01.21.14

Linux Devices Watch: Embedded and Device/Appliance News

Posted in GNU/Linux at 5:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Devices/appliances and embedded systems running Linux, as demonstrated by recent examples

Pistol-grip barcode scanners run Yocto Linux

Janam has added Yocto Linux support to its XG100 and XG105 barcode scanners, which offer Honeywell Adaptus and Motorola SE865 imagers, respectively.
Linux Video of the Week: Tour Qualcomm’s Smart Home at CES

The big news this week was Google’s planned acquisition of Nest Labs, but as Jim Zemlin, Rudi Streif and Eric Brown all wrote on Linux.com, the Nest thermostat and smoke alarm are a few among many Linux-based home automation products in the spotlight heading into 2014.

“It’s about a lot more than your coffee maker or your Android-based toothbrush. I’m finding more companies talking about how to use open source software as a defacto standard for integrating your home, office, car and more in ways we can’t even image yet,” Zemlin writes. “Linux and open source are primed to be the foundation for this future.”
Spark.io Hackers Make An Open-Source Nest Thermostat

Sure it’s not made of metal, nor did it convince Google to give its creators billions of dollars, but dammit if this isn’t a cool hack. The folks at Spark.io, creators of the Spark Core, a unique Wi-Fi development board that allows you to add Wi-Fi controls to Arduino projects, have used their tech to create a Nest-alike with some of the same features as Tony Fadell’s popular wall wart.
Google’s Nest Acquisition Shines a Light on Linux Home Automation

Farther below, we look at five more new Linux-based products that similarly start at a few hundred dollars: the Ivee Sleek, Ninja Blocks, BlackSumac’s Piper, Belkin’s WeMo, and WigWag. Like Nest, all of these systems let you remotely interact with a main controller device over web-based cloud platforms via Android and iOS apps to control a variety of household devices.
Google Buys Nest Labs, Demonstrates Value of Linux Goes Well Beyond the Kernel
Raspberry Pi hands-on: PiHub and Bluetooth

So far I have looked at the Raspberry Pi NOOBS Linux distributions: Raspbian, Arch and Pidora; the XBMC focused Raspbmc and OpenELEC; and the non-Linux RISC OS. Then in the most recent post I discussed the Pi Camera and USB WiFi adapters. Speaking of the camera, there was a very interesting new post on the Raspberry Pi web site about a python interface and a web page for accessing the Pi camera.
Raspberry Pi: 11 reasons why it’s the perfect small server

Since the Pi is a basically a mini-computer, I decided to take it for a spin and see what I could throw at it, and I have been pleasantly surprised. In fact, it’s been so successful that I’ve decided to try setting it up as a mini server with various services. In doing so, I’ve come up with a list of advantages that I feel are very compelling.
Dave and Gunnar interview Lauren Egts: Raspberry Pi, Scratch, and more

In this interview with Lauren on The Dave and Gunnar Show, it comes as no suprise that Dave is thrilled that his daughter is interested in computer science and open hardware. You’ll hear how proud Gunnar is too as he leads the interview, asking them both what kinds of things she’s working on now (like her school’s all-girl robotics team, The Fighting Unicorns!) and about her presentations on Gluster and on Scratch for Raspberry Pi at the Akron Linux Users Group (LUG).
Kerala Government To Distribute 10,000 Raspberry Pi In Schools
90% of Indian firms will use open source software in four years: Gartner

By 2017, about 90 per cent of Indian IT organisations will have open source software (OSS) embedded in their mission critical platforms.
Mentor adds Linux and multicore options for in-car media

Mentor Graphics has said it is possible to add user interfaces or HMIs, similar to those seen in consumer electronics devices to in-vehicle dashboards.
Mentor Graphics Announces GENIVI 5.0 Compliant Linux-Based Automotive Technology Platform to Bring Consumer Electronics Experiences to IVI Systems
Mentor’s IVI stack updated with GENIVI 5.0 compliance

Mentor Graphics released a GENIVI 5.0 version of its Linux-based Automotive Technology Platform IVI stack that supports Sourcery Analyzer profiling.
Mentor IVI stack achieves GENIVI 5.0 compliance
3.5-inch i.MX6 board runs Linux at a cool 2.3 Watts
Linux-powered telepresence robot gets personal

Suitable Technologies is accepting 1,000 pre-orders at $995 for Beam+, a smaller, less costly, consumer model of its Linux-powered “Beam” mobile telepresence robot.

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