Writing for ComputerWorld, Matt Hamblen reports that an apps shortage has been a “major shortfall” plaguing many wearable devices. As Hamblen notes, some smartwatches might have only 15 to 20 apps – and often require Bluetooth to connect with a nearby smartphone.
“Compare that number to the 1 million-plus apps in Apple’s App Store or Google Play for smartphones and you begin to see the challenge,” wrote Hamblen. “Analysts expects not only an explosion of wearable devices in the next three years, but an explosion of mobile apps of all kinds.”
Indeed, Gartner has predicted that wearable devices will drive half of all app interactions by 2017, a projection reinforced by the flurry of wearable devices showcased at CES 2014 earlier this month in Las Vegas.
“The level of use of wearable apps is pretty nominal today,” Gartner analyst Brian Blau told ComputerWorld. “But the new cadre of smartwatches shown at CES and things pinned to clothes [or other devices indicates] it is safe to say that there will soon be a way to interact, through a mobile app, that’s in lieu of almost any other way of interacting, including the mobile Web or the desktop Web.”
Blau also confirmed that virtually all vendors are choosing mobile apps to interact with wearable devices.
“Apps are an obvious and convenient platform to enable great products and services to be developed. Our forecast on app usage is based on the basic trends of how many wearables will be out there and basic metrics around app interaction,” he added. “A good portion of what people are going to do will be based on some type of data that originated from a point in the past from a wearable device… Developers will follow the money.”
Earlier this month, Atmel debuted its AvantCar concept at CES 2014 in Las Vegas. The fully functional console features two large curved touchscreen displays – without mechanical buttons. Instead, the touchscreens integrate capacitive touch buttons and sliders, allowing users to navigate general applications typically found within an automotive center console.
This includes global navigation system (GPS), car thermostat, audio controls for a radio or media player, seat controls and more. AvantCar also allows drivers to personalize their in-vehicle environment using advanced touch capabilities and LIN connectivity system to control ambient lighting.
According to Atmel Marketing Director Stephan Thaler, AvantCar successfully demonstrates the future of human machine interface (HMI) in upcoming vehicles. Indeed, next-generation automotive designs will be influenced by a wide range of trends in the consumer market such as slick and curved centerstack designs, as well as customization by appearance, color, navigation and interaction with a smartphone or tablet.
Atmel offers a number of comprehensive platforms and solutions to address the current and future requirements of a modern in-vehicle human-machine interface (HMI). However, the AvantCar Centerstack demo is the company’s first fully functional concept showcasing groundbreaking solutions within the automobile.
To be sure, AvantCar is powered entirely by Atmel technology, including maXTouch (two touchscreens), XSense (curved panel design), QTouch (touch buttons and sliders), dedicated algorithms running on Atmel touch chips and microcontrollers (proximity detection), as well as LIN-based ambient lighting control.
Let’s take a closer look at the above-mentioned technology behind the concept.
maXTouch
Atmel’s maXTouch lineup is qualified for various automotive applications, including in-vehicle touchscreens and touchpads.
maXTouch supports screens and pads from 2 inches up to 12 inches in size and is ideally suited for center stack displays as well as navigation systems, radio human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and rear seat entertainment systems. In addition, maXTouch devices provide unlimited touch identification, fast response time, precise operation and low power consumption for touch-based designs.
XSense
Atmel’s XSense touch sensors open a new world of possibilities for touch-based products. A highly flexible film, XSense sensors can be used on curved surfaces and edges, facilitating the design of futuristic in-vehicle touchscreens and surfaces. XSense also enables the replacement of mechanical switches or rotary knobs on a curved centerstack surface with more reliable, moisture-resistant, touch-based buttons.
QTouch
Atmel’s QTouch library makes it easy for developers to embed capacitive-touch button, slider, wheel and proximity functionality in microcontroller applications.
The library facilitates the design of touch panels in the centerstack, as well as overhead or door panels. Plus, the royalty-free QTouch Library offers several files for each device, while supporting a number of touch channels – enabling both flexibility and efficiency in touch applications. In addition, Atmel provides a number of fixed-function products from 1 to 48 channels, with some of them qualified for the automotive market.
Automotive-qualified mcirocontrollers
New automotive functions require local intelligence and control, which can be optimized by the use of small, powerful microcontrollers.
In conjunction with a corresponding touch library, Atmel’s automotive-qualified MCUs are ideal for driving new and futuristic capacitive-based control panels in current and future cars.
LIN-based ambient lighting control
We offer LIN-related products at all integration levels – from simple transceiver ICs to complex system basis chips (SBC), along with system-in-package solutions such as the Atmel AVR ATA664251 for ambient lighting control.
VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi recently interviewed Atmel’s Stephan Thaler about the company’s AvantCar curved touch screen console. The futuristic concept is currently being showcased at CES 2014 in Las Vegas.
As Thaler notes, Atmel’s vision includes curved displays with no mechanical buttons. The primary challenge? Making everything easy to operate and noticeable – without distracting the driver. Indeed, consumers are accustomed to the responsive touchscreens on their smartphones and tablets, expecting the same rich experience from the screens in their cars.
“We’ve tried to look into the future of the human-car interface,” said Thaler.
Nevertheless, many cars on the road are still equipped with old resistive touchscreens — if they have the devices at all. These screens are fairly slow to respond and are considered inaccurate compared to capacitive touchscreens on smartphones. In sharp contrast, Atmel’s AvantCar concept is built around a fully functional center console consisting of two large curved touchscreen displays with no mechanical buttons and a slot for docking smartphones.
One screen features a navigation map, while another offers capacitive touch buttons and sliders. However, both the primary and secondary screens are capable of displaying a wide range of data from various systems, including GPS navigation, thermostat, audio controls, seat controls and more.
AvantCar also allows drivers to personalize their internal vehicle environment (ambient lighting) via advanced touch capabilities and the automotive local interconnect network (LIN) connectivity system.
“Atmel’s AvantCar is designed to show an avant-garde concept of what future car center consoles are likely to look like and how responsive they will be to a driver’s touch using advanced HMI interfaces,” added Thaler. “We are pioneering new ground with our technologies for the automotive segment and are thrilled to add more focus in this area for the upcoming years.”
The demo – designed in in conjunction with Germaneers GmbH – can be seen at Atmel’s Meeting Room #MP25958 located in the Lower Level of the South Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Please contact pr@atmel.com to schedule an appointment.
ioBridge and Atmel have unveiled a low-cost ZigBee Gateway at CES 2014 in Las Vegas. The new gateway is powered by RealTime.io, ioBridge’s scalable Internet of Things (IoT) cloud technology and embedded firmware.
According to Hans Scharler, President, Software at ioBridge, the low-cost ZigBee gateway provides simple and seamless wireless connectivity to connected home products such as door locks, garage doors, lighting, and sprinkler systems – making them accessible from any smartphone or Internet-connected device.
“Locking and unlocking your front door with your phone will be as commonplace as using your keys in the next few years,” said Scharler. “Integration with connected home products and the mobile phone is leading the Internet of Small Things revolution.”
The RealTime.io Platform for the IoT allows any device to connect to cloud services and mobile phones to provide control, alerts, data analytics, customer insights, remote maintenance and feature selection. Manufacturers deploying ioBridge’s technology will be able to quickly and securely bring new connected home products to market while slashing their cost-per-connected device.
“For more than a decade, connecting ZigBee sub-networks with the Internet has been a major challenge,” said Magnus Pedersen, Marketing Director of MCU Wireless Products, Atmel. “ioBridge’s technology is amazingly fast and a great match for low-latency wireless applications such as lighting, security and sensors where low-power, tenacious link-quality and instant access are essential.”
Atmel MCU Applications Manager Bob Martin recently went on camera in Las Vegas to discuss the evolution of CES over the years, with a specific emphasis on the Maker Movement and DIY community.
As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel’s 8- and 32-bit microcontrollers have been the MCUs of choice for Arduino since the boards first hit the streets for DIY Makers way back in 2005.
Another cool Maker technology to surface in recent years is 3D printing, an industry expected to be worth at least $3 billion by 2016. We are at the center of the 3D printing revolution, as almost every major desktop 3D printer on the market today is based on Atmel silicon.
In addition, Atmel powers a number of wearable tech platforms for Makers and engineers, such as Adafruit’s Gemma, Trinket and FLORA.
Wearable tech also ties into the Internet of Things (IoT), which refers to a future world where all types of electronic devices link to each other via the Internet. Today, it’s estimated that there are nearly 10 billion devices in the world connected to the Internet, a figure expected to triple to nearly 30 billion devices by 2020.
As Gartner notes, 50% of companies expected to help build the rapidly evolving Internet of Things have yet to coalesce. This is precisely why Atmel views the Maker Movement as one of the primary tech incubators for future IoT companies and devices, many of which will undoubtedly use Atmel microcontrollers (MCUs) to power their respective platforms.
Atmel is showcasing its AvantCar curved touch screen console concept at CES 2014 in Las Vegas. According to Atmel Marketing Director Stephan Thaler, the exhibit demonstrates the future of human machine interface (HMI) in upcoming vehicles.
“Today’s drivers are demanding richer user experiences in the automobile, similar to smart devices in the consumer market,” Thaler explained. “This includes capactive touchscreens, curved form factors, personalized color schemes and navigation menus via touch buttons and sliders. AvantCar addresses all these requirements with an advanced user interface in the center console to include [the latest] technologies.”
As Thaler notes, Atmel’s AvantCar concept demonstrates a fully functional center console highlighting two large curved touchscreen displays with no mechanical buttons. Instead, the touchscreens integrate capacitive touch buttons and sliders – allowing the user to navigate general applications typically found within an automotive center console including global navigation system (GPS), car thermostat, audio controls for a radio or media player, seat controls and more. AvantCar also allows drivers to personalize their vehicle environment via advanced touch capabilities and the automotive local interconnect network (LIN) connectivity system, enabling individuals to simply push a single button to alter the car’s ambient lighting.
Curved touchscreen display – XSense, Atmel’s highly flexible touch sensor, employing metal mesh technology, can be used on curved surfaces and edges, giving the console a sleeker, more elegant design. XSense also facilitates the replacement of mechanical switches or rotary knobs on the curved center console with moisture resistance and glove support for drivers in cold climates.
Large capacitive touch screens – AvantCar offers optimized touch performance using Atmel’s automotive-qualified maXTouch controllers that support touchscreens and touchpads up to 12 inches. maXTouch controllers provide faster response times, more accurate touches and lower power consumption than other solutions on the market today.
Proximity sensing and capacitive touch buttons and sliders – Atmel’s QTouch technology provides a more intuitive user interface, effectively replacing mechanical buttons or rotary knobs while adding capacitive proximity detection, all embedded in a single controller. Proximity sensing will detect the approaching hand and then control, for example, lights to turn on/off and the touchscreen backlight accordingly. This feature is also ideal for night time driving especially for GPS, radio control and thermostat checks.
Ambient lighting controls – Atmel’s LIN solutions, based on the company’s RF and automotive-qualified AVR MCUs, offer an ambient lighting control option for each driver to personalize car lighting.
“Atmel’s AvantCar is designed to show an avant-garde concept of what future car center consoles are likely to look like and how responsive they will be to a driver’s touch using advanced HMI interfaces,” added Thaler. “We are pioneering new ground with our technologies for the automotive segment and are thrilled to add more focus in this area for the upcoming years.”
The demo – designed in in conjunction with Germaneers GmbH – can be seen at Atmel’s Meeting Room #MP25958 located in the Lower Level of the South Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Please contact pr@atmel.com to schedule an appointment.
Going to the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next month? In our meeting room at the show, Atmel will showcase embedded technologies that inspire smart, connected designs. Among our many demos:
QTouchADC and QMatrix touch sensing algorithms, proximity sensing, haptics and buttons, sliders and wheels functionality
To schedule a meeting with Atmel executives and Tech Experts at CES, contact your local sales representative or send an email to events@atmel.com. We will also be in the ZigBee Pavilion with demos of our ZigBee Light Link and Wireless Composer/Sniffer solutions.
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