Bringing Intelligence to Your Home
Not that long ago there was only the first-born of smart devices, the cellular phone. Today, smart products are emerging across many industries. Devices nowadays are not just simple electrical parts; they have evolved to be complex systems consisting of hardware, software, data storage, and connectivity. Today, you can run things in your home without even being there, your doctor can monitor your health without you being in the hospital, or you can even give treats to your pets when you are not at your building. IoT devices have become not only connected but intelligent. They obtain and analyze data available to them and adapt to usage patterns. By generating all the data, devices are able to act as a self-sustained system allowing the user to simply enjoy a hassle-free experience.
Embedded software and the Internet of Things has shaped these devices as we know them to be smart, connected, and intelligent. Smart products offer opportunities for greater functionality and more reliability.
PSA’s experience with embedded technologies led to a successful Embedded Linux project for one of America’s oldest and largest privately owned companies, which developed an intelligent shower system controlled by a wall-mount waterproof touchscreen control panel. The panel runs Embedded Linux as an operating system and utilizes Qt framework for the GUI part. With this panel, one can control the water temperature and pressure, steam levels, lighting, and even the choice of music.
The PSA team’s responsibilities were to assist in prototype board bring-up, Linux Kernel configuration and OS image assembly from the sources, low-level drivers' creation, and update. Another major piece of work was to develop a robust firmware update procedure including Bootloader, Qt-based firmware update tool, and protocol-level integration. Also, detailed documentation was created and provided along with functionality development.
If you have a smart product, PSA can help you make it even smarter.
Sources:
1. forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2014/08/22/internet-of-things-by-the-numbers-market-estimates-and-forecasts/#104fdba12dc9
