Old and New at Sci-Fi London 2012
A major highlight of a week of activity at the Sci-Fi London festival was the Horizon Spectrum event at the BFI Southbank celebrating 30 years of the Sinclair Spectrum 'home' computer. I attended the
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Coconut Pi: An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Development Project
We are a team of Undergraduate Engineers embarking on an exciting journey into the embedded realm of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Development. Follow us on our facebook fanpage at https://www.facebook.com/coconutpi or stay up to date as we post our fortnightly blog updates to Designspark! Our team is also open to suggestions and opinions from the Designspark Engineering community. You can either comment on our blog posts or just scroll through our daily pictures and updates on our facebook page and leave a helpful comment or suggestion for us to consider in our development process!
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So when will we get the Star Trek Tricorder then?
- ARM
- ARM11
- Communication
- Cortex-M
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Enclosures
- Ethernet
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- Mbed
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Switches
- Test
A competition has been announced with a $10m prize for the first working medical tricorder. If you claim to be an engineer and don't know what I'm talking about, then may I suggest locking yourself in
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ARM Powered m3pi mbed Robot - Review
- ARM
- AVR
- Batteries
- Bluetooth
- Buzzers & Sounders
- Communication
- Cortex-A
- Display & Lighting
- Enclosures
- FLASH
- Interconnect
- LCD
- Mbed
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Robots
- Sensors
- Solder
- Switches
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
When is electronics exciting? Well most of the time people outside this world of electronics don't see flashing LEDs very exciting unless its on a tree at Christmas. However if you put some wheels on
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My First mbed
- Arduino
- Circuit Design
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Display & Lighting
- Enclosures
- Ethernet
- FLASH
- Interconnect
- Mbed
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Resistors
- Sensors
- SERIAL
- Temperature Sensors
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
A few weeks back I a received the mbed dev kit from RS (Part No.703-9238), but it was only today that I got a gap in my work schedule to play with it.
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Make your own walking, talking, living….robot
- Accelerometers
- ARM
- Beagle
- Coldfire
- Communication
- Cortex-M
- Development Kits - Electronics
- DSP
- dsPIC
- Freescale
- Interconnect
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- PIC32
- Power
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
As I wrote this blog Raspberry Pi exploded on the scene taking everyone by surprise with the sheer volume of people wanting to buy it. Many readers will have to wait a while to get their hands on one so why not use the time to investigate rather more interesting projects than just writing games? How about giving a humanoid walking robot some Artificial Intelligence…
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RS-EDP Rover using mbed [PID Velocity Control]
- Accelerometers
- Arduino
- ARM
- Display & Lighting
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Robots
- Sensors
- Test
Proportional-integral-derivative, or PID, controllers are commonly used in industry to control processes such as temperature regulation, motor speed and flow rate. Here we will see how they can be inc
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Adventures with the 'Pi - Initial Thoughts
- Arduino
- Communication
- Display & Lighting
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Memory
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- SERIAL
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
- WiFi
I was fortunate enough to receive a Raspberry Pi board for review (Thanks, DesignSpark!) a couple of days ago and I have been playing with it pretty much non-stop ever since. (More photos availab
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Hands on with a 144 core processor
- Analogue
- Circuit Design
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Display & Lighting
- EEPROM
- FLASH
- Human Machine Interface
- Mbed
- Memory
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Research Phase
- RS232
- Sensors
- SERIAL
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Solder
- SRAM
- Test
- Trial & Evaluation
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
- Wireless
The GA144 from GreenArrays is a highly novel 144 core processor that combines high performance with low power consumption. This post covers initial experiences with breadboarding the GA144 and using t
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HD Audio from ground up (Part 1)
- Analogue
- ARM
- Capacitors
- Circuit Design
- Communication
- Cortex-M
- DSP
- FLASH
- Functional Test
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- LCD
- Mbed
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Resistors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
- Trial & Evaluation
There are different ways for a system to interact with the real world. Starting with the use of a simple LED that describes the state of a process and going all the way down to complicated graphic LCD
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MBED Workshops!
- ARM
- Display & Lighting
- Functional Test
- Human Machine Interface
- Mbed
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Research Phase
- Sensors
- Switches
- Test
- Trial & Evaluation
Rapid Prototyping with 32-bit MicrocontrollersThese workshops brought to you by the ESP KTN Electronics Knowledge Centre in partnership with RS Components and ARM/NXP, are aimed at demonst
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mbed and me
- Circuit Design
- Circuit Simulation
- Display & Lighting
- LCD
- Mbed
- Microprocessors
- PIC
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Resistors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
- Wired
Recently I have been lucky enough to play around with and test an mbed micro-processor. I have had very little experience of C programming, so I didn’t know what to expect.
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Pi Perspectives: Kevin Murrell (National Museum of Computing)
- Arduino
- Assembly
- Enclosures
- FLASH
- GPS
- Human Machine Interface
- Manufacture
- PIC
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Sensors
- Temperature Sensors
- Test
- Wireless
Kevin Murrell is Director of the UK's National Museum of Computing based at Bletchley Park. I caught up with Kevin and he kindly agreed to be interviewed, providing us with insights into how he starte
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The Pi in Education - first lesson
I am a Head of ICT at a small girls school in Oxfordshire. I say Head of ICT but with DfE putting in the boot to the subject (quite rightly I think) my title will probably be changing soon!
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ChipKIT Ethernet and Basic IO board Review - Microchip
- 720
- Analogue
- Arduino
- Chipkit
- Display & Lighting
- EEPROM
- Enclosures
- Ethernet
- Interconnect
- LCD
- Mbed
- OLED
- PIC
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Switches
- Temperature Sensors
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
Some eight months ago I had a play with the chipKIT MAX32. At the time I was not over impressed by lack of full Arduino compatibility but since then Digilent have now released the Ethernet board. As w
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My introduction into the world of #Arduino AND electronics.
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Learn electronics with an Arduino and Raspberry Pi on an old Philips TV
- Arduino
- Circuit Design
- FLASH
- GPS
- LCD
- Microcontrollers
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Solder
- Test
- WiFi
- Wireless
If you are not familiar with Arduino, it is an OpenSource hardware platform for electronics projects, tinkering, robotics, home automation etc etc etc. The blue board above is the heart of it.
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Raspberry Pi first experiences
Raspberry Pi running Debian/LXDE and displaying the DesignSpark homepageExcitement surrounding the Raspberry Pi has reached fever pitch as enthusiasts, engineers, and software developers and hardware
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Gas Guzzlers and Green Chips
- Analogue
- ARM
- Batteries
- Communication
- Cortex-M
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Display & Lighting
- Enclosures
- Mbed
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- RENESAS
- Research Phase
- RL78
- Robots
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
- Wireless
The socially responsible among us wishing to save the planet from a carbon dioxide doom should quickly move on to the next blog post now, as I have a confession to make: I own and occasionally get to
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Raspberry Pi Linux OS Review
Being one of the few Linux users at RS towers I have had the enviable task of taking home one of our Raspberry Pi's to put it through it's paces and I am absolutely amazed.
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Arduino or Raspberry Pi?
- Arduino
- ARM
- Design Phase
- Ethernet
- Microcontroller Dev Kits
- Microcontrollers
- Microprocessor Dev Kits
- Microprocessors
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Sensors
A comparison of the respective benefits of the low cost embedded development platforms that may help with making a decision as to which to use when.
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Processing on the Raspberry Pi
- Accelerometers
- Arduino
- ARM
- Development Kits - Electronics
- PCB Etching
- PIC
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- RX
- SERIAL
- Wireless
A look at getting the Processing programming language and IDE up and running on a Raspberry Pi, and example code working with the TI Chronos eZ430 development kit.Processing is a programming language
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DesignSpark celebrates it’s 2nd birthday this week.
This week marks DesignSpark’s 2nd Birthday and here at RS we are extremely proud of what we have achieved so far. Since DesignSpark launched back in July 2010, we’ve had almost 2 million vis
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A Treacle Tin Radiation Detector
- Arduino
- ARM
- Assembly
- Capacitors
- Circuit Design
- Enclosures
- Ethernet
- GSM
- Manufacture
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Reliability Testing
- Resistors
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
- Wireless
The OpenRelief project is building “open, modular information solutions for disaster relief”, and as part of which they're developing a range of network-enabled sensors. I offered to help out by p
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The PI and the APC
A few months ago DesignSpark had a brief review of the APC or Android Personal Computer, seen as a possible rival to the Raspberry Pi. I say possible, because despite a flashy website proclaiming the arrival of a ‘$49 Bicycle for the Mind’, it seemed remarkably difficult to get hold of. Things have moved quickly and RS is now the European distributer for the APC and has it in stock. Is it a ‘Pi-Killer’ though?
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Selected 2012 Highlights
A small selection of personal highlights from over the last 12 months.
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Connecting electronics design to Google SketchUp
- Circuit Design
- Circuit Simulation
- Design Phase
- Designspark PCB
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- Manufacture
- PCB
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Standards
- Test
RS’ free of charge IDf-to-Collada converter allows EDA tools to connect with the popular Google SketchUp 3D Modelling package. Ever had a design that did not quite fit the mould? You have laid out t
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Electronics design - First steps are getting smaller
- Arduino
- ARM
- Development Kits - Electronics
- FLASH
- Mbed
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Scientific Applications
- Test
- TI Launchpad
For anyone wishing to take their first steps into electronics design, things have never been easier. Technologies such as Arduino, mbed and TI's LaunchPad have made serious engineering accessibl
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Interview with creator of the Twitter-controlled dog feeder, @FeedToby
- Arduino
- Buzzers & Sounders
- Circuit Design
- Display & Lighting
- DSP
- Human Machine Interface
- LASER
- LCD
- Manufacture
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Test
Last month Nat Morris built a Twitter-controlled feeder for his dog, Toby. In the first five days of this being online it was being used by a group consisting of friends and family. But after national
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NetWorker - an advanced web server with a microcrontroller
- Analogue
- Capacitors
- Circuit Design
- Communication
- Display & Lighting
- DSP
- dsPIC
- EEPROM
- Ethernet
- FLASH
- Functional Test
- GAL
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- PIC24
- PIC32
- Power
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Resistors
- RS232
- RX
- SERIAL
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Solder
- Test
- Trial & Evaluation
An Internet connection would be a valuable addition to many projects, but often designers are put off by the complexities involved. The ‘NetWorker’, which consists of a small printed circuit board
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Raspberry Pi and Custard for Schools
- Arduino
- ARM
- Manufacture
- PIC
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Software Design
- Test
Ok, so this isn't a post about food! but it is a story about a recipe destined for success.Raspberry Pi is a low cost credit card sized ARM/GNU based single board computer that runs on a Linux Platfor
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Using an Arduino in a Production environment
- Arduino
- Capacitors
- Circuit Design
- Display & Lighting
- Human Machine Interface
- LCD
- Manufacture
- Memory
- PCB
- PIC
- Power
- Resistors
- SERIAL
- Test
Introduction The requirement was to add a digital readout to an otherwise manually bend roller machine so that we could accurately monitor the amount of material fed into the machine. Th
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Using the DrDAQ with a Raspberry Pi
- ARM
- Human Machine Interface
- Manufacture
- Oscilloscopes
- PIC
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Sensors
- Signal Generators
- Test
- x86
The DrDAQ is a multifunction USB device that incorporates sensors for light, sound and temperature, supports external sensors including a pH electrode, and has inputs and outputs...
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Looking Forward To The Past - DS turns 2
- ARM
- Circuit Design
- Circuit Simulation
- Cortex-A
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Display & Lighting
- Interconnect
- Mbed
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Raspberry Pi
- Test
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then
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What is VHDL.?
- ARM
- Circuit Design
- Development Kits - Electronics
- FPGA
- FRAM
- Manufacture
- Microcontrollers
- PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)
- PIC
- PLD
- Power
- Programmable Logic
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
- Trial & Evaluation
- Verilog
- VHDL
BLOG UPDATED-!VHDL or “very-high-speed integrated circuits hardware description language” must have one of the longest names going in the world or electronics, however as suggested it’s a langua
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The Arduino Effect
- Arduino
- ARM
- AVR
- Beagle
- Chipkit
- Cortex-A
- Cortex-M
- Development Kits - Electronics
- DSP
- FRAM
- Freescale
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Microcontrollers
- MSP430
- PIC
- PIC32
- Power
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
I’ve noticed an interesting trend recently. Forgive my lack of awareness if this has all been said before, but here it is: microcontroller chip manufacturers are making/supporting some very cheap development kits nowadays.
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FRAM Dev Kit MSP-EXP430FR5739 Review
- Accelerometers
- Circuit Design
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Display & Lighting
- DRAM
- Enclosures
- FLASH
- FRAM
- Interconnect
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Sensors
- Temperature Sensors
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
There has been a lot of buzz and stories going around about the first micro to have FRAM (Ferroelectric memory). FRAM has been talk about it not only here on DesignSpark but on element14 and was comme
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Pachube - making reliable connections with Arduino
- Arduino
- Display & Lighting
- Ethernet
- FLASH
- Mbed
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Resistors
- Sensors
- Solder
- Temperature Sensors
- Test
Arduino and MBED can act as clients to web services like Pachube giving them an online presence but making reliable connections over the internet is easier said than done. This article deals with some
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Connecting People and Products - The User Interface Part II : Components of a UI
- ARM
- Buzzers & Sounders
- Display & Lighting
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- Keypads
- LCD
- PIC
- Research Phase
- Test
- Trial & Evaluation
Recap…. In the previous part, we were pondering if User Interface Design is Art or Engineering and concluded that , it is both. Part II : Components of an UI Crux of it… Components an
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London Raspberry Pi Meetup #01
- Arduino
- ARM
- FRAM
- Mbed
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
Now that the Raspberry Pi has started to ship excitement has notched up a level as tweets and blog posts provide tantalising insights into early experiences with the computer.
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Pi Perspectives: Jeremy Ruston (Federatial)
- 740
- Analogue
- Circuit Design
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Manufacture
- PIC
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Solder
- Test
- Wired
Image © Nick J. Webb (CC BY 2.0)Jeremy Ruston is the inventor of TiddlyWiki and founder of software consultancy, Federatial Ltd, and gained his introduction to computing during those heady
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DE0-NANO FPGA Development Kit Review - Terasic
- 740
- Accelerometers
- Circuit Design
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Display & Lighting
- DRAM
- EEPROM
- Enclosures
- FLASH
- FPGA
- Human Machine Interface
- Mbed
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Switches
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
- VHDL
When it come to most Dev Kits people can normally find one that fits their needs. However when entering the world for FPGA’s people are always asking which kit to buy. Why? Well they have always
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Fan Speed Control - 0-10 Volts
- Analogue
- ARM
- Display & Lighting
- Enclosures
- Human Machine Interface
- PIC
- Power
- Resistors
- Scientific Applications
- Sensors
- Switches
- Temperature Sensors
- Test
- Thermal Management
So a few weeks ago I introduced PWM as a speed control option for fans. In this blog I’ll explain 0-10volt control that is typically found on EC fans made by both us at ebmpapst and other companies.
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Pi Perspectives: Dr Jeremy Bennett (Embecosm)
- Arduino
- ARM
- Assembly
- Bluetooth
- Communication
- Enclosures
- Functional Test
- Mbed
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
Dr Jeremy Bennett is Chief Executive of Embecosm, a provider of embedded development tools and services, and is former Champion for Embedded Systems at the Technology Strategy Board's ESP Knowledge Tr
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An RTOS for EDP - Part 2
- Communication
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Display & Lighting
- DSP
- dsPIC
- FLASH
- LCD
- Mbed
- PIC
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Resistors
- SERIAL
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
In a previous post on this subject I described how I had got as far as running a FreeRTOS demo program on Microchip Explorer 16 development board. The next phase involved getting the same demo to work
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Happy 2nd Birthday, DesignSpark!
DesignSpark celebrates its second birthday this week and it turns out that in a matter of days it will also be my second anniversary here. But if I'm honest I had to check the date, because an awful l
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Of technology, archaeologists and engineers
When we look at technology which is only 15 or 20 years old it can often seem like its from another age — some dark and very distant past that we'd never want to return to, or that seems quaint and
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You talkin' to me?
- Arduino
- ARM
- Capacitors
- Display & Lighting
- Enclosures
- Ethernet
- Interconnect
- Manufacture
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Research Phase
- RS232
- RX
- SERIAL
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
So, connectivity... Where would we be without it? Well, obviously some place else. But as luck would have it, we are able to communicate and we can communicate with our ICs. In fact we're having loa
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OpenRelief: Clearing the Fog of Disaster
- Arduino
- Batteries
- Beagle
- Communication
- DSP
- FRAM
- Functional Test
- GPS
- Manufacture
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Sensors
- Test
- Wireless
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology is becoming increasingly affordable, and when combined with low cost wireless sensor networks and computer vision opens up exciting possibilities for use in di
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The power of touch
- Circuit Design
- Display & Lighting
- DRAM
- Human Machine Interface
- Manufacture
- PIC
- Power
- Sensors
- Switches
- Test
Technological progress has dramatically changed the way that we interact with machinery, and reshaped assumptions of how user interfaces are designed. Early human-machine interface (HMI) designs wer