Ingenic unveils developer board for wearable devices with NFC

ALL-IN-ONE: Ingenic Newton board can be used to create wearable NFC devices

Chinese embedded CPU provider Ingenic Semiconductor has unveiled a MIPS-based developer board that can be used to create wearable, healthcare and industrial devices that include a wide range of environmental sensors and wireless communications interfaces.

The Ingenic Newton is a single board similar in size to an SD card. It includes a MIPS CPU and memory plus a humidity and temperature module; a three axis gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer; an ECG bio-sensor; and a 4-in-1 wireless module that supports WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and BLE, FM radio and NFC. The platform supports both Android and Linux.

“The three-axis gyroscope, accelerometer [and] magnetometer can track your movement and help the CPU compute how many miles you’ve walked, for example,” MIPS technology owner Imagination Technologies has told NFC World.

“The pressure, humidity and temperature sensor can give you an idea of the weather environment you’re in and it helps people who are [sensitive] to these factors be aware of potential health hazards.”

“Finally, the bio-signal detection sensor can monitor your heart rate and notify you, your relatives or your family doctor if you’re having any potential health issues.”

“By integrating all these components on a single PCB, device manufactures save costs — since they have one component that can do everything they need — and reduce area,” the company explained. “This platform can be integrated in various devices together with other components, and create devices that are much more aware of their surrounding and can communicate easily with the user.”

Source: NFC World

Intel To Join The Android Wear Party With New Innovations In Wearables

Intel and wearables. Two names that you best get used to seeing together, as the aforementioned company is diving into the wearables sector in a major way. As part of the broader Android Wear rollout announced this week, Intel has made a point to emphasize its role in the coming explosion of wearables. The company has stated that it’s “excited to be a part of Android Wear,” which will bring a fork of Android to an entire sector that’s poised for huge growth in the years ahead.

Intel isn’t revealing any products just yet, but it — along with Broadcom, Mediatek, and Qualcomm — are going to be powering some of the products that you see emerge over the next while. Watches, head-worn devices, and items we haven’t yet conceived are likely going to be running atop of Google’s Android Wear platform, and Intel hopes to be the circuitry behind some of it. As desktop and laptop sales slow, Intel has a very real need to replace that revenue with new streams.

Breaking into the tablet, phone, and wearable sectors makes complete sense, but it remains to be seen what kind of margins exist for wearables. At any rate, it’s great to see a name like Intel pushing the sector as a whole forward. For any serious innovation to occur, we’re going to need broad, industry-wide recognition of a movement. With wearables, we’re certainly seeing it.

Intel isn’t revealing any products just yet, but it — along with Broadcom, Mediatek, and Qualcomm — are going to be powering some of the products that you see emerge over the next while. Watches, head-worn devices, and items we haven’t yet conceived are likely going to be running atop of Google’s Android Wear platform, and Intel hopes to be the circuitry behind some of it. As desktop and laptop sales slow, Intel has a very real need to replace that revenue with new streams.

Breaking into the tablet, phone, and wearable sectors makes complete sense, but it remains to be seen what kind of margins exist for wearables. At any rate, it’s great to see a name like Intel pushing the sector as a whole forward. For any serious innovation to occur, we’re going to need broad, industry-wide recognition of a movement. With wearables, we’re certainly seeing it.

Source: Hot Hardware