wearables News - Page 19 of 27 - CNX Software

May 18, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Asu Cast One Android Smartwatch Features a Projector and Touch Panel

Smartwatches and wearables in general have to main implementations for the user interfaces, either using a display and physical button, or a touch screen display. Asu Cast 1 changed all that, as they removed the display, using a touch panel (no screen) combined with a projector, using your hand or other surfaces. Asu Cast One smartwatch projector specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (APQ8026) processor @ 1.2 GHz System Memory – 768 MB RAM Storage – 4GB flash Projector – 1280 x 600 resolution, 15 lumens brightness (equivalent to 100 lumens DLP projectors), “screen” size: 2″ to 60″. Touch panel – Multi-touch Connectivity – WiFi and Bluetooth Sensors – Gravity sensor and gyroscope Battery – 740 mAh battery Dimensions – 50 x 41 x 14.6 mm Weight – 65.9 grams The thing runs a heavily customized version of Android 5.1, and supports DLNA, Miracast and Airplay. The company did not disclose […]

May 10, 2016June 18, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

LX IoT Cores Are Made for IoT and Wearables with Bluetooth LE, ANT+, 2G/3G, Sigfox, LoRa, and More

LX Group, an Australian company specializing in electronics design and embedded systems, has introduced three wireless modules for IoT and wearables which they call “LX IoT Cores”, and embeds various wireless protocol such as Bluetooth LE/Ant+, 2G/3G connectivity, WiFi, Lora, Sigfox, Taggle, etc… Let’s go though the main technical specs for the three modules, one of which it itself modular (hence the max and min size) depending on your requirements. LX Cellular Core (Right) MCU – STMicro STM32F217IGH6 ARM Cortex-M3 MCU @ 120 MHz with 1MB flash, 128kB RAM Storage – 1x micro SD card reader Communication Interfaces Radios – 2G/3G, WiFi, BLE, ANT+, provision for LoRa, Taggle, SigFox, optional GPS via daughter board Wired – USB, RS485, UART, SPI, I2C, Digital IO, ADC Sensors – Ambient Luminosity, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, temperature, humidity, air pressure, microphone USB – 1x micro USB port Misc – Reset and 2x user buttons, 2x […]

May 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

SkinTrack Controls Your Smartwatch with Gestures on Your Skin or Clothes

A group of researchers of the Future Interface Group, Carnegie Mellon University in the US, has worked on SkinTrack technology which enables continuous touch tracking on the skin by using a ring emitting high frequency AC signal, and a sensing wristband with multiple electrodes. They’ve created sensor band and ring prototypes to demonstrate the technology. The ring includes an oscillator that generated a 80Mhz sine wave at 1.2Vpp. It consumes 7mA during operating meaning that they could get 15 hours out of the 100 mAh battery used in the prototype. The wristband features four pair of electrodes coupled with AD8302 RF/IF gain and phase comparator chips in order to derive X and Y coordinates from the phase of the signal. The sensing board produces eight analog values which are sampled by Atmel ATMega328 microcontroller’s 10-bit ADC inputs, and transmitted to the watch using a Nordic NRF8001 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) […]

May 3, 2016May 3, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Tacterion Brings Capacitive Touch to Smart Clothing and Various Materials or Surfaces

With the advance of smartphones and other mobile devices, we’ve all been used to capacitive touch screens, but Tacterion, a German company born out of the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, at the German Aerospace Center, has designed “artificial skin” sensors that bring capacitive touch and other features to all sort of materials. Since the company wants to protect its IP they don’t disclosed much details about the inner working of their sensors: The patent protected technology is completely polymer-based. The technological principle are sensitive elements that measure based on transition resistivity: The more pressure is exerted on the polymer-based, electrically conducting elements, the lower the transition resistivity is, which is being measured continuously. Using our highly integrated high-speed readout electronics, a matrix of sensor elements can be combined to form sensitive surfaces. The readout electronics provides information regarding pressure and its distribution at a frame rate of 400 Hz. […]

April 25, 2016April 25, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Alps Electric Smart Mouse Would Let Your Employer Monitor Your Stress Level

Work and life in general can be very stressful, and a Japanese company called Alps Electric wants to enable employers to monitor their staff mental stress level using a mouse that includes a “near-infrared spectroscopic sensor” reporting hemoglobin level, oxygen saturation and pulse, as well as an environmental sensor for temperature, humidity, etc… data. There’s no special way to use the mouse, and the end-user would just control the mouse normally. with all data apparently sent to a centralized system. The mouse was demonstrated at Medtec Japan 2016, on April 20 to 22 in Tokyo. The sensor development is scheduled to end by Q1 2017, with samples shipping in the spring of 2017. There will certainly be ethical questions raised: Is that a welcome addition to the workplace to help employer better take care of their health, or a step too far and an invasion of privacy? Via Nikkei Technology […]

February 23, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Hexiwear is an Open Source Wearable Development Kit Expandable with Add-on Boards (Crowdfunding)

MikroElektronika has designed Hexiwear, a wearable development kit that you can wear and hack as a smartwatch thanks to an (optionally) included wristband, or use a an IoT development kit thanks to its docking station taking up to three “Click” boards among a choice of over 180 modules. . Hexiwear hardware specifications: MCU – NXP Kinetis K64x ARM Cortex-M4 MCU @ 120 MHz with 1MB Flash and 256KB SRAM Storage – 8 MB Flash memory Display – 1.1” full color OLED display with capacitive touch Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 LE and 802.15.4 via NXP Kinetis KW4x Cortex-M0+ wireless MCU Sensors -3D accelerometer and magnetometer (NXP FXOS8700CQ), 3-Axis gyroscope (NXP FXAS21002), pressure sensor (NXP MPL3115A2R1), light-to-digital converter, humidity and temperature sensor, heart-rate sensor (HRM) USB – micro USB cable for power and charging Misc – RGB LED, haptic feedback engine, docking connector Battery – 190 mAh 2C Li-Po battery; 600 mA […]

February 23, 2016February 23, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Makibes F69 IP68 Smartwatch & Fitness Tracker is Designed for Swimming

The market is flooded with wearables such as smartwatches and fitness trackers that all track activities (walking/running) with more or less accuracy, and while some offer good IP67 or IP68 ingress protection rating, or even better 5ATM rating, allowing them to be used in water, I have not found many that can actually track swimming patterns, especially among the cheaper ones. But that’s exactly what Makibes F69 sports smartwatch promises. Makibes F69 specifications: MCU/Memory/Storage – TBD Display – 1″ round capacity touchscreen display, 128×128 resolution, always on Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 LE Sensors – 3-axis accelerometer and gyroscope, heart rate monitor Battery – 180 mAh charged via magnetic dock good for 6 days in power saving mode, 4 days in “healthy” hear rate mode, and 30 hours using the HRM in sports mode. Dimensions – 38 x38 x 10 mm (stainless steel case, silicon band) Weight – 34 grams IP […]

February 12, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon Wear 2100 for Smartwatches, 3 New Cortex A53 Mobile SoCs

Qualcomm has unveiled four new Snapdragon processors with three quad and octa core Cortex A53 processors for smartphones with 4G LTE connectivity, and a new wearables SoC with lower power and, area compared to Snapdragon 400 series processor often used in smartwatches. Snapdragon Wear 2100 SoC is the first processor part of Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear, of new platform targeting wearable devices, with the company listing the following highlights: Quad core Cortex A7 processor @ up to 800 MHz or 1.2 GHz Adreno 304 GPU 30% smaller than Snapdragon 400 25% percent lower power than Snapdragon 400 Integrated, ultra-low power sensor hub Available in both tethered (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi) and connected (4G/LTE and 3G via X5 LTE modem) pin-to-pin compatible versions The SoC supports Android Wear, and Android, and should be found in smart watches, smart bands, smart eyewear and smart headsets. Snapdragon Wear 2100 and other Snapdragon Wear products are […]