Front End I News Where are wearables heading?
Mark Murphy, business unit manager, Bluetooth Smart at Dialog Semiconductor, claims that we are at the start of a wearable electronics revolution that will bring new meaning to personal connectivity. We are all going to be sharing more information with friends, with medical professionals, and perhaps even with our personal fitness coaches. Some experts predict a market of 230 million wearable computing devices will be sold every year by 2019. Wearables will integrate a growing number of sensors including biosensors, environmental and motion sensors, and microphones. The data gathered will enable wearables to become more accurate and more context sensitive. They will deliver only relevant data - where and when it’s needed.
Security will be critical to ensure that only the data you want to share is shared. Much of this data may be sent to cloud infrastructures via smartphones or other wireless links, where it can be analysed. Some wearables will be multi-purpose access devices, automatically opening doors
and logging you into systems. Others will be able to control your environment and monitor your health and fitness. With battery lifetimes being a powerful driver of consumer preference, achieving low power consumption will be a critical focus for wearables designers. This effort needs to extend to sensors, systems and communications hardware, and software.
The Holy Grail is the wearable that monitors you continuously - a wearable you never remove. This could be made possible through wireless charging or powering the device using energy harvesting. Such a wearable should obviously be as small and light as possible. Integrated semiconductor devices - Systems-on-Chip (SoC) - will be at the heart of successful wearables. One of the most recent examples is Dialog Semiconductor’s DA14680 Bluetooth Smart (v4.2) SoC. It eliminates a lot of external components from wearable product design, enabling smaller form factors, lower system cost and frugal power consumption.
Advancing infotainment system for Kia Motors
Celebrating a decade of success
Microchip Technology has announced that Kia Motors Corporation is adding powerful smartphone connectivity to the infotainment system in its flagship Kia K900 luxury sedan (known as ‘Quoris’ in some countries). Using Microchip’s OS81110 Intelligent Network Interface Controller (INIC), Kia adopted the latest MOST150 standard for the 2015 K900 in order to take advantage of its internet connectivity capabilities.
Kia and all major car makers have for many years, successfully implemented MOST technology in their multi-node infotainment networking systems, as it provides a field proven, low risk, whole system solution. The MOST150 standard meets Kia’s internet connectivity requirements. This latest version of MOST technology continues to predictably and efficiently transport video, audio, packet and control data throughout the vehicle without time synchronisation protocols,
4 July/August 2015
using dedicated channels for minimal processor overhead in the main infotainment control unit processors. “MOST150 provides us with a platform on which to create systems that bring our customers’ digital lives into the car,” said Soon-Nam Lee, vice president of Overseas Marketing Group, Kia Motors Corporation. “This technology enables our newest cars to seamlessly connect drivers and occupants to the internet and the whole world outside the car.” “The K900 is Kia’s flagship vehicle, and
we are excited about their selection of our MOST150 devices for its infotainment system,” said Dan Termer, Microchip’s automotive vice president. “Kia has been using MOST technology to create compelling systems for their customers for several years now, and the K900 showcases their latest achievements, where in-vehicle networking technology is a key differentiator.”
Components in Electronics
Providers of rental test equipment, Electro Rent Europe, a subsidiary of Electro Rent, is celebrating ten years of delivering its service throughout Europe. The growth in demand for test equipment rental has matched the company’s growth in the last decade. Electro Rent Europe currently has access to an inventory of test equipment valued at over €550m, sourced from more than 200 OEMs. Customers range from start-ups and SMEs to large multi-national corporations, all of which have evaluated the benefits of renting, rent-purchasing or long term leasing test equipment. “More European manufacturers, across
more vertical markets, now appreciate the financial and operational benefits of renting or leasing test equipment,” commented David Saeys, managing director for Electro Rent Europe. “This is reflected in our commitment to meeting demand generated by market conditions, borne out by our ten successful years of trading across Europe and 50 years as a corporation.”
In other news Electro Rent has opened a
new office in London. The new UK office will allow Electro Rent Europe to support current customers with better local service and drive future expansion in the region. The office will be staffed by local Electro Rent employees and will offer technical sales and support services, provide on-site training and seminars and hold local inventory for rapid delivery of critical items. Saeys added, “Our commitment to
the fusion of our two largest competitors, customers no longer have the true opportunity to compare competitive offers. By extending our commitment to the UK with a new office, we are giving real choice back to the market, offering the broadest range of test equipment for rent, lease or purchase in the UK.”
www.cieonline.co.uk
open an office in the UK was mainly driven by our success over the last ten years. Establishing a local presence is a logical next step to building on this success and will enable us to provide a true local service to our existing and future customers. Over the past few months we have also seen some significant changes in the UK test equipment rental market. With
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