Highlights From Embedded Systems Conference

Tetravus writes "The Embedded Systems Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco is winding down. The finalists for this year's Best of Show include a Trek Style communicator that uses 802.11b, a home healthcare robot, and some crazy giant household remote."

Comments

Crazy Giant Household Remote

[Anonymous Coward]

To clarify, the "crazy giant household remote" is the Phillips iPronto. Yeah, it's real CRAZY!

Posted anon to avoid whoring

Now available through this SPECIAL TV Offer

[RLiegh]

"when home healthcare robots attack" On VHS or DVD....

Re:Now available through this SPECIAL TV Offer

[HomieJ]

"Home Healtcare Robots Gone Wild"

The Effect

[mao che minh]

They better hope that their web server won some kind of a "best in show", because here we come!!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

This is news for nerds, thanks...

[glenrm]

Thanks, I was getting tired of the lawyer, EULA, privacy, politics stuff. These gadets rock! I actually got excited about a Microsoft sewing machine (luckily I came to me sense and found the iPronto to be a much cooler device). The exercise bike is something I have been thinking about designing myself for a long time, to bad it was not just a USB device with speed inputs.

Microsoft stole my idea...

[Max Romantschuk]

This feels really creepy... Years ago I was thinking about interfacing my parents' exercise bike with my computer (the bike has a serial port and sends out lots of data when you're pedaling). I figured you could have all sorts of motivational games and rendered landscapes to motivate your exercise... Now Microsoft has gone and done it.

So I guess my dilemma is if I should applaud it or just conclude that it can't be safe to have an exercise bike running Winows XP ;)

Segway vs. VCB, Round 1

[Theodore Logan]

The Segway was, according to tech gurus and investors worth billions of dollars, going to be one of the greatest inventions ever, on pair with the wheel and the fire. Eventually we would design cities to fit the needs of the Segway, and not the other way round, we were told.

This was two years ago. Now that it's finally here it can't even claim the Best of Show prize at the Embedded Systems Conference, an honor that instead goes to some unheard of gizmo called the Vocera Communications badge, which appears to be nothing more than a wearable intercom telephone with built in voice recognition.

Makes you wonder...

Re:Segway vs. VCB, Round 1

[mahler3]

It was much longer than two years after automobiles became widely available before U.S. cities began to be designed around them, as opposed to streetcars, rail, and pedestrians. It finally took a joint venture between GM, Mack Truck, Standard Oil, and others, who systematically bought up the privately owned transit companies, ripped up their tracks, and replaced their routes with buses. The first waves of automobile buyers (driving on government-funded roads, of course) had drained enough previous ridership revenue from the transit companies that it wasn't too expensive to buy them out.

Cities might eventually be designed to support the Segway, or something like it, but it won't happen just because it's a neat technology. Short of a prolonged public crisis, such as a severe oil shortage, it'll take someone with deep pockets, good political connections, and a solid profit motive to make it happen.

This is just a thought, but the Segway pushers in the U.S. might want to ally themselves with bicyclists in advocating expanded lanes for all vehicles in the ~15 mph speed range. (Yes, I know that many cyclists ride faster than 15 mph. So include a passing lane. :-)

Finally, I can go home

[confused philosopher]

"Trek Style communicator that uses 802.11b"

Beam me up Scotty. What! You aren't Scotty? Why the hell are you on my network!

Re:Finally, I can go home

[stratjakt]

More like:

"Beam me up Scotty"

"I kinna do it cap'en. You be only 4 yards away you lazy yank!"

Either that or Kirk's down on some planet pointing his pringles can around aimlessly hoping to find the enterprise.

Doesn't anybody notice?

[The Kryptonian]

The Vocera product is a Star Trek communicator! They even call their custom wireless TCP/IP protocol "Turbo Treck".

This proves my thesis that the kids who grew up watching Star Trek twenty years ago are out there by the thousands trying to build it today.

(Whadya know, a relevant post for once..)

Walkie-Talkie?

[GigsVT]

Why waste 802.11b spectrum on voice communications? There are already many chunks of spectrum available for voice communications, but very little available for unlicensed digital use.

iPronto remote

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, that Philips iPronto remote sure is big with lots of buttons and stuff for controling everything in my house!

But does it have a function to mute my wife?

Microsoft's entry actually sounds cool

[anonymous loser]

The Exertris Interactive Bike combines the fun and addictive quality of computer games with the health benefits of exercise. Using a concept called pedal-to-play, the player/biker is required to use their pedaling energy to power elements inside the game; all games are based on this premise. The bike's interactive gaming system is built on Microsoft Windows XP Embedded -- an operating system that delivers the power of Windows in componentized form and a toolset enabling rapid development of reliable devices.

You know, I've been wishing for something like this for a long time. I get bored out of my mind on traditional aerobic exercise equipment, and especially on days with crappy weather, I have no choice for getting a good aerobic workout indoors (except the obvious, uh...alternative, which is difficult when my fiance is several thousand miles away). For the same reason I enjoy playing DDR and Konami's excellent Mocap Boxing game. I play DDR at home as a workout alternative to treadmills, but Mocap Boxing is too expensive to do every day, but I still go play 5-6 games every once in a while. That game makes my arms really tired, but it's a great workout and really fun.

Re:Microsoft's entry actually sounds cool

[Caoch93]

You know, I've been wishing for something like this for a long time. I get bored out of my mind on traditional aerobic exercise equipment, and especially on days with crappy weather, I have no choice for getting a good aerobic workout indoors (except the obvious, uh...alternative, which is difficult when my fiance is several thousand miles away). For the same reason I enjoy playing DDR [konami.co.jp] and Konami's excellent Mocap Boxing [konami.co.uk] game. I play DDR at home as a workout alternative to treadmills, but Mocap Boxing is too expensive to do every day, but I still go play 5-6 games every once in a while. That game makes my arms really tired, but it's a great workout and really fun.

Heh...I just made a post like this in a different thread. Konami has made attempts at the video game/exercise crossover, but not with DDR. They've done traditional "treadmill games" as have been available for quite some time. I honestly think DDR is a very serious cultural entry in video games, bringing in the competetive spirit of fighting games, dance culture, and a kickass workout. I bike and lift weights, too, but the DDR is a more intense workout and is the only workout that I enjoy and will virtually never slack off on.

BTW, if Mocap Boxing makes your arms tired, you need to punch less with your arms. I find I have much better endurance at it when I don't just jab (which uses mostly arms) but add in hooks, crosses, and uppercuts, which use your back muscles more extensively. My arms are much less tired then, my shoulders and back get a workout, and because I use the larger muscle groups there, the workout is more cardiovascular.

Anyway, I gotta say- Konami's on their game (no pun intended) with their non-standard interface stuff. It's a pity they haven't capitalized on it as far as they could.

ESC Special Reports from LInux & Windows angle

[Anonymous Coward]

LinuxDevices.com has published a detailed SPECIAL REPORT on the Embedded Systems Conference which includes a summary of Linux oriented announcements, plus a story on the best-of-show awards, and also the PC/104 design contest winners, announced this morning. Its sister site, WindowsForDevices.com, has published a similar special report, but more oriented toward embedded Windows perspective -- that one includes a table of the awesome set of gadgets and devices on display in the Microsoft pavilion.

Re:Video game exercise bike

[Caoch93]

Konami has had something like that out for a while, and this goes back even further to when NordicTrack offered an interface from your NordicTrack to your computer to play a game by skiing on the thing and playing with controllers on the handles.

The problem I've seen in the past is that, in order to encourage pedalling/skiing/etc, the game invariably is a game where you make a character go faster or slower based on your exercise pattern. You know something? If I'm running in a hamster wheel, I don't want to see how my work is aiding a fictional character who is likewise running. I'm trying to ignore the drudgery of my workout, not be reminded of it! I'd rather watch the TV in the gym or read. At least then my mind is elsewhere.

Honestly, I'm amazed Konami hasn't leveraged its Dance Dance Revolution product line for gym use. Dance Dance Revolution is, thus far, the only video game I play where I get a workout and enjoy doing it. I could imagine that Konami could sell conversion kits for the aerobics rooms in gyms that would allow people to have an experience similar to DDR. There's such a strong culture built around that game series that I would think it'd be ripe for spinoffs in markets other than the pure video game market.

Well..

[Scott Francis[Mecham]

..Seattle Public Utilities loves them.

Kirk to enterprise

[phorm]

Beam me down an end-tag... we've got too much bold here

Seriously though, I wonder how much it would take to trim this thing down... make it look a little more communicator-like.

Next year I'm going to watch out for the replicator or transporter beam. Personally, if they ever make something like that (and they probably wil one day) - I'd be very wary of being transported around, but it'd be fun to transport other things.
I wonder if you could be so specific as to transport things off of people, would make a very fun test at the ladies gym.

Trade show loot!

[kirkb]

I use "trade show loot" as a baromoter for how well the industry is doing. 3 years ago, I topped out at about 15 t-shirts for a single day at ESC.

This year, I only got one. And it was from Microsoft. Everybody else was giving away pens and candy and garbage like that. I guess we know who's dominating the embedded systems space nowadays.

Re:Trade show loot!

[cpeterso]

well, Microsoft likes to think so:

No. 1 Embedded Operating System Provider Worldwide

"The strong interest in Windows CE .NET as well as Windows XP Embedded by industry leaders has been instrumental in securing a No. 1 position for Windows Embedded products. According to Venture Development Corp., Microsoft led in worldwide shipments of embedded operating systems for 2002. "

"For 2001, Microsoft led revenue for embedded operating systems according to International Data Corp. document 27653, Worldwide Mobile and Embedded Operating Environment Market Forecast and Analysis, 2002-2006. "

RLI HG-100K

[Kinthelt]

This is much cooler than most people probably think at first glance. I'm pretty intimate with the Red Lake MotionScope series of cameras. And trust me, having that kind of resolution, speed, and robustness all at the same time is an incredible engineering feat.

For comparison, the MS-8000 is capable of 8000fps, and has a resolution of about 160x120. Don't even think about bumping it around. And it's quite a good camera! The HG-100K is just better.

wakamaru == Dalek

[docbrown42]

Does anyone else thing that the wakamaru looks a bit like a Dalek?

Someday, some hacker is going to reprogram these robots to run around screaming "Ex-Ter-Min-Ate" like a demented Hitler (until they fall down the stairs, at least).