New Delhi, November 18, 2013 – STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, will be exhibiting its latest solutions for embedded systems at the Embedded Technology 2013.
Embedded systems are used everywhere to make our lives better. Today, with predictions of rapidly growing use of the “Internet of Things” and Cloud technology to connect most any devices, many embedded systems are becoming increasingly complex. ST provides optimal solutions for all embedded systems including those where performance and networking demands are greatest.
Main solutions at the ST booth
Smart Appliances
● While consumers devote increasing attention to the “Internet of Things,” ST will demonstrate the addition of network connectivity to various electronic devices, using a compact module developed on an STM32F4 32-bit ARM® Cortex™-M4 microcontroller. The 32-bit microcontroller combines Ethernet compatibility with excellent performance and simplifies network connectivity for home appliances and many other devices.
● Voice recognition is increasingly being added as an interface to improve the operability of home appliances. ST will demonstrate voice recognition using an evaluation board with an STM32F4 microcontroller and a MEMS microphone. In these demonstrations, artificial intelligence built into the microcontroller recognizes a set of spoken commands directed at the evaluation board and displays the commands on a screen. This solution suits a variety of home appliances, including air conditioners and lighting fixtures.
● Initiatives are underway to add Java-based graphical user interfaces (GUI) to electric products such as kitchen appliances and office automation devices. ST will demonstrate a Java app that it developed using STM32Java, a platform for adding GUI features to electrical products. Visitors to the booth will see how STM32Java enables intuitive, attractive, and easy-to-understand smartphone-like user interfaces even on compact systems with limited resources.
Smart Sensing
● For motion tracking, ST will demonstrate a 3D suit developed by LP-Research that measures body movements with high precision. An accelerometer, gyroscope, geomagnetic sensor, and STM32 microcontroller, all from ST, are incorporated into each of the eleven sensor nodes in the 3D suit. The sensors detect the wearer’s motions and display them using an avatar on a screen. Transmitting the detected data via Bluetooth, the 3D suit features low data-transfer latency and is adaptable to games, sports, rehabilitation, and other applications.
● Farmers are adopting “smart agriculture” by combining sensors with information and communication technology to improve productivity. ST’s solution for smart agriculture integrates motion sensors, environmental sensors, microcontrollers, and communication ICs from ST’s broad portfolio. This solution uses multiple sensor nodes throughout a farm to enable continuous collection of data on the crops and their surrounding environment to greatly aid the assessment and analysis of optimal growing environments and contribute to greater agricultural competitiveness.
● Contactless operation using proximity sensors is a high value-added feature for home appliances and smartphones. ST’s unique proximity-sensor system implements three optical elements in one compact package. It quickly and accurately uses the time for light to reflect back from the nearest object and is independent of the object’s color or surface condition. ST will demonstrate the measurement of the distance between a proximity sensor and a user’s hand, as the hand moves closer and farther away.
Smart Security
● To suit the accelerating adoption of smart meters, ST is introducing its solution for secure communication, with data protection and authentication, between a smart meter and a gateway server using ST’s KerKey security module for Smartgrid applications. The product supports U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) P-256 elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) and offers powerful hardware-based security to a variety of network-connected devices, including smart meters and home appliances.
Robotics
● Robots combine a number of technologies, including sensing technology, control technology, and software technology. ST will exhibit PIPETRON, a snake-like pipe-inspection robot developed by HiBot Corp., which uses ST’s high-precision motion sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, and geomagnetic sensor) and a high-performance STM32F4 32-bit microcontroller. The robot can be navigated freely through complex plumbing using a front-mounted camera to locate pipe deterioration and damage.
ST will also showcase a broad range of solutions using the SPC56 32-bit automotive microcontrollers based on Power Architecture®, ST33 secure microcontrollers for TPM/M2M use, and dynamic NFC / RFID tags for wireless communication with NFC-enabled mobile devices and RFID readers.
