3D printing wrist splints

Loughborough University lecturer Dr. Abby Paterson has developed an innovative app that will allow clinicians to easily design and manufacture a new generation of custom-made 3D printed wrist splints.

According to 3DERS, the next-gen splints are more comfortable, attractive and affordable than current options.

“I wanted to give clinicians the ability to make splints that they have not been able to make before,” said Paterson. “They can improve the aesthetics, the fit, and integrate extra bits of functionality they couldn’t do before.”

As Paterson notes, the splints, which provide joint protection, rest, and promote pain relief, could be a major boost for sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis.

Dr. Bibb, who supervised Paterson’s PhD, said he believes the new splints will be cost-effective.

“We are in the development phase. The research has proved that this is desirable and the clinicians want it. We know there’s lots of potential.”

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, 3D printing technology – projected to be a $3 billion business by 2016 – is rapidly evolving, particularly in the medical space. Indeed, 3D printed orthopedic implants were recently fitted in Peking’s University Third Hospital in Beijing, while doctors at the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan successfully transplanted 3D printed bones into four patients with cervical spine (cervical) disc herniation.

Similarly, 3D printing tech helped doctors at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University repair a patient’s damaged skull in China, while researchers at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology used 3D printing technology to create living human kidneys. In September, scientists at Nottingham Trent University and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS (UK) Trust announced the development of an electronic smart pump to help victims of chronic heart failure.

Of course, the DIY Maker Movement has been using Atmel-powered 3D printers like MakerBot and RepRap for some time now. However, 3D printing has clearly entered a new and important stage in a number of spaces including the medical sphere, architectural arena, science lab and even on the battlefield.

“Always on” with Hillcrest Freespace and Atmel MCUs

Hillcrest Labs has announced that Coolpad Group (previously China Wireless) is using the company’s sensor hub software to enable “always on” sensing for Coolpad smartphones.

More specifically, Hillcrest’s Freespace software will run on Atmel’s low-power microcontroller (MCU) solutions to provide high performance sensor fusion, gesture recognition and always on context awareness capabilities – with dramatically lower power consumption and extended battery life.

“Coolpad realizes that sensors are critical to differentiate its functionality and maintain its dramatic growth in the global smartphone market,” said Chad Lucien, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Hillcrest Labs. “We’re proud to have been selected by Coolpad to provide the sensor hub functionality that will define its new mobile experience and enable context awareness, augmented reality, improved navigation and better gaming.”

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, sensor hubs are a separate class of chips designed to offload sensor management from the main processor for mobile phones and other devices. Essentially, they reduce the power requirements to add always on sensing in smartphones, tablets and wearables devices such as activity monitors, smartwatches, as well as head mounted displays (HMDs).

This enables gesture control, context awareness, pedestrian navigation, augmented reality, health and fitness monitoring, along with immersive gaming. Hillcrest’s sensor hub software products combine an array of sophisticated algorithms to provide low power, high performance sensor fusion and transform sensor data into valuable application-ready information.

Interested in learning more? You can check out Hillcrest’s official site here and Atmel’s MCU product page here.

Drag & drop programming with Pepino

The recently unveiled Project Pepino is a comprehensive drag and drop development environment for Makers.

Created by Tovi Levis, the open source Pepino comprises both a hardware platform and software layer.

On the hardware side, Pepino boasts a custom-designed board powered by Atmel’s popular ATmega328 microcontroller (MCU).

Additional key hardware specs include:

• 8 digital inputs/outputs
• 4 LEGO sensors
• 2 analog inputs
• 2 Motors
• I2C Bus
• LCD Display
• 3D Printed Case

Meanwhile, the software environment is hosted on a Raspberry Pi (model B) that connects to the Atmel-powered board.

Levis says he created Pepino as a final project for his degree at the Afeka College of Engineering in Israel, with source code and installation instructions expected to go live at some point in the near future.

Although additional details are still scarce at this point, you can check out Project Pepino’s official page here.

Atmel-powered Printoo featured on Gigaom, EDN

Printoo – powered by Atmel’s ATmega328 microcontroller (MCU) – is a lineup of paper-thin, low-power boards and modules that offer Makers and devs new levels of creative flexibility.

The open source platform, created by the Ynvisible crew, made its official Kickstarter debut last week and has already been covered by a number of prominent publications, including EDN, Gigaom and Quartz.

“A spin-out from YDreams, Ynvisible was founded in 2010 with the goal to bring more interactivity to everyday objects and surfaces, mostly through the use of flexible and printed electronics including the company’s fully transparent electrochromic display. The paper-thin display, which only becomes visible when activated can easily be integrated with different background graphics,” writes EDN’s Julien Happich.

“Running Arduino software, the first Printoo packs include novel printed modules including LED light strips from VTT lab, 1.5V printed batteries from Blue Spark and Enfucell, 0.350mm thin organic photodetectors from ISORG, printed polymer solar cells from Mekoprint, and Ynvisible’s own transparent printed displays running from 1.5V. Also included are modules like Bluetooth LE, DC motor control, flexible LED matrixes, and a variety of sensors. The Printoo core is powered by the Atmel ATmega328 microcontroller.”

As Gigaom’s Signe Brewster notes, printed circuits are currently being considered for everything from shipping labels to tiny spacecraft NASA might send to Mars.

“Ynvisible expects Printoo to find a home among 3D printer owners and DIYers already familiar with Arduino,” Brewster explains.

“The modules are small enough to slip into a 3D printed object, opening up ways to easily create robots and other moving or connected devices. They could also be worn as a bracelet or sewn into clothes.”

Meanwhile, Lio Mirani of Quartz points out that bendable electronics could be the future of the rapidly evolving Internet of Things (IoT).

“When the first Harry Potter movie came out in 2001 the idea of the Daily Prophet, a newspaper that contains moving pictures, qualified as magic. A Kickstarter campaign by Ynvisible, a Lisbon-based technology firm, is bringing that magic to life with its displays, held together with paper-thin circuitry,” writes Mirani.

“Ynvisible’s ‘vision’ is to ‘bring everyday objects to life.’ For that to happen, it isn’t just processing power that needs to get cheaper and smaller, which it has, but the input and output mechanisms also need to be smaller and easily adaptable. Ynvisible is betting there is a broad market for such technology. The roaring success of its Kickstarter campaign is an early validation of that belief.”

Indeed, Ynvisible has already raised close to $36,000 – with support from almost 300 backers. Interested in learning more? You can check out the project’s official Kickstarter page here.

Atmel celebrates 50 billion with ARM

ARM – which employs over 2,000 people around the globe – has billions of RISC-based processors in the wild and powers approximately 95% of the world’s smartphones. Recently, the British company marked a major milestone: 50 billion ARM-powered chips shipped.

Commenting on the milestone, Reza Kazerounian, Senior Vice President of Microcontrollers at Atmel, noted that ARM helps embedded developers significantly accelerate the development cycle by offering access to standard cores and an extensive ecosystem, including software and reference designs.

Kazerounian also said the next 100 billion chips will likely be led by intelligent connectivity, primarily in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT).

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel offers an extensive portfolio of microcontrollers (MCUs) and microprocessors (MPUs) based on the world’s most popular 8- and 32-bit architectures: Atmel AVR and ARM. Indeed, Atmel’s two decades of microcontroller leadership and innovation include many industry-firsts:

• The first Flash microcontroller, the first ARM7-based 32-bit Flash microcontroller
• The first 100nA microcontroller with RAM retention
• The first ARM9-based Flash microcontroller

“In order to simplify the embedded design process, we’ve meticulously built a robust ecosystem around our ARM microcontrollers,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces. ”Meaning, Atmel offers a wide range of software tools and embedded software that support leading operating systems, along with low-cost evaluation kits.”

In addition, Atmel’s flexible and highly integrated ARM-based MCUs are designed to optimize system control, user interface (UI) management and ease of use. That’s why our ARM Cortex-M3 and M4 based architectures share a single integrated development platform (IDP): Atmel Studio 6. This platform offers time-saving source code with more than 1,600 example projects, access to debuggers/simulators, integration with Atmel QTouchtools for capacitive touch applications and the Atmel Gallery online apps store where embedded software extensions can be downloaded.

Meanwhile, Atmel ARM-based MPUs range from entry-level devices to advanced highly-integrated devices with extensive connectivity, refined interfaces and ironclad security.

“Whether you are working on new, existing or legacy designs, a wide range of Atmel ARM-based devices provides the latest features and functionality. These devices also feature the lowest power consumption, a comprehensive set of integrated peripherals and high-speed connectivity,” the engineering rep added.

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s extensive ARM portfolio? You can check out our ARM MCUs here and our ARM MPUs here.

IoT sensor fusion with ARM and Atmel on Google+

Sensors convert physical world characteristics into raw data that is subsequently processed by various hardware and software platforms. As the name implies, sensor fusion combines sensory data from multiple sources to improve the overall state of the system being observed.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, ensuring an extended battery life is perhaps the most important criterion for any device with integrated sensors.

On Tuesday, February 18, ARM will be hosting a live Google+ Hangout panel with executives from Atmel, Freescale and Sensor Platforms. 

The panelists are slated to discuss various software and hardware design techniques that can help IoT developers achieve a precise balance between low power sipping and high software complexity.

You can follow the panel discussion and access the live video feed from the following links:

• ARM Google+ page – A video link will be posted once the Hangout kicks off
• Google+ event page – If you have a Google account you can RSVP and receive a reminder before the hangout
• ARM Facebook event page
• ARM’s original blog post, in the comments section
• @ARMCommunity and @ARMEmbedded Twitter channels

Panelists include:

• 

Diya Soubra – CPU Product Marketing Manager for Cortex-M ARM Processors at ARM
• Adrian Woolley – Director of Strategy and Business Development at Atmel’s Microcontroller Business Unit
• 

Mike Stanley – Manager of Freescale’s Sensor Solutions Division
• 
Kevin A. Shaw – CTO of Sensor Platforms
• Will Tu – Director of Embedded Segment Marketing at ARM

We’ll see you on Tuesday, February 18!!!

Phoenix 3D printer – powered by the ATMega1284P

The Phoenix 3D printer – powered by Atmel’s versatile ATMega1284P – is a low-cost, fully loaded entry-level printer with a heated bed, comprehensive management software and print failure recovery.

According to the Phoenix crew, the 3D printer emphasizes the software side of things, as it helps Makers manage filament and group STL files into logical groups. Perhaps most importantly, the device offers a unique feature: print recovery mode.

“3D printers are still susceptible to many flaws, including filament tangles and nozzle jams. Should something go wrong in the middle of your 12 hour print, you used to have to throw it in the trash and start over,” the Phoenix 3D printer cew explained in a recent Kickstarter post.

“With our software, we allow you to pause the print, fix your tangled filament or clogged nozzle, rewind the print to the point of failure, and try again. Our software also works directly with our iOS mobile app (Android version forthcoming).”

The Phoenix 3D printer also differs from other units in terms of its Z Axis, as it swaps the screw for a belt, facilitating optimized walls and edges without a wobble pattern.

Additional key specs include:

• Build Area: 240 x 215 x 200 millimeters
• Resolution: 0.1mm all around
• 12-volt, 40-watt heater 0.35mm brass nozzle
• Heated build platform, which means you can print with ABS!
• 12-volt, 20-amp, 240-watt power supply
• Integrated filament spool holder. No need to buy special or proprietary cartridges!
• Adjustable Z-axis cutoff switch for reliable print starts

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-powered Phoenix 3D printer? Be sure to check out the project’s official page on Kickstarter.

Zcapture: Atmel + Arduino = Open Source 360 photography

The Arduino-based Zcapture – which recently surfaced on KickStarter – is designed to provide a low-cost, high-quality product that can be modified, hacked or customized to fit individual needs.

According to Zcapture creator Jared Bouck, the device is positively “disruptive” to an emerging industry of 360 driven content creation – illustrating a better way of doing things while providing information in a user-centric medium.

“The humble beginnings of Zcapture came from my own personal interest in experimentation about 8 years ago with Basic Stamp programming. Roughly 4 years ago I discovered the Arduino NG and fell in love with the [Atmel-powered] Arduino platform from the point of view that anyone could learn it and use it. Immediately I set to work to build and refine the Zcapture system based on this robust platform,” Bouck explained in a Kickstarter post.

“[Remember], I have been deeply involved in web development for 15 years and a great majority of that time has been focused on eCommerce development and design. In that time I have always found that the lack of meaningful product information is a killer when presenting a product in a meaningful way to have them purchase.”

So how does Zcapture work? Well, the system comprises three tightly integrated components – hardware, software and HTML.

“This allows you to easily go from item to website in as little as 15 minutes,” said Bouck. “[Plus], the design and functionality of each system has been designed to be as easy to implement as possible with intuitive controls so that just about anyone can set-up, connect and shoot amazing 360 shots.”

Indeed, Zcapture is designed to operate 100% autonomously – without the need to be connected or controlled from a computer. It also boasts features like optical isolation from camera equipment and active cooling to ensure cool and stable operation.

“Makers will love how easy Zcapture is to use. Gone are the days of a project build with static photos,” he added. “Now instructions can be step-by-step in 360, allowing the reader to see all the intricacies of your project. Even better is the ability to show off your project complete and polished.”

The Zcapture is compatible with most SLR cameras that support an external shutter control, working natively with all Cannon and Nikon Camera models out of the box. It should be noted that for the base KickStarter model, Zcapture will only be supporting Canon and Nikon cameras, although stretch goals will be set for the inclusion of additional cameras, as well IR header support for most point and shoot cameras.

Interested in learning more? Be sure to check out Zcapture on Kickstarter here.

A Deep Dive Into the Unique Challenge Authentication Model

By: Nelson Lunsford

Let’s take a closer look at the unique challenge authentication model, using an Atmel CryptoAuthentication IC, for protecting your design’s intellectual property (IP). At its most basic, the Atmel ATSHA204 CryptoAuthentication IC receives a challenge from a host system and a response is sent back to that host system. That challenge is combined with a secret key stored in the secure memory of the ATSHA204 using the MAC command. Then, the result or response is sent back to the host system. If the response is correct as determined by the host system, then the operation can proceed. What if a malicious entity (a hacker) had been monitoring the bus where the host and the client are exchanging the challenge and the subsequent response? If the challenge was the same value, then the response would be the same every time and the hacker would know that response without ever knowing the embedded secret in the ATSHA204 device. This would enable the use of a knock off product even when a company took steps to prevent it.

One simple solution to this specific problem would be to prevent the hacker from having prior knowledge of what the response is. If the challenge was different every time it is sent to the ATSHA204 IC, then the response would be different every time. A unique challenge does exactly that. Even if the hacker has a list of challenges and associated responses, they will not have the correct response or it will take too long to find it in a pre-compiled list.  A unique challenge is a perfect method for defending a system against replay-style attacks. If you are using a hardware security device on the host side, you would use the random number generator (RNG) within the hardware to generate the challenge, thus making the response completely random. However, many embedded systems do not have a high-quality RNG. An alternative to an RNG would be simply to use the date and the time of day combined. If a time of day is not available in the system, then a counter could be used. A counter with the combination of the serial number of the client device can be used. A counter does not have to increment by ‘1’; some multiplier function could be used instead.

What is the Difference Between Encryption and Authentication?

By: Gunter Fuchs

Not considering how to actually do encryption or authentication, it is fairly simple for a native Latin speaker (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=authentic, http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=crypto) to distinguish between the two. We authenticate something to prove to the receiver of the “something” that it actually came from us. We encrypt a message so nobody, including us, can read it. Why do we authenticate or encrypt? We authenticate so that the receiver is assured that what she received came from us and not from an imposter. This “thing” can be an item – a coin or painting for instance, or a piece of information, an email attachment or a speed command to a uranium centrifuge. We encrypt information so that only the intended receiver(s) can understand it.

So that was simple. But why do computer gurus go through great efforts to provide means of information authentication? Wouldn’t encrypting information be enough? Couldn’t the sender just include its name and address in the information and then encrypt? Well, no. The problem is that although a “man in the middle” will not understand the information, he will still be able to change it. For instance, in computer communication protocols a destination address (port) might be at a fixed position in a message. An adversary could copy such a message when it is on its way through some wire, change this value randomly, and monitor its own port/s until one of these messages – though still garbled – arrives. Once the adversary has received one message, he can now inject the encrypted port value for his own port for every message. One message would not be enough for a hacker to perform decryption,  but many makes this possible.  Not only would an adversary then be able to decipher messages that were not meant for her, but she can now also “break the code”, meaning deduce the encryption key. And with that key in hand, she can now send messages that are not authentic.

Therefore, a secure communication consists of authenticating the message and encrypting it.  To learn more about the importance of protecting your trade secrets, check out this white paper.