not-invented-here)症候群”，一位当地工程师就表示：“我们的工作有越来越多汇集式的解决方案，不一定只卖我们自己一家的芯片。”
你可能会想问，为何日本人花了这么长的时间，才对这种世界其他地区同业已经很常见的解决方案“开窍”？无论他们是不是动作慢了点，开始有这种改变的理由有二：其一是经济景况不佳，其二是几乎所有装置都走向智能化的不可挡趋势。
而大多数参与ET2013的厂商，都提到了机器对机器通讯(M2M)、传感器、能量采集IC、免电池无线链接、HTML浏览器以及巨量数据等等议题──且把这些全部都包在一起。
幸运的是，产业界正在关注那些具备立即应用潜力的关键功能，例如 Echonet Lite (让不同厂牌家电联网的新标准)、以及蓝牙低功耗、ZigBee、Sub-GHz、电力线网络(PLC)，还有各种传感器、传感器融合(sensor fusions)与能量采集方案。
当所有的东西都被连上网(也就是传说中的物联网)，就会产生巨量数据；这些数据在经过分析之后将让终端系统更具智能。以下来看看日本横滨ET2013大会上的新玩意儿吧！
智能手表
市 面上虽然已经有不少所谓的智能手表产品，似乎并不受消费者欢迎；而卡西欧(Casio)广受欢迎的G-Shock系列电子表最新产品，加入了可透过蓝牙低 功耗连结iPhone或Android智能手机的功能，能在接收电子邮件等通知，也能当智能手机的遥控器。该款手表采用Lapis Semiconductor所开发的超低功耗(收发数据耗电量不超过10mA)蓝牙装置。
卡西欧G-Shock系列智能手表
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本文下一页：嵌入式M2M模块在鞋子上的应用
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嵌入式M2M模块
NEC在大会上展示了一款嵌入式M2M模块，用以链接现实世界与云端；该模块采用振动式能量采集装置，不需要电源就能打开开关。下图是内建振动式能量采集装置(图前方)的一双鞋子，可让独居的年长者穿这种鞋子，照顾者就可透过智能手机知道他的行踪。
嵌入式M2M模块的鞋子
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本文下一页：整合了MEMS的智能型高尔夫球杆
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智能型高尔夫球杆
高 尔夫球是在日本很受金字塔高层人士欢迎的运动，一位Sony前主管(曾负责Clie PDA业务)所率领的公司Dreamforest，为高尔夫球杆开发了一种小型模块，整合了意法半导体的MEMS传感器(陀螺仪、加速度计与磁力计)，还有ARM核心STM32微控制器。
该模块能追踪球杆的方位、线性加速以及角速度(angular velocity)，并藉由融合来自传感器的数据以图形化记录用户的挥杆，并透过无线网络传送到iPhone或iPad等智能装置。
智能型高尔夫球杆
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本文下一页：手机用噪声抑制方案
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手机用噪声抑制方案
NEC 展示了一种名为EuphoMagic 的噪声抑制算法，能压抑环境背景中的风切噪音(自然风声、风扇声与空调)；这种算法号称能在尽量不破坏语音传输的前提下消除噪声。该公司研发团队总工 程师Toshiharu Aihara表示，由于波动性与其低频特性，风声向来是噪声抑制系统不容易排除的项目，但他们克服了障碍。
可惜的是，这种NEC原本为了自家智能手机所开发的算法，现在暂无用武之地──该公司已经在今年夏天宣布退出智能手机业务。所以…有谁想要这种技术呢？
手机用噪声抑制方案
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本文下一页：StarPixel高画质影像压缩算法
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高画质影像压缩算法
NEC仍持续发展该公司数年前所开发的独家高分辨率静止影像算法，这种算法名 为StarPixel，已经获得日本宇宙航空研究开发机构(Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency，JAXA)的金星气候卫星(Venus Climate Orbiter) AKATSUKI采用；一般以JPEG 2000标准无损压缩非常大的图像文件案，需要60秒的时间，但使用StarPixel只需要1秒。
StarPixel是以 一种高速度小波(wavelet)技术为基础，能解决两个JPGE的固有问题：块状噪声(block noise)与影像质量的劣化。目前该算法也获得了另一个日本政府机构的青睐，用以监测高速公路上的交通路况，NEC表示，该解决方案能连续撷取、处理并储存高画质的静止影像──而且是在车辆以100公里时速行驶时。
点击欣赏——高画质影像压缩算法：
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本文下一页：小小机器水管工！
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小小机器水管工！
有需要看看你的污水处理系统或是空调系统管线内发生什么事吗？一家总部位于东京的公司HiBot 设计了一款配备3D传感器的蛇形机器人Pipetron ，能带着检测工具钻到人们进不去(或不想进去的地方)；它配备ST的ARM Cortex M4核心ST32微控制器，以及ST的陀螺仪、加速度计与磁力计。
小小机器水管工！
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本文下一页：连网生活事件纪录器
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连网生活事件纪录器
在今年夏天收购富士通(Fujitsu)微控制器与模拟业务部门的Spansion展示了一款“连网生活事件纪录器(connected life event recorder)”；这是一款新型M2M平台，内含许多不同的传感器，并能透过无线技术传送讯息，而且不需要电池。
该 平台有两个模块，其一是事件侦测装置(下图前方)，另一个是数据记录装置(下图后方)。事件侦测装置内建Spansion的能量采集IC、太阳能电池、事 件传感器、FM3微控制器(原为Fujitsu产品)以及RF模块。数据记录装置内建RF模块、FM3微控制器，并以Spansion的SPI NOR闪存储存由JPEG传感器撷取的压缩影像。
Spansion展示的“连网生活事件纪录器”
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平台所收集到的数据能联机到HTML网络浏览器送出讯息；此外Spansion还展示了整合这种生活事件纪录器的一扇小门，说明该平台也能运用于保全。
Spansion的“连网生活事件纪录器”可应用于居家保全
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本文下一页：嵌入式系统专用新程序语言Mruby
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嵌入式系统专用新程序语言Mruby
动 态、面向对象(object-oriented)式的开放式编成语言Ruby，现在有了一个专为嵌入式系统所打造的“小弟”──Mruby，这种新语言的 目标用户包括游戏开发商、嵌入式应用程序开发商(如电视、手机等各种装置使用的)，以及小内存用量的服务器应用程序。
不同于应用于GHz等级处理器与GB等级内存之PC环境的Ruby，Mruby的适用环境是配备40MHz以下处理器、内存占位容量150KB 以下的嵌入式系统。Mruby的虚拟机已经在包括Armadillo、Raspberry Pi 等热门开发板上测试过，证实仅需要150KB内存就能运作。
Ruby语言的小弟Mruby锁定嵌入式应用
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在Spansion的摊位上也展示了Mruby的虚拟机，在F3微控制器(Cortex M3核心)上，仅以32KB内存就能运作；该方案是以Spansion整合LED感测的USB随身碟外型FM3开发板所展示，内含Mruby虚拟机与二进制程序。
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本文下一页：EnOcean 能量采集无线模块
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EnOcean 能量采集无线模块
在亚洲拥有EnOcean能量采集无线模块独家销售权的罗姆（Rohm），展示了针对无线通信所设计的能量采集模块，能藉由周遭环境的振动、光线或是温度变化来产生能量。这种模块没有电线也不需要电池，可在智慧建筑、大楼内执行监测与能源管理任务。
Rohm 表示，这种不需维护的EnOcean无线感测装置也能用在汽车内，让汽车制造商在不需要配备电线或是担心电池替换问题的前提下，于车内各处布置传感器。 EnOcean的无线通信协议为国际标准ISO/IEC 14543-3-10，该种标准也是目前超低功耗、无线能量采集解决方案的唯一标准。
EnOcean 能量采集无线模块
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本文下一页：TI展示3D点云方案
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3D点云方案
德州仪器(TI)利用其8核心DSP TMS320C6678展示了一款3D点云(point cloud)方案；点云是由3D摄影机系统所产生，量测目标物体表面上的无数个点，这些点以X、Y、Z轴的坐标来定义，并以数据文件的形式输出。
TI展示3D点云方案
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下图是TI所展示，以点云来显示站在TI摊位立体摄影机前不同人的距离；站在较前面的人以红色表示，站在较后面的是以蓝色表示。这种技术也能应用在先进驾驶人辅助系统(ADAS)。
3D点云能标示出目标影像的不同距离
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本文下一页：智慧家庭解决方案
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智慧家庭解决方案
现在最大股东是日本政府的瑞萨(Renesas)展示了智慧家庭解决方案，内含与一个智慧家庭控制器无线连结的各种传感器；而家中的空调、LED照明等设备，也可透过同一个控制器、以电力线网络(PLC)链接。
这 种智能家庭方案是采用ECONET Lite通讯协议，该协议支持多种物理层包括Sub-GHz、ZigBee与PLC等等。ECONET Lite协议是由一个名为Wi-SUN Alliance的标准组织──目标是为能源管理与智能公用事业网络，打造互操作性的无线解决方案──在今年8月底发表。
瑞萨展示智慧家庭解决方案
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ECHONET 标准是一个全球通用的家电连网标准，而ECONET Lite则获得日本政府经济产业省(Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry，METI)认可，视为日本的智慧家庭标准(Japanese Smart House Standard)。
ECONET Lite智慧家庭解决方案
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本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
编译：Judith Cheng
参考英文原文：Sensor Showcase From Japan With Love，by Junko Yoshida
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Sensor Showcase From Japan With Love
Junko Yoshida
No Wire, No Battery -- Embedded Technology 2013 roundup
YOKOHAMA, Japan -- The further consolidations of Japanese semiconductor companies in recent years could simply mean that there were fewer big name Japanese chip vendors on the show floor at Embedded Technology 2013 (ET2013) here this week.
But, even with fewer brands on display, one of the most remarkable changes was the unprecedented proliferation of modules and development boards on display at Japanese semiconductor vendors’ booths.
Japanese chip suppliers are now squarely focused on pushing ready-to-use modules -- complete with software, sensors, and connectivity chips. Many of the devices on such modules are not necessarily their own chips or solutions. Freed at last from the corporate not-invented-here syndrome, one Japanese engineer said, “We see our job in putting together solutions, not necessarily selling our own, individual chips.”
You might ask why it has taken the Japanese so long to wake up to a solution common to businesses everywhere else in the world. Late to the party or not, the reasons prompting these changes now are two-fold. Hard times, economically speaking, are one motivation. The other is the unstoppable, industry-wide trend for making every device smarter.
Most vendors at ET2013 were talking up M2M, sensors, energy harvesting ICs, battery-less wireless connectivity, HTML browsers, and big data -- all thrown together in a package. Fortunately, the industry sees key building blocks coming together with immediate potential for practical use. These include: Echonet Lite (standards for linking home appliances made by different vendors); connectivity standards including Bluetooth Low Energy, ZigBee, Sub-GHz and PLC; a variety of sensors; sensor fusions; and energy harvesting.
Everyone in the Japanese industry is riding a somewhat inflated vision for smarter homes, smarter buildings, smarter automation, smarter grids, smarter cars, smarter healthcare, and smarter everything.
Oh, by the way, all this gets connected to the Internet (the legendary Internet of Things), thus generating big data, which in turn gets analyzed to make end-systems even smarter. Following is a slideshow of clever stuff spotted at ET2013 this week.
G-Shock
Practically all the awkward-looking wearable “wrist” devices (including those recently launched by Samsung, Sony, and others) remain “solutions to nothing,” as Richard Windsor at Radio Free Mobile put it recently. Casio’s G-Shock appears to be the only exception. It’s a watch that looks like a watch, sporting Bluetooth Low Energy connections to iPhones and Android phones. It’s been enjoying brisk sales in Japan.
While the market still remains completely unready for wearables, it’s always ready for a good watch.
Casio's G-Shock
Using Bluetooth Low Energy, Casio’s G-Shock sends an alert to a user upon the arrival of e-mail. The wristwatch also functions as a remote control for the user’s smartphone.
Lapis in, Nordic out in G-Shock
Lapis Semiconductor, now a part of Japan’s Rohm, has developed an extremely low power Bluetooth Low Energy device (which consumes less than 10 mA for sending or receiving data). Casio recently swapped a Bluetooth Low Energy chip by Nordic Semiconductor who had the initial design win with Lapis’ device for new G-Shock models.
Embedded M2M module
NEC showed off an embedded M2M module to connect the real world and the cloud. Using a vibration energy harvesting device, the M2M module needs no power source to turn on the switch. The photo shows a pair of shoes embedded with a vibration energy harvesting device (shown front). When, for example, a senior citizen living alone wears the shoes and walks around, the shoes automatically lets a caregiver know where he is via a smartphone.
Check your golf swing
This being Japan, golf gets top priority. Dreamforest, headed by a former Sony executive (who was responsible for Sony’s Clié PDA business), developed a small module to be attached to a golf club.
Integrated with STMicroelectronics’ MEMS sensors (gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer) and ARM-based STM32 microcontroller, the module can track the orientation, linear acceleration and angular velocity of a golf club. By fusing data from these sensors, the 3-D motion tracking golf club can now expose your golf swing visually, by sending the data wirelessly and displaying it on iPhone or iPad.
Noise reduction in need of home
NEC demonstrated a new noise reduction algorithm called EuphoMagic that suppresses windy noise (natural wind, fans, air conditions, etc.) swirling in the background. The new algorithm eliminates noise while limiting damage to voice transmissions.
While the fluctuation of wind and its low-frequency nature makes wind a tough target for most noise reduction systems, NEC’s team has overcome the hurdle, explained Toshiharu Aihara, a chief engineer at NEC’s R&D division. To his regret, however, the new algorithm originally developed for NEC’s smartphones has lost its home, since the Japanese company announced in the summer that it was ditching the smartphone business.
EuphoMagic, anyone?
StarPixel
NEC continues to push a proprietary compression algorithm for very high-resolution still images the company developed a few years ago.
NEC’s image compression algorithm, called StarPixel, was adopted by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for use in the Venus Climate Orbiter AKATSUKI. While it took 60 seconds for JPEG 2000 to do lossless compression on a very large image file, it took StarPixel one second.
StarPixel, based on high-speed wavelet technology, solves two problems inherent to JPEG: block noise and deterioration of image quality.
StarPixel is now being used by another Japanese government body responsible for checking road conditions on highways. It can take high-resolution still images continuously -- capture, process, and store -- from a car running at 100 kph, according to NEC.
Click here to watch the video.
HiBot
Need to see what’s going on inside a pipe installed in a sewage system or air duct?
HiBot Corp., based in Tokyo, has designed snake robots featuring 3D motion sensors. HiBot’s Pipetron (shown here) can go inside places where people can’t go (or don’t want to) with inspection tools or even robots. Its building blocks include an STMicroelectronics’ ST32 microprocessor (based on ARM Cortex M4) and ST’s 3D sensors combining a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and a magnetometer.
Connected life event recorder
Spansion, which acquired Fujitsu’s microcontroller and analog businesses this summer, has showcased a “connected life event recorder.” It's a new M2M platform where a number of different sensors can be plugged in and send messages wirelessly, using no batteries. The platform consists of two modules: event detecting unit (shown front) and data recording unit (shown back).
The event detecting unit is built on Spansion’s energy harvesting IC using small solar cells, event sensors, a FM3 microcontroller (formerly from Fujitsu, now from Spansion), and an RF module. The data-recording unit consists of an RF module, a FM3 microcontroller, and Spansion’s SPI NOR flash to store compressed images captured by JPEG sensor. The acquired data is then connected to an HTML browser for sending messages.
Spansion showed off a mockup of a miniature door (below) integrated with the connected life event recorder, to illustrate how it can be used for security purposes.
Here comes mruby for embedded
Ruby, a dynamic, object-oriented, open-source programming language, now has a little brother called mruby, specifically developed for embedded systems.
Mruby’s target users include: game developers, embedded application developers (devices, TV, and phones), and small-memory-footprint server applications.
Compared to Ruby, which runs on a PC using many gigahertz of processing power and gigabytes of memory, mruby is used in an embedded system with a CPU running at 40 MHz or slower, and a memory footprint as small as 150 Kbyte.
Mruby’s virtual machine has been tested in popular boards such as Armadillo or Raspberry Pi and its operation has been verified using only 150k bytes of memory.
Shown at Spansion’s booth at the Embedded Technology 2013 Conference, mruby’s virtual machine can now fit a memory as small as 32 Kbyte running on an FM3 microcontroller (based on Cortex M3). The demo shown at the booth included Spansion’s FM3 starter kit, in the form of a USB stick integrated with LED sensors, the mruby virtual machine and the mruby binary.
Rohm and EnOcean
Rohm, who obtained exclusive rights to sell EnOcean’s energy harvesting wireless modules in Asia, showed wireless modules designed to collect the energy needed for wireless communication from the surrounding environment using motion, light or temperature differentials.
The module, shown here, requires no wires, no batteries. It can be used in monitoring and energy management inside smart homes or smart buildings. EnOcean’s maintenance-free wireless sensors can be also used inside cars, allowing carmakers to deploy sensors throughout the vehicle without a single wire or concern over access for battery replacement, according to Rohm.
The EnOcean wireless protocol is standardized internationally as ISO/IEC 14543-3-10, the only standard for ultra-low power and energy-harvesting wireless solutions.
3-D point cloud
By using its eight-core DSP TMS320C6678, Texas Instruments demonstrated 3-D point cloud. The point cloud, created by a stereoscopic camera system, measures a large number of points on the surface of an object. These points are defined by X, Y, and Z coordinates, and its output is offered as a data file.
Here, point clouds are used to visualize distances of different people standing in front of the stereoscopic camera at TI’s booth. The image on a large-screen display is showing those people standing in front in reddish colors, while those in the back are bluish.
The technology can be applied to the Advanced Driver Assistance System.
Smart house solution
Renesas, now owned by the Japanese government, showed off its smart house solution. Key building blocks include a number of different sensors that are wirelessly connected to a smart-home controller. Meanwhile, air conditioning equipment and LED lighting fixtures are also connected to the same smart-home controller via PLC (Power Line Communication). The common protocol used in the smart home model is ECONET lite, which runs on a variety of physical layers including Sub-GHz, ZigBee, and PLC.
The Wi-SUN Alliance, a group of organizations creating interoperable wireless solutions for use in energy management and smart-utility network applications, announced late August the completion of the Wi-SUN ECHONET-Lite specification.
The ECHONET standards are globally applicable, international communication standards for linking home appliances made by different manufacturers. The ECHONET-Lite standard is endorsed as the Japanese Smart House Standard by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI).
