近年來日本半導(dǎo)體大廠吹起整并風(fēng)，日前于橫濱舉行的嵌入式技術(shù)大會(Embedded Technology 2013，ET2013)上，似乎日本知名芯片大廠的參與度也低了許多。除了較少品牌大廠現(xiàn)身，今年展會的另一個特色，是日本半導(dǎo)體業(yè)者的攤位上突然增加了許多模塊與開發(fā)板的展示。
日 本芯片廠商現(xiàn)在很專注于提供可直接運用的模塊化解決方案，包含完整的軟件、傳感器與鏈接芯片，而且那些模塊上的組件并不一定是他們自家產(chǎn)品。這似乎顯示日本企業(yè)逐漸擺脫“NIH (not-invented-here)癥候群”，一位當(dāng)?shù)毓こ處熅捅硎荆骸拔覀兊墓ぷ饔性絹碓蕉鄥R集式的解決方案，不一定只賣我們自己一家的芯片。”
你可能會想問，為何日本人花了這么長的時間，才對這種世界其他地區(qū)同業(yè)已經(jīng)很常見的解決方案“開竅”？無論他們是不是動作慢了點，開始有這種改變的理由有二：其一是經(jīng)濟(jì)景況不佳，其二是幾乎所有裝置都走向智能化的不可擋趨勢。
而大多數(shù)參與ET2013的廠商，都提到了機器對機器通訊(M2M)、傳感器、能量采集IC、免電池?zé)o線鏈接、HTML瀏覽器以及巨量數(shù)據(jù)等等議題──且把這些全部都包在一起。
幸運的是，產(chǎn)業(yè)界正在關(guān)注那些具備立即應(yīng)用潛力的關(guān)鍵功能，例如 Echonet Lite (讓不同廠牌家電聯(lián)網(wǎng)的新標(biāo)準(zhǔn))、以及藍(lán)牙低功耗、ZigBee、Sub-GHz、電力線網(wǎng)絡(luò)(PLC)，還有各種傳感器、傳感器融合(sensor fusions)與能量采集方案。
當(dāng)所有的東西都被連上網(wǎng)(也就是傳說中的物聯(lián)網(wǎng))，就會產(chǎn)生巨量數(shù)據(jù)；這些數(shù)據(jù)在經(jīng)過分析之后將讓終端系統(tǒng)更具智能。以下來看看日本橫濱ET2013大會上的新玩意兒吧！
智能手表
市 面上雖然已經(jīng)有不少所謂的智能手表產(chǎn)品，似乎并不受消費者歡迎；而卡西歐(Casio)廣受歡迎的G-Shock系列電子表最新產(chǎn)品，加入了可透過藍(lán)牙低 功耗連結(jié)iPhone或Android智能手機的功能，能在接收電子郵件等通知，也能當(dāng)智能手機的遙控器。該款手表采用Lapis Semiconductor所開發(fā)的超低功耗(收發(fā)數(shù)據(jù)耗電量不超過10mA)藍(lán)牙裝置。
卡西歐G-Shock系列智能手表
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嵌入式M2M模塊
NEC在大會上展示了一款嵌入式M2M模塊，用以鏈接現(xiàn)實世界與云端；該模塊采用振動式能量采集裝置，不需要電源就能打開開關(guān)。下圖是內(nèi)建振動式能量采集裝置(圖前方)的一雙鞋子，可讓獨居的年長者穿這種鞋子，照顧者就可透過智能手機知道他的行蹤。
嵌入式M2M模塊的鞋子
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智能型高爾夫球桿
高 爾夫球是在日本很受金字塔高層人士歡迎的運動，一位Sony前主管(曾負(fù)責(zé)Clie PDA業(yè)務(wù))所率領(lǐng)的公司Dreamforest，為高爾夫球桿開發(fā)了一種小型模塊，整合了意法半導(dǎo)體的MEMS傳感器(陀螺儀、加速度計與磁力計)，還有ARM核心STM32微控制器。
該模塊能追蹤球桿的方位、線性加速以及角速度(angular velocity)，并藉由融合來自傳感器的數(shù)據(jù)以圖形化記錄用戶的揮桿，并透過無線網(wǎng)絡(luò)傳送到iPhone或iPad等智能裝置。
智能型高爾夫球桿
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手機用噪聲抑制方案
NEC 展示了一種名為EuphoMagic 的噪聲抑制算法，能壓抑環(huán)境背景中的風(fēng)切噪音(自然風(fēng)聲、風(fēng)扇聲與空調(diào))；這種算法號稱能在盡量不破壞語音傳輸?shù)那疤嵯孪肼?。該公司研發(fā)團(tuán)隊總工 程師Toshiharu Aihara表示，由于波動性與其低頻特性，風(fēng)聲向來是噪聲抑制系統(tǒng)不容易排除的項目，但他們克服了障礙。
可惜的是，這種NEC原本為了自家智能手機所開發(fā)的算法，現(xiàn)在暫無用武之地──該公司已經(jīng)在今年夏天宣布退出智能手機業(yè)務(wù)。所以…有誰想要這種技術(shù)呢？
手機用噪聲抑制方案
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高畫質(zhì)影像壓縮算法
NEC仍持續(xù)發(fā)展該公司數(shù)年前所開發(fā)的獨家高分辨率靜止影像算法，這種算法名 為StarPixel，已經(jīng)獲得日本宇宙航空研究開發(fā)機構(gòu)(Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency，JAXA)的金星氣候衛(wèi)星(Venus Climate Orbiter) AKATSUKI采用；一般以JPEG 2000標(biāo)準(zhǔn)無損壓縮非常大的圖像文件案，需要60秒的時間，但使用StarPixel只需要1秒。
StarPixel是以 一種高速度小波(wavelet)技術(shù)為基礎(chǔ)，能解決兩個JPGE的固有問題：塊狀噪聲(block noise)與影像質(zhì)量的劣化。目前該算法也獲得了另一個日本政府機構(gòu)的青睞，用以監(jiān)測高速公路上的交通路況，NEC表示，該解決方案能連續(xù)擷取、處理并儲存高畫質(zhì)的靜止影像──而且是在車輛以100公里時速行駛時。
點擊欣賞——高畫質(zhì)影像壓縮算法：
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小小機器水管工！
有需要看看你的污水處理系統(tǒng)或是空調(diào)系統(tǒng)管線內(nèi)發(fā)生什么事嗎？一家總部位于東京的公司HiBot 設(shè)計了一款配備3D傳感器的蛇形機器人Pipetron ，能帶著檢測工具鉆到人們進(jìn)不去(或不想進(jìn)去的地方)；它配備ST的ARM Cortex M4核心ST32微控制器，以及ST的陀螺儀、加速度計與磁力計。
小小機器水管工！
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連網(wǎng)生活事件紀(jì)錄器
在今年夏天收購富士通(Fujitsu)微控制器與模擬業(yè)務(wù)部門的Spansion展示了一款“連網(wǎng)生活事件紀(jì)錄器(connected life event recorder)”；這是一款新型M2M平臺，內(nèi)含許多不同的傳感器，并能透過無線技術(shù)傳送訊息，而且不需要電池。
該 平臺有兩個模塊，其一是事件偵測裝置(下圖前方)，另一個是數(shù)據(jù)記錄裝置(下圖后方)。事件偵測裝置內(nèi)建Spansion的能量采集IC、太陽能電池、事 件傳感器、FM3微控制器(原為Fujitsu產(chǎn)品)以及RF模塊。數(shù)據(jù)記錄裝置內(nèi)建RF模塊、FM3微控制器，并以Spansion的SPI NOR閃存儲存由JPEG傳感器擷取的壓縮影像。
Spansion展示的“連網(wǎng)生活事件紀(jì)錄器”
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平臺所收集到的數(shù)據(jù)能聯(lián)機到HTML網(wǎng)絡(luò)瀏覽器送出訊息；此外Spansion還展示了整合這種生活事件紀(jì)錄器的一扇小門，說明該平臺也能運用于保全。
Spansion的“連網(wǎng)生活事件紀(jì)錄器”可應(yīng)用于居家保全
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嵌入式系統(tǒng)專用新程序語言Mruby
動 態(tài)、面向?qū)ο?object-oriented)式的開放式編成語言Ruby，現(xiàn)在有了一個專為嵌入式系統(tǒng)所打造的“小弟”──Mruby，這種新語言的 目標(biāo)用戶包括游戲開發(fā)商、嵌入式應(yīng)用程序開發(fā)商(如電視、手機等各種裝置使用的)，以及小內(nèi)存用量的服務(wù)器應(yīng)用程序。
不同于應(yīng)用于GHz等級處理器與GB等級內(nèi)存之PC環(huán)境的Ruby，Mruby的適用環(huán)境是配備40MHz以下處理器、內(nèi)存占位容量150KB 以下的嵌入式系統(tǒng)。Mruby的虛擬機已經(jīng)在包括Armadillo、Raspberry Pi 等熱門開發(fā)板上測試過，證實僅需要150KB內(nèi)存就能運作。
Ruby語言的小弟Mruby鎖定嵌入式應(yīng)用
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在Spansion的攤位上也展示了Mruby的虛擬機，在F3微控制器(Cortex M3核心)上，僅以32KB內(nèi)存就能運作；該方案是以Spansion整合LED感測的USB隨身碟外型FM3開發(fā)板所展示，內(nèi)含Mruby虛擬機與二進(jìn)制程序。
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EnOcean 能量采集無線模塊
在亞洲擁有EnOcean能量采集無線模塊獨家銷售權(quán)的羅姆（Rohm），展示了針對無線通信所設(shè)計的能量采集模塊，能藉由周遭環(huán)境的振動、光線或是溫度變化來產(chǎn)生能量。這種模塊沒有電線也不需要電池，可在智慧建筑、大樓內(nèi)執(zhí)行監(jiān)測與能源管理任務(wù)。
Rohm 表示，這種不需維護(hù)的EnOcean無線感測裝置也能用在汽車內(nèi)，讓汽車制造商在不需要配備電線或是擔(dān)心電池替換問題的前提下，于車內(nèi)各處布置傳感器。 EnOcean的無線通信協(xié)議為國際標(biāo)準(zhǔn)ISO/IEC 14543-3-10，該種標(biāo)準(zhǔn)也是目前超低功耗、無線能量采集解決方案的唯一標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。
EnOcean 能量采集無線模塊
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3D點云方案
德州儀器(TI)利用其8核心DSP TMS320C6678展示了一款3D點云(point cloud)方案；點云是由3D攝影機系統(tǒng)所產(chǎn)生，量測目標(biāo)物體表面上的無數(shù)個點，這些點以X、Y、Z軸的坐標(biāo)來定義，并以數(shù)據(jù)文件的形式輸出。
TI展示3D點云方案
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下圖是TI所展示，以點云來顯示站在TI攤位立體攝影機前不同人的距離；站在較前面的人以紅色表示，站在較后面的是以藍(lán)色表示。這種技術(shù)也能應(yīng)用在先進(jìn)駕駛?cè)溯o助系統(tǒng)(ADAS)。
3D點云能標(biāo)示出目標(biāo)影像的不同距離
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智慧家庭解決方案
現(xiàn)在最大股東是日本政府的瑞薩(Renesas)展示了智慧家庭解決方案，內(nèi)含與一個智慧家庭控制器無線連結(jié)的各種傳感器；而家中的空調(diào)、LED照明等設(shè)備，也可透過同一個控制器、以電力線網(wǎng)絡(luò)(PLC)鏈接。
這 種智能家庭方案是采用ECONET Lite通訊協(xié)議，該協(xié)議支持多種物理層包括Sub-GHz、ZigBee與PLC等等。ECONET Lite協(xié)議是由一個名為Wi-SUN Alliance的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)組織──目標(biāo)是為能源管理與智能公用事業(yè)網(wǎng)絡(luò)，打造互操作性的無線解決方案──在今年8月底發(fā)表。
瑞薩展示智慧家庭解決方案
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ECHONET 標(biāo)準(zhǔn)是一個全球通用的家電連網(wǎng)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，而ECONET Lite則獲得日本政府經(jīng)濟(jì)產(chǎn)業(yè)省(Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry，METI)認(rèn)可，視為日本的智慧家庭標(biāo)準(zhǔn)(Japanese Smart House Standard)。
ECONET Lite智慧家庭解決方案
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本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載
編譯：Judith Cheng
參考英文原文：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).
