tech report - cloudfront.net

DECEMBER 2014
The
Platform
Approach:
Honeywell’s
TruStability
Offers Millions of
Sensor Variations
Interview with
Ashis Bhattacharya
President of Global Strategic Marketing &
Business Development at Honeywell
Hands-free
Gesture Recognition
Family Lifestyle
Smart Homes
Consider four capacitive proximity sensors
arranged as shown in Figure 1 around
the infotainment system of a car.
Placement of the sensors needs to be
chosen such that there is a difference in
the order in which sensors are triggered
when the hand makes a gesture over
the sensor plane. We identify the order
in which sensors are triggered by hand
movements. If the order matches any
of the preset sequences, then the
corresponding gesture is issued. The
sensor placement pattern shown in Figure
1 serves as a reference for explaining
the gestures discussed in this article.
scanning for objects in their proximity.
As the hand continues to pass over the
console, the top and bottom sensors
are triggered while the left sensor still
remains triggered. As the hand moves
further towards the right sensor, the
right sensor is triggered. The left sensor
stops sensing the hand because the
hand has moved outside its region of
detection. As the hand passes over
the right sensor, the top and bottom
sensors will no longer detect the hand’s
presence. When the hand moves further
away, the right sensor stops sensing the
hand. If we look at the order of triggering
of sensors, it will be one of the below,
depending upon the position of the hand
and sensitivities of the individual sensors:
Left → top → bottom → right
Left → bottom → top → right
Left → bottom → right
Left → top → right
All of the above sensor activation
sequences are mapped to the (left →
right) gesture. A PSoC is used in this case
for implementing the capacitive proximity
sensors. A capacitance-to-digital
converter (known as Capsense Sigma
Delta) inside the PSoC is used to measure
the capacitance. The output of the CSD
module is referred to as rawcounts. The
Join Today
Consider a simple gesture of a hand
drawing a straight line in air by moving
from left to right over the sensors as
shown in Figure 2(a). When hand moves
from left to right over the sensors, the left
sensor will be triggered first as soon as
sensor is triggered due to presence of an
object in its proximity. The rawcounts plot
of the four sensors reacting to the hand
as it draws a straight line from left to
right—as shown in Figure 2 (a)—is shown in
Figure 2 (b). The plot confirms the order of
activation of sensors mentioned above. If
the hand moves in the opposite direction,
it is a (right → left) gesture, and the
sequence in which sensors are triggered
is reversed with respect to the left and
right sensors in the above mentioned
sensor activation sequences. That is, the
e are currently seeing a
if your doors and windows and closed and
gradual move towards
if theyone
are not locked,
sensor triggering
sequencelocked—and
will be
of some
homes implementing a
systems will enable you to remotely lock
network of sensors that enable remote
them. But wouldn’t it be even better for
gesture:
those below
for a (right → left)
monitoring and control of various home
the house to be smart enough to realize
SENSOR
TECHNOLOGY
Figure 1.
W
CONTENTS
the time duration between detection by
different sensors can be used to estimate
the direction and pace of movement of
hand. Gestures can be as simple as drawing
a straight line in the air by moving the
hand from left to right over the sensors, or
drawing a circle in air. In this article, we will
look at how to implement simple gesture
recognition and how more complicated
gestures can be implemented using
multiple sensors in different patterns.
systems such as air conditioning and
heating, lighting, and security. However
exciting as these advances are, this
is not really the Internet of Things—
this is still the Internet of People.
People are still involved in reviewing
the data coming from these sensors
and they make decisions regarding
how they want the home to react.
that the family is out of the house, and
the doors and windows should be locked?
Right → top → bottom → left
This is the intelligent house: a network
of sentrollers (sensors, controllers and
actuators) all linked together with cloudbased intelligence to enable the house to
think and act autonomously. While, the
homeowner still has complete control
over the cloud to monitor and control
what the house is doing, they do not have
to continuously monitor the functions.
Right → bottom → top → left
Right → bottom → left
In determining whether the door should
open or close, if the windows should be
locked, or if the coffee maker should
brew a pot—the user is still needed.
The home is on the path to becoming
smarter, but is not intelligent.
Right → top → left
This technology has many benefits
for senior citizens who want to live
at home longer, but are concerned
about something happening to them.
Unfortunately, senior citizens could
have a serious accident—like falling
and breaking a hip, or simply not being
capable of getting out of bed—and
may be unable to get help for days.
Devices like fall detectors or alarm
buttons (or even a smart phone) could
help solve the problem, but often
these accidents occur when the device
is out of reach. In a serious medical
emergency, the person may not be
able to trigger the device for help.
The above
two
gestures
mentioned
For example,
current
leak detectors
can inform the homeowner if there is a
involveleakmovement
of the
hand in
in the water heater or another
part
of the home’s plumbing. The detector
informs the ownerdirection.
of the leak and they Similarly,
the horizontal
can make a decision on how to handle
it. However, wouldn’t it be easier if once
if the hand
draws a straight line in
the leak is detected, the house would
be smart enough to simply turn off
the vertical
then it can be
the water todirection,
the damaged circuit? This
would ultimately prevent even more hot
from leaking,
reducing damagegesture or a
→
bottom)
either awater
(top
while cutting water and energy costs.
But what if the house was intelligent
→top) gesture, depending
on
(bottom
Another option is the simple door lock.
enough to realize that something was
There are systems on the market that
not quite right? The active individual
the direction
of
the check
hand
make it possible
to remotely
to see movement.
is not active anymore. Until now.
The gestures (up → down) and (down→
up) can be associated with simple actions
like scrolling up, down the menu or a track
list for example as shown in Figure 3.
CONTENTS
Capacitive proximity sensors placed around infotainment
system on the right picture and the sensors with their
position labeled on the left picture.
TECH REPORT
Figure 2a.
Left to right hand
movement gesture
drawing a straight
line in air.
Gesture Sensing in Automotive Displays
Places Driver Focus Back on the Road
Honeywell’s platform continues to enable customers
TECH REPORT
to be proactive with sensors, which is valuable because
designers have not always realized that the sensor
can heavily influence theFigure
design2b.
of the product.
Family Lifestyle
Systems
Plot of signal
for
each of the sensors
Making the asSmart
Home
Even Smarter
hand draws
4
12
High Stakes, High Reliability
the straight-line
With the development of the TruStability
gesture.
Platform, Honeywell can now target the
markets that need stability the most.
According to Bhattacharya,
Thethese
Family Lifestyle
A smart home Family Lifestyle System
sensors that monitor the movement
markets are
Solutions consist
is a network of sensors connected
of doors, cupboards, appliances, and
aerospace,
of amedical,
network
to the Internet. The network gathers
all the normal objects in the home
of sentrollers,
and industrial. “Our
intelligence in the cloud and analyzes
that we interact with on a daily basis.
connected to the
the activity data and compares it
sensors
web.
The data play a
with previously registered activity
The Family Lifestyle System can
gathered is analyzed
critical role in
by intelligence
data that should be expected from
monitor when the resident usually
in
the
cloud, andcustomer’s
enabling
within the home. If there is a problem,
gets up out of bed in the morning,
is controlled
an alert is sent to the family, to
what energy they consume and
devices,” he stated.
and managed by
a caregiver, or to the appropriate
when, when they typically
leave
Figure 3.
a smartphone
In the case of medical
emergency response team.
the home and return, when the
or other webdevices,
refrigerator door usually
opened
Proximity
gesture
ofBhattacharya
hand
controlled
device.
The Family Lifestyle System consists of
to cook meals—the opportunities
gave the example of ventilators that
drawing a straight
line
in
a combination of motion sensors and
and variables are endless.
need to sense the slightest shifts from
vertical direction
inhaleto
to scroll
exhale. Honeywell’s sensors
enable this critical application where
through menu.
The TruStability Platform’s
the pressure of inhalation is so light it
low-drift characteristics help
is barely noticeable. The TruStability
Platform’s low-drift characteristics help
maintain high accuracy no matter
maintain high accuracy no matter how
how long the device has been in use,
long the device has been in use, which is
a key factor in always-on ventilation and
which is a key factor in
monitoring. “The level of performance
always-on ventilation
and dependence that our customers
have on these sensors is tremendous,”
and monitoring.
Bhattacharya remarked. “This requires a
lot of background engineering, marketing,
and manufacturing sophistication.”
EEWEB FEATURE
For aerospace, the dependence on
pressure sensors heightens the need for
reliability and stability. When an aircraft
is coming in to land, it is critical to ensure
that the wings remain straight no matter
how the joystick is affected so that the
plane lands safely. Honeywell developed
a specific sensor that determines when
the weight of the plane is on the wheels
of the aircraft—not the wings—so that
it can be steered on the ground upon
landing. “In concept, it is an extremely
simple sensor,” Bhattacharya explained,
“but it has to perform under high stakes
over long periods of time.” These highstakes applications can now stably
operate no matter how rigorous or
slight the external parameters are. With
the proliferation of sensors, comes an
increase in expectations of
reliability and stability.
As Bhattacharya
stated: “Customers
are beginning to
realize that having
the right sensors
can make all of the
difference in device
performance.”
Honeywell’sTruStability Platform
Millions of Sensor Variations
®
INDUSTRY INTERVIEW
TruStability Enables Innovation
Interview with Honeywell’s Ashis Bhattacharya
22
F
P
a
t
s
c
p
o
d
26
o
d
T
w
c
s
t
T
“Designers don’t always realize that the sensor can
heavily influence the design of a product.” Pg. 22
eeweb.com/register
3
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
TECH REPORT
Hands-free
GESTURE
SENSING
in Automotive
Displays
By Vikram
Senior Applications Engineer
Cypress Semiconductor
4
Capacitive Proximity Sensors
Place Driver Focus Back on the Road
Capacitive proximity sensors
are generally used to detect the
presence of a user within proximity
of the sensors. Upon detection, the
user can choose to make backlights
glow, to bring focus on a specific
button, or bring a system out of
low-power operation after having
sensed their presence. Specific to
automotive applications, capacitive
proximity sensors are used to sense
a user and turn on the cabin lights or
activate the keyless door unlocking
system. In addition to sensing the
presence of a user near the sensor,
multiple proximity sensors can
be placed suitably to recognize
simple hand gestures in the air.
The data from all sensors can
be combined together to map
movement of a user’s hand in the
proximity area of sensors. These
gestures can be used as a way to
provide inputs to systems—to
control a media player, navigate
a map, or browse a playlist.
5
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
M
ultiple proximity sensors can
be placed in a suitable pattern
spatially apart from one other.
As a hand moves across the sensors, the
time instants at which it is detected by
each of the sensors will be different. The
relative order of detection of the hand and
the time duration between detection by
different sensors can be used to estimate
the direction and pace of movement of
hand. Gestures can be as simple as drawing
a straight line in the air by moving the
hand from left to right over the sensors, or
drawing a circle in air. In this article, we will
look at how to implement simple gesture
recognition and how more complicated
gestures can be implemented using
multiple sensors in different patterns.
Consider four capacitive proximity sensors
arranged as shown in Figure 1 around
the infotainment system of a car.
Placement of the sensors needs to be
chosen such that there is a difference in
the order in which sensors are triggered
when the hand makes a gesture over
the sensor plane. We identify the order
in which sensors are triggered by hand
movements. If the order matches any
of the preset sequences, then the
corresponding gesture is issued. The
sensor placement pattern shown in Figure
1 serves as a reference for explaining
the gestures discussed in this article.
Consider a simple gesture of a hand
drawing a straight line in air by moving
from left to right over the sensors as
shown in Figure 2(a). When hand moves
from left to right over the sensors, the left
sensor will be triggered first as soon as
6
TECH REPORT
the hand approaches the system. Here
the term ‘triggered’ is used to mean that
the sensor has detected an object in
its presence; this is not to be mistaken
for enabling the proximity sensor. The
proximity sensors are enabled as soon
as the system is turned on and they keep
scanning for objects in their proximity.
As the hand continues to pass over the
console, the top and bottom sensors
are triggered while the left sensor still
remains triggered. As the hand moves
further towards the right sensor, the
right sensor is triggered. The left sensor
stops sensing the hand because the
hand has moved outside its region of
detection. As the hand passes over
the right sensor, the top and bottom
sensors will no longer detect the hand’s
presence. When the hand moves further
away, the right sensor stops sensing the
hand. If we look at the order of triggering
of sensors, it will be one of the below,
depending upon the position of the hand
and sensitivities of the individual sensors:
Left → top → bottom → right
Left → bottom → top → right
Left → bottom → right
Left → top → right
All of the above sensor activation
sequences are mapped to the (left →
right) gesture. A PSoC is used in this case
for implementing the capacitive proximity
sensors. A capacitance-to-digital
converter (known as Capsense Sigma
Delta) inside the PSoC is used to measure
the capacitance. The output of the CSD
module is referred to as rawcounts. The
higher the rawcounts, the greater the
capacitance sensed by the sensor. The
presence of a hand close to the proximity
sensors increases their capacitance.
When rawcounts of the sensor cross a
certain threshold from its base value, the
sensor is triggered due to presence of an
object in its proximity. The rawcounts plot
of the four sensors reacting to the hand
as it draws a straight line from left to
right—as shown in Figure 2 (a)—is shown in
Figure 2 (b). The plot confirms the order of
activation of sensors mentioned above. If
the hand moves in the opposite direction,
it is a (right → left) gesture, and the
sequence in which sensors are triggered
is reversed with respect to the left and
right sensors in the above mentioned
sensor activation sequences. That is, the
sensor triggering sequence will be one of
those below for a (right → left) gesture:
Figure 1.
Capacitive proximity sensors placed around infotainment
system on the right picture and the sensors with their
position labeled on the left picture.
Figure 2a.
Left to right hand
movement gesture
drawing a straight
line in air.
Right → top → bottom → left
Right → bottom → top → left
Right → bottom → left
Right → top → left
The above two gestures mentioned
involve movement of the hand in
the horizontal direction. Similarly,
if the hand draws a straight line in
the vertical direction, then it can be
either a (top→bottom) gesture or a
(bottom→top) gesture, depending on
the direction of the hand movement.
The gestures (up → down) and (down→
up) can be associated with simple actions
like scrolling up, down the menu or a track
list for example as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 2b.
Plot of signal for
each of the sensors
as hand draws
the straight-line
gesture.
Figure 3.
Proximity gesture of hand
drawing a straight line in
vertical direction to scroll
through menu.
7
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
When the hand moves
from the top sensor
down towards the bottom
sensor, the system
decodes this as a
(top → bottom) gesture
as soon as the hand moves
past the bottom sensor.
We can modify the gesture
so that the scroll-down
command is sent as soon
as the hand reaches the
last sensor in the gesture
sequence—in this case,
the bottom sensor.
8
TECH REPORT
The gestures (left → right) and (right →
left) can be associated with changing
a track or album to the next one for
a music player application. The same
gestures can also be used instead of
button presses to turn interior lights
of a car on or off by placing proximity
sensors as shown in Figure 4.
A gesture of (top → bottom) is similar to
the up/down action of a button press.
However, when an up/down button is
held pressed, the screen keeps scrolling
up/down as long as the button is held
pressed. In other words, the actions ‘stick’
as long as the button is pressed. To replace
this button action completely with a
gesture, the gesture needs to be able to
support this ‘sticky’ feature too. We will
modify the gesture as described below to
accommodate this. When the hand moves
from the top sensor down towards the
bottom sensor, the system decodes this
as a (top → bottom) gesture as soon as the
hand moves past the bottom sensor. We
can modify the gesture so that the scrolldown command is sent as soon as the
hand reaches the last sensor in the gesture
sequence—in this case, the bottom
sensor. Furthermore, the command is
issued repeatedly as long as the hand
remains present over the bottom sensor.
When the menu item required is reached,
the hand moves further down and away
from the bottom sensor and the issuing
of scroll down command is stopped. To
make a ‘sticky’ gesture, instead of moving
the hand away from the system in one
go, we stop the hand on the last sensor
just before moving out of the range of
that senor. The command is issued as
long as the hand stays over the sensor.
A rawcounts plot for top and bottom
sensors for this sticky (top → bottom)
gesture is shown in Figure 5. The bottom
sensor continues to stay triggered for
more time after the top sensor stops
sensing the hand. This indicates that
the hand has stopped at the bottom
sensor instead of continuing straight
down. To issue the sticky command, we
check if the top sensor was triggered
first, followed by the triggering of the
bottom sensor. The top sensor no longer
senses a hand while the bottom sensor
still continues to sense a hand near it.
After the hand stays near the bottom
sensor for more than a threshold of time,
the sticky command is issued as long
as the bottom sensor senses the hand
near it. Similarly, other gestures can also
be modified to have the ‘sticky’ feature.
This enables gestures to replace the up/
down button functions completely.
Next, let us make a slightly more
complicated gesture. Consider
drawing a circle in air by hand over the
sensor plane as shown in Figure 6.
The hand can start over any of the
sensors, traversing in a circular pattern—
either clockwise or counterclockwise—
over the other sensors. The gesture
is completed when hand reaches the
original sensor, exiting the loop by simply
moving away. For example, the hand
can move over the right sensor and then
move clockwise over the bottom, left,
and top sensors in that order before
exiting the loop over the right sensor
again. A rawcounts plot of sensors for
the same is shown in Figure 7. Similarly, a
counterclockwise loop can be completed
Figure 4.
Hand drawing a straight-line gesture
to control the cabin lights of a car.
Figure 5.
Signal plot for top and bottom sensors for sticky (top →
bottom) gesture. The signal on the bottom sensor stays on,
longer indicating a ‘sticky’ gesture.
Figure 6.
Drawing a circle gesture.
9
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
by reversing the direction of movement of
the hand. Also, multiple rotations can be
counted from the sensor excitation order.
The circle gesture is similar to the action
of turning a knob. This can be associated
with commands like volume up and
down for the music player menu or zoom
in and zoom out for browsing maps.
Proximity hand gestures using capacitive
proximity sensors will enable the user
to control the conditions in the car
without taking their eyes off the road.
Using these same principles, we can
build more complex gestures, which
may involve using both hands to draw
a pattern in air. However, the success
of detection of such gestures still
depends on how good a sensor pattern
is. It is important to choose a suitable
pattern that allows for tolerance in hand
movements while drawing gestures and
yet have a clear distinction in the order
in which the sensors are triggered.
Your Circuit Starts Here.
Figure 7.
Rawcounts plot of sensors for a clockwise circular gesture.
Click Here to Sign Up
The circle gesture is
similar to the action
of turning a knob. This
can be associated with
About the Author
Vikram is currently working as a
Senior Applications Engineer at Cypress
Semiconductor. His interests include
working on embedded systems and
mixed signal designs. He loves robotics
as a hobby. He can be reached at
[email protected].
10
Sign up to design, share, and collaborate
on your next project—big or small.
commands like volume
up and down for the
music player menu or
zoom in and zoom out
for browsing maps.
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
TECH REPORT
Family
Lifestyle
Systems
Make the
Smart Home
Even More
Intelligent
Today’s “connected home” is rapidly
transforming into the “smart home.”
Billions of people worldwide are
connected to the Internet, with
many homes having at least 10 WiFiconnected devices such as computer,
games, entertainment systems, phones,
and tablets.
By Cees Links, Founder and CEO of GreenPeak
12
13
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
W
e are currently seeing a
gradual move towards
homes implementing a
network of sensors that enable remote
monitoring and control of various home
systems such as air conditioning and
heating, lighting, and security. However
exciting as these advances are, this
is not really the Internet of Things—
this is still the Internet of People.
People are still involved in reviewing
the data coming from these sensors
and they make decisions regarding
how they want the home to react.
In determining whether the door should
open or close, if the windows should be
locked, or if the coffee maker should
brew a pot—the user is still needed.
The home is on the path to becoming
smarter, but is not intelligent.
For example, current leak detectors
can inform the homeowner if there is a
leak in the water heater or another part
of the home’s plumbing. The detector
informs the owner of the leak and they
can make a decision on how to handle
it. However, wouldn’t it be easier if once
the leak is detected, the house would
be smart enough to simply turn off
the water to the damaged circuit? This
would ultimately prevent even more hot
water from leaking, reducing damage
while cutting water and energy costs.
Another option is the simple door lock.
There are systems on the market that
make it possible to remotely check to see
14
TECH REPORT
if your doors and windows and closed and
locked—and if they are not locked, some
systems will enable you to remotely lock
them. But wouldn’t it be even better for
the house to be smart enough to realize
that the family is out of the house, and
the doors and windows should be locked?
This is the intelligent house: a network
of sentrollers (sensors, controllers and
actuators) all linked together with cloudbased intelligence to enable the house to
think and act autonomously. While, the
homeowner still has complete control
over the cloud to monitor and control
what the house is doing, they do not have
to continuously monitor the functions.
This technology has many benefits
for senior citizens who want to live
at home longer, but are concerned
about something happening to them.
Unfortunately, senior citizens could
have a serious accident—like falling
and breaking a hip, or simply not being
capable of getting out of bed—and
may be unable to get help for days.
Devices like fall detectors or alarm
buttons (or even a smart phone) could
help solve the problem, but often
these accidents occur when the device
is out of reach. In a serious medical
emergency, the person may not be
able to trigger the device for help.
But what if the house was intelligent
enough to realize that something was
not quite right? The active individual
is not active anymore. Until now.
A smart home Family Lifestyle System
is a network of sensors connected
to the Internet. The network gathers
intelligence in the cloud and analyzes
the activity data and compares it
with previously registered activity
data that should be expected from
within the home. If there is a problem,
an alert is sent to the family, to
a caregiver, or to the appropriate
emergency response team.
The Family Lifestyle System consists of
a combination of motion sensors and
sensors that monitor the movement
of doors, cupboards, appliances, and
all the normal objects in the home
that we interact with on a daily basis.
The Family Lifestyle System can
monitor when the resident usually
gets up out of bed in the morning,
what energy they consume and
when, when they typically leave
the home and return, when the
refrigerator door usually opened
to cook meals—the opportunities
and variables are endless.
The Family Lifestyle
Solutions consist
of a network
of sentrollers,
connected to the
web. The data
gathered is analyzed
by intelligence
in the cloud, and
is controlled
and managed by
a smartphone
or other webcontrolled device.
15
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
Family
Lifestyle
technology
is able to
monitor a
wide range of
home activities
while also
providing a
strong sense
of privacy and
confidentiality.
The Family Lifestyle application learns
the behavior of the user, which can also
be analyzed to determine abnormalities.
Going back to the examples—it is not
normal when a house is empty, but the
backdoor is unlocked; it is not normal
when the water continuously flows
for days; it is not normal when it is
8AM and the active resident has not
opened the fridge; and it is not normal
that the resident does not leave the
bathroom after more than two hours.
Using text messages, smartphone apps,
or social media, a Family Lifestyle System
can send an alert to family members or
friends about the resident’s whereabouts,
lack of activity, or behavior outside the
expected patterns. It can create a safety
net where not only do the people who
are being monitored feel safer and more
secure, but the people who care about
them also feel comfortable with the
realization that if something goes wrong,
the Intelligent Home—via the Family
Lifestyle System—will inform them.
Family Lifestyle Systems just require
small, unobtrusive sensors to be installed
around the house, whether it is on doors,
appliances, or inside drawers. The sensors
are battery powered, making installation
easier—just stick them wherever they
are needed. If you need to change
location, just stick them somewhere
else. There is no need for drilling holes
or running cables for power or for data.
Family Lifestyle technology is able
to monitor a wide range of home
16
TECH REPORT
activities while also providing a strong
sense of privacy and confidentiality.
To ensure privacy, no cameras are
needed for this system. This is a big
step forward compared to expensive
camera-based systems available today,
which can intrude on privacy. Overall
security is also important—the Family
Lifestyle System uses an 802.15.4-based
wireless technology, ZigBee, to handle
communications between the various
devices and the Control Box/gateway.
It enjoys the same high level of security
as found with WiFi, currently used in
hundreds of millions of homes worldwide
to transmit a great many forms of
highly confidential and sensitive data.
Within the next decade, Family
Lifestyle Systems will become a
completely new segment on its own.
Both cable and telecom operators
as well as retailer installations
will be able to take advantage of
this new market opportunity.
One interesting challenge is determining
who pays for it. What will the business
model be? Will the hardware be free
with a monthly subscription fee (as with
many phone contracts), or will consumers
be asked to pay for the hardware? With
troves of real-world human data being
gathered for analysis, there is even
the possibility that advertising and
marketing firms may want to step in
and sponsor some of the cost in return
for the right to see this comprehensive
real-word human activity information.
Another big challenge is to overcome what
happens when there are Internet outages.
It is clear that as dependency on systems
increase, a robust and reliable back-up
system will be required. As most of the
sensors will be battery powered, they will
keep operating but the connection to the
web and the rest of the world may be out.
One effective option is a store-andforward process. As soon as the web
connection is reconnected all the
information is resent. In addition, the
system provides an alert delivered to
family members’ smartphones that the
Internet connection is down or was down.
Summary
Connected homes are becoming
commonplace and starting to evolve into
smart homes. Smart homes, using a network
of sentrollers and cloud intelligence will
take the next step, evolving from a system
of Internet of Human Intervention to the
real Internet of Things, where our homes
become intelligent and autonomous, and
are able to monitor and take care of the
human being inside. Smartphones are
picking up a new role: they are becoming
the dashboards of our homes, enabling
us to run our households as efficiently as
we operate our cars. When our homes get
connected to the Internet, new questions
about security and privacy always pop up, but
we are confident that these will be resolved.
Cees Links is the founder and CEO of
GreenPeak. Under his responsibility,
the first wireless LANs were developed,
ultimately becoming household
technology integrated into PCs and
notebooks. He also pioneered the
development of access points, home
networking routers, and hotspot
basestations. He was involved
in the establishment of the IEEE
802.11 standardization committee
and the WiFi Alliance. He was also
instrumental in establishing the IEEE
802.15 standardization committee
to become the basis for the ZigBee
sense and control networking.
In 2005 Cees started with GreenPeak
Technologies. GreenPeak is a fabless
semiconductor company and the
leader in the ZigBee market with
a rich offering of semiconductor
products and software technologies
for smart home data communications
and the Internet of Things.
You can contact GreenPeak at
http://www.greenpeak.com.
Ultimately we will be able to make our
homes and our lives more secure, more
comfortable, more energy efficient,
and allow us at home longer.
17
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
EEWEB FEATURE
Honeywell’s
TruStability
®
Platform
Offers Millions
of Sensor Variations
Highly Customizable
Platform Approach Meets
Customer’s Unique Specifications
Interview with Ashis Bhattacharya,
Vice President of Global Strategic Marketing
& Business Development at Honeywell
20
F
or decades, Honeywell Sensing
& Control has been providing
tens of thousands of sensors
and switches to a diverse customer
base. As technology has advanced
over the years, product lifecycles
have become ever shrinking, which
has put a considerable strain on the
design engineer. As a result, many
design teams have settled for offthe-shelf components to save time
in the crucial product development
period, offering an increased timeto-market, at the price of having a
fully integrated system. Of course,
the less-than-desired optimization
of these standalone sensors does
not sit well with Honeywell—a
company with a proven track
record of working with customers
to develop entire system solutions,
rather than mere system elements.
One of Honeywell’s latest offerings
promises to offer customers a valueadded, platform approach with
millions of pre-engineered and preintegrated designs that will not only
enable a new wave of applications,
but help the design engineer bring
new products to market in record
time. EEWeb spoke with Ashis
Bhattacharya, Vice President of
Global Strategic Marketing & Business
Development at Honeywell, about
the TruStability sensor platform, the
product configurator that helps the
engineers select the right sensor from
a sea of millions, and some new highstakes applications on the horizon.
21
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
Engaging at the Start
As is the case with all components
of a system, sensor design requires
interdisciplinary collaboration for a variety
of stability testing issues. The process
of determining operating conditions and
functionality in real-world applications
is often the lengthiest and costliest part
of the design process. While this process
is an interdisciplinary process, the onus
of this product development cycle lies in
the design engineer. “Design engineers
constantly face high expectations for
performance and after-market support,”
Bhattacharya stated. “They are essentially
asked to do much more with much less.” In
the case of selecting a sensor or a switch
for a particular application, Honeywell
believes that initial engagement with
customers and designers is of utmost
importance. “We want to fully understand
the customers’ situations,” Bhattacharya
explained. “We want to engage with
customers to pick sensors that will enable
the performance and stability of the
device, which will give them a competitive
advantage.” The chosen sensors will not
only need to be reliable, but they must
easily integrate with the given system.
Honeywell’s response to this critical
design crunch was to put years of
engineering work into their TruStability®
Platform. This platform boasts over
one million variations on the same
sensor. As if this was not enough value
for the customer, each one of these
million variations of sensors comes preengineered, and pre-designed, making
each selection truly customizable so the
customer can achieve a level of precision
and specificity that usually comes through
22
EEWEB FEATURE
custom design work. These pre-engineered
variations directly benefit the ways in which
Honeywell interacts with its customers; as
Bhattacharya explained, “Honeywell can
now know how each sensor variation would
perform, what it would take to build the
variation in our factory, and how long it would
take to get to the customer.” Knowledge of
these specific parameters will allow design
engineers to save time in the crucial early
stage of product development and selection.
“We want to engage with customers to pick sensors that
will enable the performance and stability of the device,
which will give them a competitive advantage.”
From One Million to One
However, scanning through a sea of a
million sensors is no easy task, which is
why Honeywell developed a proprietary
product configurator. The configurator
helps the customer narrow down the sensor
selection from a million to one, as efficiently
as possible. By simply selecting the precise
criteria and environment parameters of the
end application, the configurator will narrow
the sensor selection down to a very specific
device, making sensor selection easier than it
has ever been before. Having pre-engineered
and pre-designed sensors also eliminates the
need for in-depth testing, re-calibration within
the system, as well as the costly initial set-up.
According to Bhattacharya, the response
to the sensor platform approach has been
extremely valuable to Honeywell’s customers:
“Our platform continues to enable customers
to be proactive with sensors, which is valuable
because designers have not always realized
that the sensor can heavily influence the
design of the product.” The continuous
digital and online customer engagement
allows for customer support at every stage
of the selection and implementation
process, making Honeywell a
one-stop sensor provider.
23
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
EEWEB FEATURE
Honeywell’s platform continues to enable customers
to be proactive with sensors, which is valuable because
designers have not always realized that the sensor
can heavily influence the design of the product.
High Stakes, High Reliability
The TruStability Platform’s
low-drift characteristics help
maintain high accuracy no matter
how long the device has been in use,
which is a key factor in
always-on ventilation
and monitoring.
24
With the development of the TruStability
Platform, Honeywell can now target the
markets that need stability the most.
According to Bhattacharya,
these markets are
medical, aerospace,
and industrial. “Our
sensors play a
critical role in
enabling customer’s
devices,” he stated.
In the case of medical
devices, Bhattacharya
gave the example of ventilators that
need to sense the slightest shifts from
inhale to exhale. Honeywell’s sensors
enable this critical application where
the pressure of inhalation is so light it
is barely noticeable. The TruStability
Platform’s low-drift characteristics help
maintain high accuracy no matter how
long the device has been in use, which is
a key factor in always-on ventilation and
monitoring. “The level of performance
and dependence that our customers
have on these sensors is tremendous,”
Bhattacharya remarked. “This requires a
lot of background engineering, marketing,
and manufacturing sophistication.”
For aerospace, the dependence on
pressure sensors heightens the need for
reliability and stability. When an aircraft
is coming in to land, it is critical to ensure
that the wings remain straight no matter
how the joystick is affected so that the
plane lands safely. Honeywell developed
a specific sensor that determines when
the weight of the plane is on the wheels
of the aircraft—not the wings—so that
it can be steered on the ground upon
landing. “In concept, it is an extremely
simple sensor,” Bhattacharya explained,
“but it has to perform under high stakes
over long periods of time.” These highstakes applications can now stably
operate no matter how rigorous or
slight the external parameters are. With
the proliferation of sensors, comes an
increase in expectations of
reliability and stability.
As Bhattacharya
stated: “Customers
are beginning to
realize that having
the right sensors
can make all of the
difference in device
performance.”
Fighting Drift
Pressure sensors are commonly
affected by drift, a phenomenon
that degrades the accuracy of
sensor readings over time. Drift
commonly occurs from external
parameters like temperature and
operating conditions that ware
down the stability and accuracy
of the sensors. To combat
drift, Honeywell developed its
TruStability sensor platform,
which has robust, pre-engineered
components that boast higher
stability and dependency compared
to off-the-shelf components.
The days of drift are over.
25
INDUSTRY INTERVIEW
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
Q&
A
with Honeywell’s
Ashis
Bhattacharya
Interview with Ashis Bhattacharya
Vice President of Global Strategic
Marketing & Business Development,
Sensing & Control at Honeywell
26
HONEYWELL IS A COMPANY WITH A RICH ENGINEERING
HISTORY. FOUNDED OVER A HUNDRED YEARS AGO,
THE COMPANY HAS EXPANDED FROM DEVELOPING THE
EARLY VERSION OF THE THERMOSTAT TO BECOMING
INDUSTRY LEADERS IN MILITARY, COMPUTING, AND
INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS.
But Honeywell’s massive expansion does not mean it
has lost sight of its customer-oriented approach. With
the Sensing and Control unit, the customer has always
inspired the direction of the products. The unit’s latest
sensor platform, TruStability, reinforces this credo as
it helps enable the customer to essedntially develop a
unique sensor for the application they are working on.
EEWeb spoke with Ashis Bhattacharya of the Sensing
and Control unit at Honeywell, about the division’s place
among Honeywell’s broad engineering offerings and the
customer-oriented initiative with its highly adaptable new
sensor platform.
27
INDUSTRY INTERVIEW
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
Honeywell is a large and diverse
company with a lot of offerings.
How does sensing and control factor
in to Honeywell’s portfolio?
Q&
A
The most interesting thing about
Honeywell is that it is such a big company.
Depending on your experience, your
perception of Honeywell could be
limited by the products that you have
encountered in the past. One of the big
parts of our business is what we call
performance, materials, and technology
(PMT), which deals primarily with the
development of chemicals, processes,
and management of chemical plants.
Another main part of Honeywell’s
business is its automation and control
solutions, which are made up of eight
business units. This differs from our
sensing and control solutions, which is
a specialty components business—the
only thing that we do in that business
is manufacture a wide range of sensors
and switches that we supply to
customers that are designing devices
and machines. In our automation and
control unit, the first level of business
is the components business; the second
level is the people who make devices for
security systems or personal protective
equipment systems; and the third level
of business is with service businesses
that just give you equipment.
What are some of the target
markets for the Sensing and
Control unit?
One of the things that distinguishes the
Sensing and Control unit is that we are
solely a sensors and switches business.
This is important because sensors
are becoming a bigger part of today’s
industry; in particular, high-performance
and long-duration sensors are on the rise,
and because the technology is getting
so complex, it’s not always possible
for our customers to be designing and
selecting these sensors in isolation.
We target big vertical markets with
these products, such as industrial,
transportation, aerospace, and medical.
Our focus in these vertical markets
reflects what our customers are trying
to do. Our customers are very focused
on improving safety and productivity on
both machine and device performance.
Therefore, our strategy and business
approach is very simple: we want
to focus on the design engineer. We
engage with them to make sure they
are able to understand our sensor
portfolio and pick the right optimized
sensor for their applications.
For design engineers, what
sets Honeywell apart from
the competition?
When a design engineer is looking at
a sensor or a switch selection, there is
“We found that most customers look for the ability
to select a sensor that meets their unique specifications
as opposed to selecting a general sensor.”
28
nobody from the provider in front of
them—all they have is their computer. For
us, this initial online engagement with our
customers is one of our most important
goals and we continue to define what
we do in terms of how we engage with
our customers, whether through our
online content or distributors. We tell
our customers that we understand
their situation and we want to work as a
technology partner with them and supply
them with differentiated devices from a
performance and stability perspective.
What are some of the more
notable advances that Honeywell
has made that provide value to
your customers?
One of the things that customers
want is quick response time with their
questions. Over the last five years, one
of the big effects that we have had is
thinking about our products as more of
a platform. This means that in the early
design stages of a product, we send our
product-marketing people and engineers
to go out and talk to customers to
understand their needs in the industry.
We found that most customers look for
the ability to select a sensor that meets
their unique specifications as opposed
to selecting a general sensor. They said
they needed something that was more
customized and they needed it quickly.
In return, we developed the TruStability
platform, which is comprised of a set
of variations around a sensor. Our
customers told us that they needed
this pressure sensor to be stable over
time, which is difficult, because pressure
“Designers don’t always realize that
the sensor can heavily influence
the design of a product.”
sensors typically get affected by their
environment and the temperature of
the relative humidity, so stability is a big
benefit. With the TruStability platform,
we came up with more than one and half
million variations so people could pick
out of this huge amount of variations.
Each one of these variations is preengineered, which means the customer
can determine how the variations would
perform, what it would take to build
the variation in our factory, and how
long it the whole process would take.
What has the customer feedback
been for this platform?
In many cases, the customers have
realized that having the right sensors can
make all of the difference in their device
performance. That is where our method
continues to enable customers—to
think of sensors ahead of when they are
needed. Designers don’t always realize
that the sensor can heavily influence the
design of a product. We see two starting
points of devices fairly often; one is for an
electronic device where the CPU decides
a lot of the architecture of the device.
Increasingly, we are seeing that it is actually
the sensor that determines the device
architecture. We have been seeing very
positive responses where customers have
been able to enhance the performance of
the device by simply selecting the right
sensor by working closely with us.
29
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