Orbbec is a startup working on 3D cameras which can be used for gesture recognition, 3D scanning, research purpose, and more. The company has now embedded their Astra 3D sensor into an ARM based mini PC running Android and/or Ubuntu which they call Orbbec Persee. Persee hardware specifications: SoC – Quad core Cortex A17 processor up to 1.8GHz with a Mali-T7xx GPU @ 600 MHz (They did not name it, but it must be Rockchip RK3288) System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, 1x micro SD card slot up to 64GB Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0 Audio Input – 2x microphones Camera – Built-in Astra Pro 3D camera RGB image size – 1280×720 @ 30 fps (UVC support) Depth image size – 640×480 @ 30 fps (16-bit) Range – 0.4 to 8 meters Depth accuracy – 0.5 centimeters at 2 meters Field of view – […]
Digilent ARTY is a $99 Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA Board with Arduino Headers
Low cost FPGA boards with Arduino headers are nothing new, as we’ve seen before with Arduissimo and Papilio DUO, but both of these boards are based on Spartan 6 FPGA, while the recent Digilent ARTY board is powered by an Artix-7 FPGA. Beside the hardware differences, Spartan 6 FPGAs only support Xilinx ISE Design Suite, while Artix-7 parts are also supported by Vivado Design Suite, which according to Xilinx has a much better workflow and user interface. Digilent ARTY specifications: FPGA – Xilinx XC7A35T-L1CSG324I with 33,280 logic cells, 1,800 Kb block RAM, 90 DSP slices, and 250 I/O pins System memory – 256 MB DDR3L SDRAM Storage – 16 MB of QSPI Flash Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet Expansion interfaces 4 Digilent compatible Pmod interfaces enabling 32 user I/O pins: 2 Pmods routed as differential pairs, paired to fit dual-wide Pmods Arduino UNO R3 shield / chipKit interface Debugging – USB-UART Interface, […]
ChromeCast 2.0 and ChromeCast Audio Announced for $35
Google released the original ChromeCast in 2013. The $35 device allows users to stream online video from your smartphone to your big TV, and since then Google and the community has brought various improvement to make more with the device, and thousands of apps can be installed in the little device. Google has now released a new ChromeCast, as well as ChromeCast Audio to stream audio to speakers. The hardware has been upgraded but the complete specifications are not available, but we do know ChromeCast 2.0 support 802.11 b/g/n and 802.11ac for higher quality 1080p video streaming, and Marvell tweeted about the new ChromeCast devices, so it’s likely another Marvell SoC has been used, maybe Armada 1500 Plus (88DE3108) [Update: ChromeCast 2.0 is based on Armada 1500 Mini Plus (88DE3006) dual core Cortex A7 processor] The new ChromeCast still works with iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets, Mac and Windows […]
Skreens are Configurable Picture-in-Picture HDMI Splitters (Crowdfunding)
Some HDMI splitters support picture-in-picture (PiP) to display of the video input full screen, and the others in small windows, and the ones I checked just cost under $30 on Amazon here, there, and over there. People who only use them as splitters are satisfied, but the ones who tried the PiP function are disappointed, as the other inputs, usually 3, are only shown in small windows on one of the corner of the TV, and not that useful. If you want more customizable PiP, Skreens could be what you are looking for, as the HDMI inputs can be resized and positioned via a mobile app. There are basically two models named by their number of inputs: NexusTwo, and NexusFour, with Pro versions bringing the total to 4 models. Skreens NexusTwo specifications: Chip(s) – Xilinx Kintex-7 Field Programmable Gate array with Dual ARM Cortex-A9 @ >1 GHz with NEON (Over […]
Zidoo 12K Video Player Plays…12K Videos (on 3 Synchronized 4K UHD TV)
Zidoo Android TV boxes have often been featured in this blog, but the company also has products for the industrial market such as their 4K streaming player outputting the same video to up to 8 monitors, and a “12K video player” that outputs a video to three monitors @ 3840×2160 resolution. Zidoo strength is software and support, and they are not a hardware company, and while so far they have partnered with Kaiboer for their Android media players, if the picture above is any indication, they are using Skydigita SDG-3112 player as the hardware platform. The list of specifications and features currently released are unfortunately quite sparse: Video Playback Single 12K video outputted to three 3840×2160 monitors @ 30Hz max, 1080p also supported Codecs – H.265 and H.264 decoding. Containers – TS, MKV, AVI, VOB, MPG, MPEG, MOV. Iimage formats – JPG, JPEG, GIF, PCX, PNG. Video Output – 3x […]
$20 Xiaomi Mi Smart Remote Center Controls Infrared Home Appliances via Your Smartphone
Home automation used to be costly and complex to install, and some solutions are still that way, but several devices have dramatically brought the cost down and simplicity up including Orvibo Wiwo S20 WiFi smart socket, now selling for $16, Semlamp SL-011 – an $8 audio controlled relay -, or smart light bulbs like Yeelight. All three items have the advantage of being plug-and-plug, inexpensive, and controlled wirelessly using your iOS and Android smartphone. There are also been some WiFi, IR and RF gateways on the market, such as Broadlink RM2 / Pro, that can control devices such as smart socker, air conditioner, TV, and items using the 315/433MHz band. If you only want to control IR (and WiFi?) devices, and don’t need to control RF devices, Xiaomi Mi Smart Remote Center sells for half the price for Broadlink Pro for just $19.99 on GearBest. Xiaomi Mi Smart Remote complete […]
Status of Orange Pi Boards GPIO Support
Yesterday, one person asked me to make a video showing GPIO control on Orange Pi 2 mini on YouTube, and since I have just completed a post about Orange Pi camera, I thought it might be fun to check GPIO support too. This post focuses on Allwinner H3 boards, but the instructions and status should be very similar for Allwinner A20 and A31s versions. One of the first things you want before starting playing with GPIOs is the expansion header’s pinout chart, and I could not find any until I had the idea to check for schematics, which are available on Orange Pi resources page. I downloaded the schematics for Orange Pi 2, which should be the same as for Orange Pi 2 mini as the only difference is the lack of WiFi module. Orange Pi PC is a little different, and the schematics are nowhere to be found, but […]
Android TV Box and OpenELEC Video Tutorials
WeTek has released several video tutorials explaining how to configure WeTek TV boxes such as WeTek Play or WeTek OpenELEC, as well as the upcoming WeTel Core. The tutorials includes instructions for both Android and OpenELEC available in 6 languages: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and German. Some tutorials are clearly specific to WeTek products, such as “How to Activate WeTek Play membership”, but many of the tutorials are more generic starting from simple configurations steps like configuring HDMI output resolution and framerate, or configuring the network, to more advanced tasks such as configuring a DVB-S2 tuner on TVHeadend in OpenELEC. I’ve embedded the latter video tutorial below for reference. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011. www.cnx-software.com