The 10 Most Innovative Embedded System Solution Providers 2018

www.insightssuccess.com November 2018

THE

Most

Innovative

Embedded

System SOLUTION PROVIDERS 2018

Tech-Trend

Embedded Systems are Gaining Popularity across all Domains

Power Management Power Management Mechanisms in Embedded Systems

Andreas Kyrtatos

CEO

Embotech Redening Autonomous Motion for a Better and Safer World

Editor’s Note

Embedded Systems: Innovating and Transforming the Digital World

E

mbedded systems perform different tasks ranging from control oriented like- innovative user interface, quality of service management to data intensive work like- 3D image processing, communication stream and more. Although, homogeneous or heterogeneous multiprocessor architectures- System on Chip (SoC) or System in Package offer increase computing power, but growing complexity of applications together are drastically increasing the embedded system’s power consumption.

It is thus vital to focus on reducing the power consumption in circuits.

Historically power management was purely a hardware issue, but those days have long gone. Now-a-days software role plays a pivotal role in managing the power. As far as software is concerned, broadly, there are two contexts where power consumption can be considered when it is in use and when it is idle; this active power management and deployment of low power CPU modes can be beneficial.

Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling is the other aspect which can assist in controlling power consumption. For a software engineer, how much CPU voltage and clock frequency affect power consumption is a very important thing? Since the lower frequency of operation will be lower the power consumption. Real Time Operating Systems is the other area where one can look into to address this concern- It is vital for the operating system to include a power management structure, as the precise operation of drivers, in specific, may be drastically affected by power saving measures and the OS can freely manage this. This is how power management in a modern power-aware RTOS is implemented.

Peripheral Power-down, Low Power Modes can also assist in controlling power consumption.

There are many such modifications are going within the Embedded Systems for their efficient operations. These transformations are carried out by many innovative companies within this field. To highlight such efforts from Embedded Systems Solution Providers, we have decided to go for the issue, “The 10 Most Innovative Embedded System Solution Providers”. On the cover of this issue, we have, Embotech: Orchestrating Autonomous Motion for a Better and Safer World.

Embotech is a leading developer of embedded automatic decision-making systems. This Zurich, Switzerland-based tech startup has started its operation in 2013 and within half-a-decade it has grown to a prominent technology company in Switzerland. The company has built a niche in the market by developing cutting-edge decision-making software for autonomous motion: real-time Motion Planning solutions for autonomous vehicles for launching and landing re-usable rockets and for other applications in the Energy domain such as wind turbines. With these cutting-edge solutions, Embotech is changing the landscape of autonomous motion for a better and safer world.

The founders of Embotech, Juan Jerez (VP Engineering) and Alexander Domahidi (CTO), wanted to further enhance the numerical optimization technology developed during their PhDs to be an integral part of tomorrow’s decision-making systems. Thus, Embotech was born. It was the sheer dedication, farsighted vision of the founders along with the adeptness of its high-caliber technical staff, that allowed Embotech to successfully serve more than 30 clients across the globe in such a limited time. In these five years, the company has served many giants like the European Space Agency (ESA), VW, and Renault and has made Europe its stronghold business territory.

After doing in-depth research, we have enlisted companies who responsibly transforming the world with their innovative Solutions; Airborne: The Pioneer of Advanced Composites Manufacturing, Aisilica: Boosting Surveillance with Hawk-eye Vision and Pedantic Precision, Conbee: Engineered many Ground-breaking Smart TAGs to Streamline Logistic Processes, NeoCortec: Connecting World with Leading-edge Networking Technology, VividQ: Crafted a Landmark Software Framework to Boost Holographic Display, and Zolertia: Pioneering Embedded Revolution and Serving Clients with Ebullience.

While going through our magazine, you must not miss out the articles such as; Embedded Systems are Gaining Popularity across all Domains, and Embedded Systems are Gaining Popularity across all Domains from the Editor’s Pick. Minimizing the Adverse Effects of Risks, and Want to Build a Strong Team? It Starts with Trust and Respect from the View of some of the Successful Leaders.

Suhel Mashayak

COVER STORY

08

ARTICLES

26 Tech-Trend Embedded Systems are Gaining Popularity across all Domains

36 Power Management Power Management Mechanisms in Embedded Systems

18

Embotech Orchestrating Autonomous Motion for a Better and Safer World

CXO STANDPOINT

Maestro's Viewpoint Minimizing the Adverse Effects of Risks

32 Expert's Guide Want to Build a Strong Team?

It Starts with Trust and Respect

CONT ENTS

16 Airborne The Pioneer of Advanced Composites Manufacturing

24 Conbee Engineered many Ground-breaking Smart TAGs to Streamline Logistic Processes

40 VividQ Crafted a Landmark Software Framework to Boost Holographic Display

20 Aisilica Boosting Surveillance with Hawk-eye Vision and Pedantic Precision

30 NeoCortec

CONT ENTS

Connecting World with Leading-edge Networking Technology

42 Zolertia Pioneering Embedded Revolution and Serving Clients with Ebullience

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Anish Miller Managing Editor Suhel Mashayak

Executive Editor Stella Andrew Contributing Editors Upama, Nilam, Ryan Visualiser David King Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Art & Design Assistant Poonam Mahajan Co-designer Paul Belin Art & Picture Editor Mayur Koli Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Business Development Executive Abhijeet Pisal Sales Executives Sherin, Jennifer, Josh, Alice, Karen Technical Head Jacob Smile Assistant Technical Head Swapnil Patil Technical Consultants Vivek, David, Robert Digital Marketing Manager Alina Sege Assistant Digital Marketing Manager Prashant Chevale SME-SMO Executives Rahul, Gemson, Swati Research Analyst Eric Smith Circulation Manager Tanaji sales@insightssuccess.com

November, 2018 Corporate Ofces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com

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We are a pioneer in developing Cutting-edge Autonomous Motion Solutions.

Cover Story

Embotech redeďŹ ning autonomous motion for a Better and Safer World

A

sustainable embedded solution company is one that carries vital experience along with agility in its core business processes. Such a company should know its market well by working actively with end-customers, chip manufacturers and suppliers of complimentary software and should have innovation at its core in order to stay ahead of the game. One such company that is catching attention with many prominent clients across the European region is Embotech.

This Zurich, Switzerland-based tech startup has started its operation in 2013 and within half-a-decade it has grown to a prominent technology company in Switzerland. The company has built a niche in the market by developing cutting-edge decision-making software for autonomous motion: real-time Motion Planning solutions for autonomous vehicles (autonomous parking, highway driving, urban driving), for launching and landing re-useable rockets (Aerospace domain) and for other applications in the Energy domain such as wind turbines. With these cutting-edge solutions, Embotech is changing the

Andreas Kyrtatos

landscape of autonomous motion for a better and safer world.

Inspiration behind its Inception Embotech, short for embedded optimization technologies, was founded in 2013 as a spin-off from the ETH Zurich. The founders, Juan Jerez (VP Engineering) and Alexander Domahidi (CTO), wanted to further enhance the numerical optimization technology developed during their PhDs to be an integral part of tomorrow’s decision-making systems. Thus, embotech was born.

It was the sheer dedication, farsighted vision of the founders along with the adeptness of its high-calibre technical staff, that allowed embotech to successfully serve more than 30 clients across the globe in such a limited time.

In these five years, the company has served many giants like the European Space Agency (ESA), VW, and Renault and has made Europe its stronghold business territory.

Leading Embotech A good leader has a clear vision about the future, keeps a sharp eye on business objectives and works as a source of inspiration and motivation for all. Andreas Kyrtatos, the CEO at Embotech is one such leader who has been chosen by the founders to lead embotech into its high-growth phase.

A mechanical engineer by training, he worked in the energy and marine businesses for over a decade in R&D, project management and general management roles. Alongside work, he completed an executive Master’s degree in Business Law. He joined embotech as COO in early 2018 and took over as CEO a few months later.

It is the result of Andreas’s meticulous attention to details and sharp business acumen that the team has been able to make embotech flourish.

‘‘

He believes that sharing company’s future vision with employees, showing empathy and providing them constant motivation is the key to unlock the true potential of any organization, which ultimately lead towards sustainable success.

Flagship Product and Its Uniqueness Embotech’s flagship product is its numerical core software tool FORCES Pro. It is an auto-coder which automatically generates highly efficient embeddable C-code which is designed to solve complex motion problems, given a mathematical description by the user.

Embotech is using FORCES Pro to develop cutting-edge motion planning technology for autonomous vehicles and other machines. In the automotive space, the technology can be used for motion planning for Advanced DriverAssist Systems (ADAS), and level 3 to 5 autonomous driving. When coupled with the necessary ADAS sensors, mapping and localization systems, the software is capable of safe path planning, including reacting to detected objects around the vehicle at the limits of handling.

The technology is agnostic to sensor technologies and can interface with lidar, radar, cameras, and ultrasonic sensors, to gather data and set up autonomous driving functions. The software supports vital embedded self-driving functions such as emergency maneuvers, Highway Pilot, Valet Parker (low-speed maneuvering and autonomous parking), and Urban Driver.

Owing to its numerical optimization core, the software does not require situational pre-programming or vehicle training. The system is vehicleagnostic and can be applied to non-standard vehicle types, e.g.

THE 10 MOST INNOVATIVE

EMBEDDED SYSTEM

SOLUTION PROVIDERS 2018

Smart Solutions for 1 Billion Autonomous Systems.

vehicles with a trailer or rear-axle steering.

Its parking module has been developed generically as a low speed maneuverer and is able to park in any situation independent of the parking spot geometry (parallel, perpendicular, diagonal, etc.), avoiding moving objects effectively along the way. The highway driving module delivers smooth trajectories for the comfort of the passengers and can handle situations up to the limits of handling of the car, contrary to currently available solutions. It can adapt the driving behavior of the vehicle in real-time taking into account passenger preferences or environmental situations such as slippery road due to sudden rain. “Embotech specializes in highend real-time decision-making software for motion planning of autonomous vehicles,” asserts the CEO.

Other Embotech Solutions Apart from the embedded autonomous driving solution, embotech has also developed an infrastructure-based parking solution, based on the same numerical core. In this case, sensors are integrated in the infrastructure and the real-time motion planner is located in the cloud. Vehicles can thus be remotely driven individually. In addition a future feature of the solution will allow at the same time to optimize traffic flow between several vehicles operated remotely in parallel.

In another automotive application designed to reduce fuel consumption and extend battery range, embotech is developing software for real-time energy management of hybrid and battery-driven vehicles (battery, electric motor, combustion engine, gearbox, etc.), each with highly different characteristics. In this application the Embotech software optimises the driving behaviour of the vehicle for a given road profile and

traffic situation ahead.

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Embotech also offers solutions for the Energy industry – in mid-2018, the company signed its first series contract with a leading European wind turbine manufacturer. Embotech’s optimization software will be implemented on the Electronics Control Units (ECUs) of wind turbines.

The objective is to optimize in real-time the pitch of the blades, given fast wind measurements and predictions from the wind farm. This allows for better structural stability, longer run-times of wind turbines under diverse wind conditions, and less maintenance over lifetime optimizing profitability for wind turbine operators.

In the aerospace industry, embotech is active in motion planning software for reusable rockets: i.e. software that handles the launching of the rocket and the landing of some parts of it which can be reused to save cost. This motion planning code shares the same core as

Proficient Human Capital is the Real Wealth for Any Organization.

the motion planning code for autonomous vehicles.

to flourish in their career ultimately have a higher chance to succeed.

Why are embotech Solutions Popular?

There are several providers of motion planning across the globe but what makes Embotech unique is the combination of several state-of-the-art features which characterise its solutions, namely:

Embotech is a company that gives highest priority on treating employees as its biggest asset. This company believes that employees are the real asset of any organization who works round the clock towards its success.

Ø One of the fastest and most reliable real-time motion planners on the market Ø Embeddable everywhere (in any ECU type) Ø Physics based approach not using any AI or Deep Learning for motion planning, which has several benefits: · Fast adaption to new carlines/vehicles · Easy implementation in non-conventional vehicles, trucks and vehicles with trailers · Software certifiable to automotive grade Ø Smooth driving trajectories, leading to better passenger comfort. Driving behavior can be changed in real-time based on e.g. passenger preferences, environmental conditions, charge. · Large scope for customization of driving style and thus brand image by customer Ø Capable of planning complex maneuvers at physical limits of vehicle, owing to complex tyre and vehicle models solved in milliseconds Ø Same motion planning core for all ADAS/AD functions, i.e. no situational programming For embotech, Employees are its Competitive Advantage It’s a time-tested fact that companies who treat their employees fairly and provide them with equal opportunities

found a subsidiary within the EU in order to tap into talent pools in countries close to Switzerland. “Over the past Years Embotech has experienced steady growth in turnover and employees, a trend that is set to continue,” concluded the CEO.

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To date, embotech employs 18 proficient men and women representing 7 nationalities. The fast-growing company strives to offer a highly diverse working environment, where the employees are openhandedly encouraged to take on more responsibility and grow with the company.

Its employees come from various technical backgrounds and have formed a highly motivated and passionate team, where regular exchanges of knowledge and experiences are encouraged and ultimately drive the company’s innovation. Employees are regularly exposed to a wide variety of state-ofthe-art technical and commercial challenges in embotech’s Automotive, Aerospace and Energy businesses.

Embotech offers its employees opportunities to take on responsibility early-on in their career and interact directly with important customers all over the world.

Road Ahead Embotech will continue to drive innovation in its products and is aiming to acquire additional contracts in its all three business units (Automotive, Aerospace, Energy). Furthermore, geographical expansion si planned to be close to its customers who are located around the globe.

In terms of expanding its engineering footprint, embotech is planning to

Agility, Experience and Innovation are the Key to Unlock Hidden Potential.

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Airborne: The Pioneer of Advanced Composites Manufacturing

T

he digital twin—and the massive amounts of data it processes—often remained elusive to enterprises due to limitations in digital technology capabilities as well as limited computing, storage, and bandwidth costs.

Such obstacles, however, have diminished dramatically in recent years. Significantly lower costs and improved power and capabilities have led to exponential changes that can enable leaders to combine information technology and operations technology to enable the creation and use of a digital twin. Netherlands-based Airborne is a trailblazer in the field of embedded industry that has proficiency in advanced composites.

Incepted in 1995, Airborne has seen a meteoric rise in the last two decades. From a handful of clients in its early years, this company has served more than 35 clients from ten different countries till date. Giants like Airbus, Rolls Royce, Tata Steel, ESA, Asics, SABIC, GKN Fokker Thales Alenia Space, and General Dynamics are clients that are not only reaping the benefits of its services and equally satisfied with its cutting-edge solutions. Team work, precision, ownership and entrepreneur mindset is hardcoded in the company’s work culture that makes it a dominant and unique force in the European region.

Airborne is a technology pioneer in advanced manufacturing of composites: the design, production and industrialization. The company has the determination to take the lead in the automation and digitization of small to mid-size composite parts design and manufacturing. Today, Airborne is crafting a suite of low capex flexible automation solutions which will be integrated in a digital backbone. The prime endeavor of this company is to create disruptive digital design and production systems, converting raw materials directly into high- end products at radically low conversion costs.

Although automation in composite part manufacturing has been known for a while, it has only been embraced for very

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Arno van Mourik, Director & Founder

large parts, such as automated tape laying (ATL) of plane wings. Airborne is attempting to re-define composite manufacturing of small to medium parts with completely automated end-to-end solutions. “By automating the production process, our clients can save 10-20% of costs for parts in the small-to-medium size range. Our end-to-end solutions will ultimately result in cost savings of up to 70% by removing the number of steps in the value chain through automation and especially digitalization while radically reducing the time to market for our clients,” assert its founder.

The Leading Light of Airborne John C Maxwell once rightly said: “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

NOVEMBER 2018

THE 10 MOST INNOVATIVE

EMBEDDED SYSTEM

SOLUTION PROVIDERS 2018

Arno van Mourik, Director & Founder of Airborne is one such honcho who has established a top notch standard in the business world by engineering products that clients crave for. With its vital experience of 20 years in composites design, manufacturing and industrialization in aerospace, maritime, automotive and consumer’s products, he is driving Airborne towards the zenith of success.

Recently Arno van Mourik became a member of the Dutch Top Team High Tech Systems and Materials (HTSM) with the focus on SMEs. The motivation for Arno van Mourik to join the top team HTSM is drawn from his own experience with the ‘high hurdles’ that mainly scale-ups face when growing. Van Mourik said: “Often

“

While recounting his entrepreneurial sprint, Arno advises the young businesspersons: “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Be a visionary, be bold, be humble and listen to your people.”

Flagship Product Airborne’s flagship product is a suite of automated and end-to-end solutions for the manufacturing of advanced composites parts for the aeronautics, space, new space and maritime sector.

Airborne developed Automated Laminating Cell, Automated Kitting and Sorting, Automated Honeycomb Potting and Automated Pick & Place.

The company’s main business plan is to provide holistic and advanced manufacturing solutions for

Go where there is no path and leave a trail.

these types of companies with a hightech profile follow a capricious path from technical idea to business model in which multiple business changes are required. Many investors experience this as too complex, too insecure and therefore too risky. A large part of the investors therefore ends their support with often fatal consequences for such a company. I find that very unfortunate because scale-ups often try to put promising technologies into the market with sometimes very interesting disruptive business models.”

NOVEMBER 2018

composites in the field and place the appropriate equipment setup for its customers. For the digital side of its operations, Airborne has Siemens as a valuable technical partner. Airborne is also exploring with Siemens the possibility of using more AI and the introduction of self-learning machines.

Next to this Airborne also has a commercial partnership with KUKA for the robotics.

The company provides many solutions for space industry as well. It has

crafted many state-of-the-art solararray substrates (European market leader), affordable panel technology for satellite mega-constellations and developing affordable structures for small launchers.

Due to the effectiveness of its product, Airborne has won several accolades in various prominent awards functions and events. Most Innovative Supplier

by Thales Alenia Space, Europe’s largest satellite manufacturer is the most recent and highly appreciated as it comes from the customer.

Future Endeavour Airborne wants composites parts be developed, designed and produced in a day, based on one-of-a-kind specifications. Airborne believes in the sustainable and circular production of composites. All materials must ultimately be reused and recycled. “To achieve this, we will have to work in a disruptive way. The principles of the ‘digital enterprise’ are key to this,” states the company.

The company is looking for ways to sell them like a custom-made yet affordable item through 3D printing technology for instance. Would it be possible, using a Digital Twin, to develop and design a production scheme without any flaws and with a 100% accuracy of the result? How about uploading a design and buying it at the Airborne web shop? That’s what Airborne is looking at today.

“Our aim is to quadruple our revenues and crafting an “app store” of digital composite production in the next few years,” concluded the optimist founder.

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Minimizing the Adverse Effects of Risks H

as the number of security issues you deal with on a routine basis ever made you feel a bit like Atlas carrying the world on your shoulders? I can’t tell you the number of conversations I’ve had with discontented security practitioners who lament to me the woes of trying to speak with management about the latest Heartbleed or Spectre/Meltdown vulnerabilities and ‘management just doesn’t understand’. Even worse, when management inevitably turns a blind eye to the issue, the security practitioner worries that they’ll be searching for a new job if the vulnerability is ever exploited. As the Information Security Program Owner at National Instruments for over eight years, I frequently find myself offering up the following bit of advice to my compatriots who are struggling with what to do in this situation.

When I first started the security program at National Instruments, I had these same feelings of anxiety. The tools that I was using to scan our networks, systems, and applications were coming up with vulnerabilities left and right, but there were few things that I had the ability to fix. I had to go to another team, explain what had been found, and then I had to somehow try and convince them that they needed to fix it. In some cases they humored me, but in many cases the result was that my vulnerabilities were just another bug that they’d get

18

Josh Sokol

Creator & CEO SimpleRisk

NOVEMBER 2018

Maestro's Viewpoint to when they had time. The weight of all of these unmitigated issues was crushing me. I knew that if I didn’t find a better way to do things, then I wouldn’t last long in that role.

I quickly came to realize that my role as a security practitioner never was to fix the vulnerabilities that I found. That was the function of the application administrators. Nor could I control the resources and roadmaps which determine the prioritizations of the various mitigations. That role belongs to members of the business. My primary function as a security practitioner was to assist in identifying the issues, advise on how to mitigate them, and ensure that the right stakeholders are aware and educated so that they could make the most informed decision possible for the business. In short, my role was that of a risk manager and my job was to drive visibility and accountability of the risks the organization is accepting to the stakeholders who are accepting them.

To formalize the processes around my newly found risk management role, I did quite a bit of research around what others were doing. Eventually, I stumbled across the NIST SP 800-30, a Risk Management Guide for Information Technology Systems. I’ll admit that it wasn’t the most titillating document I’ve ever read, but the content really helped to solidify what our risk management process needed to look like.

To start with, I needed a way to track all of the risks that we were collecting through various assessment processes in our environment. This system, typically referred to as a risk registry, would become the aggregation of risks found in our organization through vulnerability assessment, auditing, interviews, vendor notifications and many other sources. In order to be successful, I needed a system that everyone could access quickly and come across a risk in their environment and a system that allowed them to enter a minimal amount of data about the risk so that they could get right back into what they were doing when they identified the risk. I would then use that information to later populate the details myself or to schedule time on their calendar to fill me in. My system also needed a way for me to understand the prioritization, or risk level, of the risks I was capturing.

NOVEMBER 2018

Once the risk had been recorded, I needed a way to track how we were going to handle the risk. Possible options ranged from accepting the risk because the likelihood and impact were within what we considered to be a tolerable range to planning some sort of mitigation for the risk. I needed a way to understand the level of effort involved so we could balance those costs against the risk level.

If my ultimate goal was to drive visibility and accountability up the chain of management, my last step was to have a process for who would perform a review of the risks. I decided to use a combination of the team a risk is assigned to and the risk score. Since risk management is designed to be a cyclical process with risks re-evaluated on a routine basis, I also used the score to determine how often the risk would be reviewed.

Most of the organizations I speak with these days about risk management start out using complicated formulas on excel spreadsheets, but there are tools called ‘Governance Risk and Compliance’ (GRC) that can help you with this endeavor. There range options from open source tools like ‘SimpleRisk’ to more expensive options like ‘Archer’. It depends on how complicated you need your workflows to be and how many resources you can afford to spend to run the program.

I started this discussion with the person telling me that ‘management just doesn’t understand’. The fact of the matter is that management doesn’t understand because they weren’t speaking the same language. Your business understands risk because they use it every day to make calculated decisions about the investments it is making.

Risk is the language of business and shifting the focus of your conversations to risk will ensure that everyone is on the same page and that you are not only viewed by management as an excellent communicator, but also a stellar security professional helping to guide the organization in proper risk management. Not only that, but you will sleep better at night after shedding that weight off your shoulders and placing it back on the solid risk management foundation on which it belongs.

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Aisilica:

Boosting Surveillance with Hawk-eye Vision and Pedantic Precision

I

n an investigative conversation, it is frequently said that a picture speaks more than 1000 words, but video footage speaks the whole story, that too without any bias. If you provide traffic monitoring evidence in the hands of a personal injury attorney, you can drastically change the outcome of your accident case. Whether you are dealing with insurance companies or other drivers, you can utilize video evidence to prove you weren’t at fault. However, to do so, you need a surveillance system. California based Aisilica provides leading-edge surveillance cameras that fetch vital data in real time by following US privacy protocols. The company was incepted in 2014 and since then it continues to empower traffic authorities, drivers, car owners, and even common man with the power of a robust surveillance system.

Impressive Journey so Far Aisilica has its primary operation system in Trivandrum, India, with employee headcount in double digit. Ever since its inception, the company has impressed many market players and end consumers with its adeptness in embedding artificial intelligence on thin silicon chips and continuously marching ahead with full vigor.

Justin Anthony Nguyen

The US being its stronghold territory, it is the superiority of its products that within a time frame of just 4 years, Aisilica has expanded its business footprint to many important Asian countries like Japan and India and proving its mettle in the technological sphere.

Fascinating Features of its Products The company has engineered surveillance cameras that address the concerns related to national security and private surveillance needs with stringent enforcement of US privacy protocols.

They have built a smart surveillance camera with facial recognition capabilities for the security market. Their camera provides magnified vision and precise facial recognition competencies that is sufficient to monitor and recognize any

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Co-founder & CEO

Jyothis Indirabhai Co-founder & CTO

suspicious activity for any indoor or outdoor environment.

Aisilica’s surveillance camera is a big hit among security agencies, school districts, and residential communities due to its unique capabilities of providing precise surveillance without breaching people’s privacy. Due to its uniqueness of ‘protecting everyone’s privacy,’ Aisilica’s products have generated strong euphoria among security agencies in North America and EU, where privacy law is a great hindrance to active surveillance.

Aisilica has two more smart vision product families - smart camera products for Traffic Analytics and Automotive Cameras.

NOVEMBER 2018

THE 10 MOST INNOVATIVE

EMBEDDED SYSTEM

SOLUTION PROVIDERS 2018

Their surveillance system assists traffic authorities to enforce speed and red light laws, catch violations, issue penalty to the violator with evidence, and encourage safe driving. A common man also protects his automobile from theft, improves safety while driving, improves driver and fleet performance, gets car infotainment, and increases accountability while driving using edge computing, ADAS cameras, and multicamera aggregators.

Even a for motorist looking for protection in the event of an accident, installing a vehicle camera can be a simple and affordable way to record their road journeys.

Power efficiency is the other vital strength of Aisilica’s product. The company gives top priority and designs

“

Co-founder and CEO of Aisilica.

Justin has 20+ years of experience in building technology and software startups, applying an outstanding blend of technical, analytic, business and leadership skills.

After graduated from college, he joined a Silicon Valley hot startup Xilinx (XLNX) as an engineer. Six years later, he started his first company in 1997 developing an AI chip to emulate human eye. After that, he was recruited by another hot startup NeoPoint deliver the first smartphone in 1999, which has multiple AI functions and Wall Street Journal praised it “The first Smartphone done right!” His next Startup was Widcomm, the provider of Bluetooth SW. At Widcomm, he led the strategic licensing efforts that allow Widcomm’s BT Protocol SW to be

We provide top-notch surveillance without compromising people’s privacy

It allows them to build intelligence in small form factor. The company applies best system architecture and software-hardware optimization techniques to bring the finest performance without burning much power.

embedded in more that 7 billion Bluetooth devices in the market today, and that number is still growing. Justin then moved on and started his second company developing a Natural Language Processing engines for unstructured data applying Agents technologies, Data Mining and Machine Learning. He is the inventor one US patent, and a co-inventor on 7 pending patents.

Driving Forces of Aisilica Justin Anthony Nguyen is the

Jyothis Indirabhai is the Co-founder and CTO of Aisilica. Jyothis has

the chips with meticulous attention to make its surveillance systems power efficient.

NOVEMBER 2018

earlier worked in Intel as its GPU Design Manager. He has more than two decades of experience in architecting low power SoCs and chipsets as a part of Intel and a few successful California startups.

Jyothis is a microchip designer by profession with a strong background in building System-on-Chip (SoC) architectures for Artificial Intelligence (AI), Computer Vision, GPUs, mobileCPUs, and short-range wireless baseband chips. He cofounded Aisilica Inc., an intelligent edge computing company that brings AI and computer vision to low power embedded devices.

Future Vision through ‘Smart Vision’ According to Aisilica, an embedded technology company should have the skills to build systems with optimal hardware and software, to cater to the requirements of the application.

In-depth understanding of the domain, cost reduction opportunities, power efficiency, performance optimization, and rapid prototyping are the key to win clients’ trust. The company feels proud when the clients give them thumping feedback for its innovative and efficient products.

The company believes that embedded systems are becoming more and more intelligent. Also, vision is going to be a major attention area considering growing demands of automation. With the right AI skills and edge computing platforms for vision and AI, Aisilica is rightly positioned to reap the benefits of embedded industry’s growth.

“We want to be the leader of the Smart Embedded Vision market while driving the overall cost of smart vision systems to a very affordable range. With our long-term plan we will be able to achieve this,” concluded the CEO.

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Conbee: Engineered many Ground-breaking Smart TAGs to Streamline Logistic Processes

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n any logistic operation, objects remain the most vital part in managing a smoother business process. But to manage the inventory and tracking of millions of items in gigantic warehouses such as of Amazon is cumbersome task. No matter how efficient a human works in a warehouse; one cannot achieve the level of efficiency which an IoT device can deliver. This is the reason IoT enabled tags are in huge demand. Such tags can reduce search time optimization; let you search where your container, load carriers, containers, vehicles, assets are currently located; let you know if the asset is in use or available; assist in continuous inventory management amongst other benefit.

Germany-based Conbee is a trailblazing firm that has crafted a niche in the market with its cutting-edge SMART tags which many popularly refer to as ‘bees’. Its TAGs enable asset tracking, production transparency, optimize (intra) logistics processes, inventory management and make load carriers intelligent. Moreover, Conbee TAGs help to increase asset transparency, positioning and could feed that information into ERP/SAP systems to better steer production processes.

Founded in 2016, this company has witnessed a meteoric rise since its inception and has served many giants like Volkswagen and more. With Conbee solutions, all objects involved in the production and logistics can be clearly identified and localized - they can “speak” and become “Smart Objects.”

Innovation, customer-centric and flexible business approach are USP of Conbee which even makes it unique among the contemporaries.

The Head Honcho of Conbee Employees’ potential and their sheer technical and

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Michael Nickolai, Founder & Executive Manager

management aptitude decide the magnitude of success for any company. It is thus very important to select, nurture and guide the top talents that can drive an organization towards the zenith of success. However, it is not that easy like it sounds. To hire people who possess exceptional qualities and molding them into needful roles requires a leader who can judge the true potential of each candidate and enlighten them whenever there is a need. One such trailblazing leader is Michael Nickolai, Founder and Executive Manager of Conbee.

He has an extensive corporate experience in sales and other prominent roles and has worked with many industrial giants like Ericsson among others throughout his inspiring corporate journey. Michael has fascination NOVEMBER 2018

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for wireless communications and loves to do gardening, and skiing in his leisure time.

The founder believes that Conbee’s products empower customers to easily integrate its TAGs in existing intralogistics and production applications, and is the prime reason behind company’s stupendous success.

While speaking about Conbee’s enthralling journey, the Founder revealed: “We had started in 2016 with just one piece of hardware and 1 employee and today, we have 6 people on our board and will double the team in the next 2 years.”

Crafting Cutting-edge Products for the Benefit of Industry The company’s flagship product is-

BLE is the other trademarked product of Conbee that has earned the distinction of being the only indoor tracking solution that allows customers to locate their assets with its BLE TAGs. The most interesting about these tags is that it can locate assets either in areas or zones up to an accurate position down to less than one meter – depending on the process requirements and infrastructure.

On adding the details about Conbee’s product- the management added, “The new Conbee TAGs are designed – hardware and firmware – according the requirements of our Customers.

These TAGs are very robust to withstand critical outdoor conditions.”

We have the desired proficiency and credibility to make your objects smart.

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L500 Hybrid-TAG which combines LoRaWAN, GNSS and Bluetooth Low Energy Radios and allows in and outdoor positioning. With this TAG, assets can be tracked and recognized within buildings and within a huge outer area only with a very small infrastructure. “Embedded LPWAN communication technologies and an efficient algorithm further boost the battery & TAG life to a new level,” stated Conbee. “Our Customers love the easy way of integration. Less search times allow our Customers a

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L500 best product 2017 at the LogiMat

more efficient usage of material and human-resources.”

These products are crafted by keeping International standard in mind and are gaining popularity across industries.

Recently the company has earned immense praise and noteworthy recognition from some of the most credible brands in the industry. Some of those recognitions are: ·

German medium-sized enterprise Innovation Award IT

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Hybrid-TAG (BLE/LoRa)

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B200 and B400 Smart TAGS best IoT hardware 2018 of a relevant German magazine Funkschau

Maintaining a Robust Workforce with Advanced Offerings Conbee has a very dynamic and transformative work culture where they take care of its each employee like their dear ones and nurture them for challenging roles. The company integrates in-house seminars and training programs into its business process to keep its workforce in sync with the latest technological advancements. It also empowers its employees with opportunities to visit conferences of relevant organizations like LoRa Alliance and Bluetooth module suppliers.

On declaring company’s upcoming endeavour, Michael concluded, “We want to develop a cloud-based application that handles all Conbee TAGs into single software to ease the logistic process further where customers’ can easily test our TAGsolutions in Proof of Concept without involving us as much as they must do now.”

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EMBEDDED

SYSTEMS ARE GAINING

POPULARITY

ACROSS ALL DOMAINS

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n today’s emerging world, systems have bought an ease of work due to its inherent advancements and features. The embedded system is one of the most imperative subjects in the digital world. Thinking about technology, daily lifestyle essential devices like mobile phones, tablets and laptops come to our mind, but the internal features is not known to most of us.

The presence of these devices is almost inevitable in all facades of the human endeavor. In order to understand more about the operations, functions and features of embedded systems, it is defined here ahead.

Embedded Systems -It is an electronic system incorporating hardware integrated circuit with software programming techniques for delivering various projects solutions.

The main advantage of using an

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embedded system is it helps to reduce the complexity of the circuits which becomes expedient. It also offers a cost effective and an appropriate size which is suitable for the system. This electronic system can perform single or multiple tasks based on the application. An embedded system consist of hardware such as power supply kit, central processing unit, memory devices, timers, output circuits, serial communication ports and system application specific circuit components and circuits.

Types of Embedded Systems The Embedded systems are classified into categories such as · Based on its performance and functional requirements · Performance of the Microcontroller

The category- based on its performance and functional requirements are classified into four types that are Stand alone, Real time, Networked, and Mobile embedded systems. Further, the categoryperformance of the microcontroller is classified into three types that are small scale, medium scale and sophisticated embedded systems.

An Excellent Application Provider The embedded systems are highly applicable as it is a special-purpose system due to its unique characteristics. It is used in a diversified area of things as its components and functions of hardware and software are different for each system. It is applicable in areas like communication, space, transportation, robotic systems, and home appliances and many more.

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Tech-Trend

Real Time Applications of Embedded Systems Ø As it has a vast variety of application domains it differs from high expense to low, consumer electronics to industrial equipment, academic equipment to entertainment devices and from weapons to medical instruments and aerospace control systems. Here goes some of the categories embedded systems are used: Ø Consumer electronics- Mobile phones, videogame consoles, digital camera Ø Household appliances- Washing machines, microwave ovens, refrigerators Ø Medical Equipment- CT Scanners,

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Ø

Ø Ø

heartbeat monitors, electrocardiogram Automobiles- Antilock braking systems, air-conditioner controls, electronic fuel injection systems Industrial Applications- Assembly lines, multiple parameter monitoring systems, data collection systems Aerospace- Navigation systems, guidance systems, GPS Communications- Routers, network hubs, satellite phones

Progression of Embedded Systems over the Decade With changing times, inventions have become a routine in the world of technology; the embedded systems have also undergone some salient modifications. In the existing times,

the embedded technologies are responsible for the intellectual capabilities of utmost modern devices, for both consumers as well as industrial. To present this in a simpler manner, the embedded systems not just control the lifestyle devices like microwaves, smartphones, tablets, and other consumer electronics but also directs the telecommunication systems, submarines, ATMs, and many more.

The upper echelons in the field of embedded technologies have created some innovative technologies over the last decade which is highly admired.

Multi-core processors, virtualization, the expansion of devices with improved security requirements, 64-bit processors and new chip manufacturing processes are some of

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the innovative achievements.

Embracing such innovative technologies addresses the scale of the market and the number of its players which include companies like semiconductor suppliers, system software development, and mechanical components suppliers, system software development companies, and mechanical components suppliers. The embedded systems market leaders include national and international renowned companies.

Advancing with Multifunctional Features With the advent of multi-functional engineering, the next age of wireless communication systems is encouraging a new level of technology integration. Incorporating effective measures like progressive data rates, great connectivity for systems such as the Internet of Things (IoT), less power consumption, and other striving goals can be achieved by joining advanced digital, RF, and antenna technologies.

An embedded system which performs multiple applications is known as a multi-mode embedded system as it dynamically recomposes the system functionality. Moreover, an embedded system which additionally assists multiple tasks to be executed in a mode is known as a multi-mode multi-task embedded system. The multi-material additive manufacturing processes offer the potential for multi-functional parts to be manufactured in a single procedure. To utilize the potential beneďŹ ts of the developing technology, analysis, new designs, and optimization methods are needed. Such methods are facilitated in the optimization of a multifunctional part by pairing both the structural design aspects and system. An application development platform known as Multifunctional Embedded Application Platform (MEAP) is used to create customized applications.

Trends to Watch Developers should constantly keep an eye on the trends and make appropriate use of the latest advances in techniques and technologies. Some of the trends include Internet of Things (IoT), processor technology, storage, artiďŹ cial intelligence and, virtual and augmented reality. Also, there are several trends like embedded security, realtime visualization; cloud connectivity and Bluetooth mesh networking, low power consumption and optimization that will help developers working with microcontroller-based solutions.

Elevating with Time Over the years, embedded systems have come a long way and contributed to every aspect of the industrial sector. All the devices or appliances used in our daily lives are designed in such a way that can be used without creating difďŹ culties using the embedded systems. Taking this into account, in coming times every object around will consist of a either a small processor or sensor embedded within itself. Even though it is invisible to the naked eye it still connects with multiple other devices to make the lives more allied and accessible than ever before. Using embedded systems, wonders like driverless cars, fully automated factories, adaptive home appliances and many more devices have successfully been created.

In the upcoming times, the embedded systems are looking forward to evolve with technologies that will assist large data storage dimensions, faster communication and highly linked connections among the devices.

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NeoCortec:

Connecting World with Leading-edge Networking Technology

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he global IoT market is expected to grow with a CAGR of nearly 27 percent from 2018 to 2024 and will become a $6.5 trillion industry by 2024. From just a buzzword, IoT will soon become everyday commodity touching the lives of almost everyone in this planet, directly or indirectly. However, the current technologies have some shortcomings that can hinder this optimistic projection. New age networking solutions need to be more agile, scalable, robust, secure and dynamic.

Copenhagen-based NeoCortec is a promising network technology company that delivers cutting-edge wireless networking solutions to the industry. Within a decade since its inception in 2008, the company has shown phenomenal growth and has expanded its business footprint in more than 25 countries serving over 200 prominent clients. The company has impressed many in the industry with its proficiency in building the most versatile wireless network for connecting things.

Engineering Path-breaking Solutions Keeping ‘Future’ in Mind Robust, secure and dynamic wireless sensor networks are crucial for the uninterrupted growth of IoT based applications. However, the current technologies have some shortcomings. To remedy that, NeoCortec realized early on, that MESH was the road to take. Therefore they engineered NeoMESH, a new generation of mesh network that brings the well-known and well-proven MESH concept further by finding entirely new ways to address power consumption, scalability and security – while adding simplicity.

“Everybody in the IoT workspace is talking about massive radio networks – we help build them,” asserts the management.

NeoMesh is a unique and new wireless mesh network for IoT applications. With NeoMESH the company has discovered innovative ways to overcome some of the common limitations of wireless mesh networks, making it

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Steen Halkier, CEO

easier than ever to create a complete, autonomous, and self-containing wireless mesh network targeting low power sensor type applications.

NeoMesh is their flagship and patented product which is based on wireless networking mesh protocol. NeoMesh has engineered on a ground-breaking new concept, replacing the central Network Manager with autonomous intelligent nodes capable of linking to each other in one single network that simply works, no matter how big it gets. So, thus provides enormous scalability to expand any network.

Company’s patented routing mechanism routes data seamlessly through the network and eliminates any concern in performance created by obstacles in the RF path, nodes NOVEMBER 2018

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being blocked or simply moving around within the network. “Weak spots in a real-life network can easily be fixed by just adding another node.

Given it has the right network ID, it automatically becomes a part of the network,” states the company.

Acclamation by Clients The company has won applause from many clients across the world due to its highly effective and popular networking services. Recently, German electronics manufacturer Schildknecht admired the services of NeoCortec in kind words. Schildknecht stated, “The NeoMesh technology is useful for us, because it has very small radio chips and they are available in different frequencies. Also, we are especially targeting sensor type applications, so it makes good sense to integrate

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Build it as you go: NeoMESH is a self-forming mesh network where nodes can be added over time: All nodes are autonomous units, fully capable of acting as a source, router, and destination for data. No nodes hierarchy or network infrastructure is required.

Virtually limitless scalability: An almost unlimited number of nodes can be added to an existing network, making the NeoMESH network particularly suitable for monitoring large areas.

Adaptable architecture: Nodes can be repositioned when and where is needed: no need to predefine the topology of the network.

Real-time dynamic routing: The

Making networking simple and scalable

NeoMesh into our gateway.”

The Uniqueness of its Product The NeoMesh self-governing nodes form networks autonomously, allowing for extreme scalability, node mobility and long-lasting, hassle-free operations.

Out of the box ready nodes: A new node can connect to an existing network immediately and automatically through a secure matchmaking procedure.

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NeoMESH routing optimization process is constantly updated in the background. Each node continuously calculates the best available next hop in real-time, while the payload data is moving through the network. Moving nodes and occurring obstacles are not affecting the real-time optimal path creation.

Fully battery powered network: All nodes are equally power efficient: the network is able to function optimally and independently from external power

sources for years.

Cable like reliability: The exchange of data between generating node and receiving node is governed by an endto-end challenge/response mechanism to ensure the correct delivery of every packet data. On top of the local acknowledgment the network also has a 32 bits end to end acknowledgment.

Module Size: NeoMesh offers some of the world’s smallest modules for wireless ad-hoc mesh networking (11 x 18 x 2.5 mm). They come pre-certified to meet CE and FCC requirements and are easy to integrate into the final application. Just add a sensor and an antenna, and you are ready to go. The modules are available in four frequency bands: 433 MHz, 868 MHz, 915 MHz, and 2.4 Ghz. The Pioneer behind NeoCortec Steen Halkier, CEO, NeoCortec is the driving force behind the stupendous success of this esteemed organization.

He is a technology geek who is very passionate about programming, soldering, hacking and gaming since his teenage years. He is a kind of person who always believes in leading by setting an example. Steen thinks innovation can bring surprising results and thus he always encourages creativity in his team. He has prior worked with- global semiconductor leader Broadcom, high tech hearing aid manufacturer GN ReSound and mobile phone engineering at Nokia.

On giving details about NeoCortec’s future goals, the CEO added, “Establishing a stronghold in the US that matches the interest we experience from companies and developers in Europe is our next target.”

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Ralf Jacob Head of Digital Media Services for Oath

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Expert's Guide

About the Author Ralf Jacob is the Head of Digital Media Services for Oath. Ralf brings more than 20 years of technical and executive management experience to the organization. He has a vast experience in his entire professional journey. Prior to the acquisition with Verizon, Ralf was the Co-founder & CEO at upLynk from 2010 to 2013, VP of Digital Media at Deluxe Digital Studios from January 2011 to September 2012, VP of Operations at Blink Digital Ascent Media from January 2010 to January 2011, and the queue goes on. Ralf earned B.A. degrees in Marketing and Computer Science from Fachhochschule Wiesbaden, Germany. He was a member of the German Olympic team in diving.

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Power Management in

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Embedded

Systems

n today’s digital world, people are using applications in daily use which are not available few years back. In fact, what was termed as science fiction just a decade ago is becoming reality today. Increase in the density of electronic circuits, shrinking the size, and decreasing costs have all facilitated easy computing through mobile and embedded electronic devices that are used daily. However, these devices are also becoming power hungry by the day and the ability to deliver viable power for long-term in such applications remains a major challenge. There is a tremendous increase observed in the computing power of hardware and the relatively slow growth in the energy densities of the battery technologies and that remains a concern for system designers. Analyzing the sources of power consumption in electronic devices along with the development of dynamic energy management and energy harvesting techniques are solutions for autonomous operations of embedded systems.

Power Consumption by Embedded Systems An embedded system is a computing system that is specifically built to complete a certain task. Its applications

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range from consumer, aviation, and space equipment etc.

These systems are completely or partially isolated from human interaction. Moreover, sometimes they may be expected to continue operating in such a state for many years. A major constraint in the design of mobile embedded systems today is the low capacity of the battery for a given size and weight. The problem is to integrate variety of power reducing methods proposed in the designs. These designs need to be based on a notion that power consumption is as important as performance. Popular peripherals, components and microcontrollers are used in variable combinations or may not be used in all systems.

Performance issues are frequently observed by incorrect handling, inefficient configuration and unused components resulting in system instability.

Mechanisms for Power Management A set of mechanisms enable designers to directly influence, or even control, the power management strategy for a system. These mechanisms have been modeled around typical embedded system requirements, including small footprint, little overhead, and noninterference with real-time NOVEMBER 2018

Power Management

constraints. The primary mechanisms for power management are having an autonomous power manager, whose policies can be configured. The decisions outputs of these power managers are given due weightage in the interactions between applications and system. The management API can be enabled for applications to override specific policies. Another mechanism could be a power management infrastructure for system components, with accounting, auto-suspend, and auto-resume tools. At the level of user-visible system components like files, sockets, and processes that supports semantic energy modes arbitrary energy modes. The hardware features are supportive to implement power management strategies that are aware of the context. Power management mechanisms can also benefit from device drivers for the operating NOVEMBER 2018

systems. Applications must run with platform-specific operatives by themselves without the need for separate commands.

Secondary Peripheral Mechanisms Power management architecture supported by android systems framework can be used along with methods like using the proximity sensors of the mobile or any other device to adjust the illumination of LCD to reduce battery consumption. An external power management chip can also be used to reduce the voltage level of peripherals based on the CPU state. For example, if the CPU is no longer active, then reduce the voltage levels of peripherals interfaced to it.

Another example could be of using a core regulator for the

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processor when CPU is in the idle state so that it reduces the voltage level required for core and memory process and restoring the voltage levels when CPU is active. There are innovative tools to monitor applications for their power consumptions and a user can see the report and close down such applications. Applications like gaming and network leaded services which consume a high portion of power are controlled by implementing sophisticated algorithms which can reduce the battery usage in such as Wi-Fi, GPS on devices.

Diverse Fields of Knowledge Two of the upcoming technologies have been in the forefront against the power consumption. The techniques are fuel cells and Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) systems. The researchers believe that these technologies will eventually resolve the energy constraints by improving energy efficiency. Researchers from such a diverse area as physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, design automation are coming together to solve problems in power and energy management. Their efforts are further augmented by scientists from areas like logic and high-level synthesis, computer architecture, operating systems, compiler design, and application development to make it a multidimensional work.

Solutions at Software Front Additional power savings can be applied through algorithmic and at architectural level changes but it has its own limitation with respect to voltage scaling. System loading and processing requirements techniques are useful for dynamic voltage scaling. Clock power optimizations will remain a challenge as higher frequencies and increased pipelining are applied to extract increased performance.

Parallelism must be efficiently extracted without sacrificing the goal of low power. Software generation strategies that are based on cost functions will be increasingly common in these future systems.

Integrated System of Hardware and Software Designing an embedded system comprises management of complex interactions between hardware and software. The hardware and software development processes are becoming more integrated to achieve the best results in

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power consumption. Power management is directed by major commercial technologies and other emerging technologies that may affect it. As the field of embedded systems is still active, hence researchers are continually developing new algorithms. They are exploring how to integrate algorithms along with multiple levels of heuristics hardware techniques. It is desirable to overcome the limits imposed by high power consumption and continue to build processors offering greater levels of performance. The wide variety of micro-architectural and software techniques are available today. Intelligent techniques can be designed to manage power consumption of embedded systems such as using the microcontrollers with on-chip peripherals.

Critical Areas of Utility Embedded systems have the advantage of being isolated from the hacking hence they are used in transportation, fire safety, medical applications and life-critical systems. The implementation of an application using Power Management (PM) may differ with each case of usage where the PM software takes care of selecting the operating points and resource availability. These systems functions and estimation of its power consumption are a key issue in designing battery-powered devices. It will continue to functioning longer without recharging or changing the battery if less power is consumed. Development of ultra-low power consuming electronics has created a possibility of receiving necessary energy for their operation from the environment. These sources of energy are convenient for device use from ecological point of view.

Broader Perspectives on Future Global warming and environmental concerns are also major contributing factors to attract the attention of consumers, industries, and governments into give serious considerations to the energy crisis. The world economy is changing and the balance in the supply and demand equation for energy suppliers will also be fluctuating. There will be an uncertainty of non-renewable energy sources oil and gas supplies in the world. In upcoming years, the impact of insecurity on the energy market will become a delicate issue. Therefore, the technology which helps in energy efficiency will be in high demand. Consequently, the energy efficient technologies will see a high demand in the forthcoming years.

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VividQ: Crafted a Landmark Software Framework to Boost Holographic Display

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olographic display has long been considered the pinnacle of display technology amongst top academics and researchers in the field of digital display. This has been further powered by the popularity of epic science fiction franchises such as Star Wars and Star Trek which have been enormously influential in making holography appeal to the imagination of millions of fans worldwide.

The key missing component for diffractive holography to take off commercially has been the lack of a software framework to generate holograms efficiently enough for consumer applications. VividQ provides this framework out of the box, allowing for those new, superior display systems to work on standard computing power, which has been the major obstacle for holography since its inception in the 1970s.

Witnessed a Phenomenal Beginning This London based organization has seen a fabulous rise within a year since its inception. Founded in February 2017, VividQ has expanded its business footprint across Europe, US and Asia. Today, it offers solutions to many leading hardware and embedded architectures manufacturers including Intel, Sony, Himax and many more. The company always focuses on continuous innovation for the positive disruption in the technological sphere to bring sci-fi dream into reality.

This trailblazing firm has made a cutting-edge holography solution with its first, complete software framework for holographic 3D display and point cloud processing. Its flagship product has the ability to craft 3D interactive holograms in real-time, using standard computing power allowing universal, commercial applications of holography.

“With immersive 3D content and specialist hardware now commercially available, VividQ becomes an ubiquitous element of the upcoming wave of holographic devices,”

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Darran Milne, Co-founder and CEO

stated the company. “VividQ provides the only technical solution capable of 3D visualisation without the need for a head-mounted system or glasses.”

The Distinctiveness of VividQ Holographic technology has never seen a commercial success in the market, although effectiveness of this technology has been proved in the laboratory a long time ago. Many cite computational complexity and mammoth data that flow through the system as the vital reasons behind its commercial distress. Since, it would take up to several minutes to compute even a single frame for a holographic video, rendering the technology largely useless for consumer devices and hindering the NOVEMBER 2018

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development of display systems based on diffractive holography.

Many players entered into the market to fill this void with alternatives like 3D glasses, head-mounted-displays or Pepper’s Ghost concert projections to achieve immersive experiences. But these are intrinsically limited in the content they can display and the level of realism they can achieve.

“VividQ solutions allow holography to break out of academic labs” Prof. Tim Wilkinson (Head of Photonic Engineering at University of Cambridge) “VividQ is going to completely revolutionise the way we think about 3D computing and display” Phil Green (CFO at Reach Robotics) The Torchbearers at VividQ

VividQ’s products, however, crafted a niche in the market with its state-of-the art offering for digital display of the future. The company provides the first, complete, end-to-end software framework for holographic display, comprising of 4 modules. It includes the leading pointcloud data compression tool - Squeeze, and the

“

Vision and thirst of crafting something unique are the main ingredients of a successful leadership. No company can create waves in the industry without having an adept think tank on its board.

VividQ also has some prominent names of the Industry on its governing body. Darran Milne (Co-founder and

We work in partnership with pretty much all the major embedded systems companies including technology giants like Intel.

world’s fastest 3D hologram generator enabling truly holographic mixed reality with multiple depth planes Core. Its product effectiveness can be gauged from the praiseworthy comments it has earned in the last one and a half years of corporate journey.

Some of the excerpts from its prominent supporters are: “VividQ created a commercially viable product which defines and catalyses Mixed Reality applications” Eric Ries (Lean Startup methodology founder)

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CEO) and Aleksandra Pedraszewska (Co-founder and Head of Commercial) are the two commercial pillars of VividQ, leading the company towards the highest peak of excellence.

Darran is a Mathematician and Theoretical Physicist by training, with a PhD in quantum information theory and quantum optics. He began his career as a post-doctoral researcher and a quantitative analyst for a large financial software company, leading new development initiatives and

managing client implementation projects. He directed the original research and development efforts at VividQ while also maintaining academic collaborations and investor relations. Darran’s passion for VividQ stems from his interest in future display technologies. The CEO asserts an interesting fact on giving details about company’s trademarked product:“VividQ is the only company in the market to offer a complete software framework for real time holographic 3D display. Our SDK handles everything from data import and standardization to complex light field calculations and holographic display protocols.”

Aleksandra has done MPhil in Technology Policy at Cambridge Judge Business School. Today, she heads up VividQ’s sales, marketing, and operations in the London office. She focuses on taking VividQ’s software platform to the market alongside world-leading hardware partners. Prior to establishing VividQ, she has worked with many prominent organizations like Rolls-Royce, HBO, and IdeaLab Ventures. Recently, she has been named on the Code First: Girls “Ones to Watch 2018” list.

On throwing light on company’s future goals, the management stated, “As holographic display becomes the industry standard in 3D visualisation, VividQ will become the underlying software driving these next generation devices, using embedded architectures.

Growth will initially be in step with the expected exponential scaling of the AR/MR market.”

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Zolertia: Pioneering Embedded Revolution and Serving Clients with Ebullience

S

tarting from human- to- machine communication to machine-to machine communication, Internet of Things is indeed the most phenomenal revolution in IT sector. Studies have estimated that there are close to 15 billion connected devices which would be increasing to 60 billion by the year 2020. These connected devices would be generating trillions of data; data that business capitalizes on. With the plethora of data flowing in, IoT is the only way to fetch these data and make use of it effectively in business. This is the reason why enterprises are focusing more on offering IoT solutions. However, the customized solutions can be very expensive, time consuming and even the development stages are prolonged. Zolertia, a company based out of Catalonia, Spain develops modularized product which dramatically reduces the ‘time-to-market’ of any new IoT solution.

Inception Story Marc Fàbregas-Bachs, the Founder and CEO of Zolertia is an astute entrepreneur. Living by the quote of Nolan Bushnell, “The true entrepreneur is a doer not a dreamer”, Marc has always been enthusiastic about entrepreneurship. Zolertia being his fifth start up, Marc has an extensive experience in technology. While Marc has always been an enthusiast of technology, his last four ventures are focused on the IoT technologies and applications.

The story of Zolertia stepping into developing hardware for IoT applications is very edifying. After working in Internet of Things from the engineering point of view, the company forecasted the scope of development and innovation in this sector. The team realized that there was a potential need of finished products instead of

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Marc Fàbregas-Bachs, Founder and CEO

customized solutions. During those days the team had time and the opportunity to detect the industry needs and requirements. This helped the team analyse what kind of solutions would add value to the customers.

Considering all these factors and having a strong conviction that IoT will be a game changer, Zolertia placed its bet into this technology. Having more than 270 customers and serving more than 30 countries worldwide, proves the global accolade Zolertia has earned.

Enduring and High-Powered solutions The intelligence of any company lies in its efficiency NOVEMBER 2018

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in fixing a major problem. Zolertia have mastered this intelligence very gracefully. Having a keen eye for observation, Zolertia’s team of expert engineers successfully develops modularized products that help in the smooth functioning of IoT applications. These products, being cost-effective also comes with other perks like reduced ‘time-to-market’.

Zoul; the patent product of Zolertia, is the other key facet that sets the company apart from others. This product is an open IoT wireless embedded module supporting the 6LoWPAN/OpenThread

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consuming than regular WiFi boards.

However, acknowledging its mesh topology, Zoul keeps a good trade-off between the energy and the range of the communications to cover large areas.

While there are multiple options in the market to create an Internet connected device, Zolertia is the only company that has developed modules using the 6LoWPAN stack, a TCP/UDP and IP based module to create true connected devices, where every object has an IP address and is an entity in Internet. Gratified by the service, one of the clients, Hassan

Converting our know-how into a modularized product and dramatically reducing the time-to-market of a new IoT solution

communications protocols. The Zoul includes all the embedded software that one needs to build IoT solutions based in LAN connectivity and star and mesh network topologies. It’s an open platform where one can run their application on top of the Contiki OS or the RIOT RTOSs. The Zoul is the smallest module solution that can be used to create low-power connectivity for local networks, up to 300 times less power

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Razi (Product Manager at RIVA Lighting) quoted, “With the Zoul module and Zolertia we went from the idea to the market in less than 9 months, including certifications. For 6LoWPAN technology there is no other solution that can plug’n’play”.

pilot stages of a development, and converting the creation of a prototype. The company also invests its know-how in its Customer’s Support department. This department focuses on documenting all the information and the examples and provide consultancy to customers that want to integrate the Zoul in their products.

Future Roadmap As IoT is set to bring a revolution in the embedded industry, embedded solutions is the only solution to connect devices smartly. Zolertia, one of the pioneers of this upcoming revolution is helping businesses in bringing agility. The future road of Zolertia is very distinctive. The team has been successful at proving the importance and use of its technology.

While there are many successful demonstrations of Zolertia’s technology, the company, yet needs to advertise its technology in the market. Though, it has been already been proved that Zolertia has a cutting-edge technology, the company plans to focuses to integrate its technology in more complex and actual products.

Apart from the patent product, the company also develops other essential tools like hardware and software. These tools simplify the prototyping, the proof of concept, the

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