Nordic Semiconductor, the manufacturer of the System on a Chip (SoC) in many beacons, has published the latest online issue of Wireless Quarter Magazine. It showcases the many uses of Nordic SoCs.
The latest issue of the magazine highlights the use of the SoC in the following Bluetooth solutions:
Leak detectors that harvest energy from water
A smart lock that can be retrofitted to most doors
Future wearables that can detect Alzheimer’s disease
There are also articles on how IoT is forecast to save eight times more energy than it consumes, a piece on smart homes and an in-depth explanation how advanced wearables are moving beyond fitness to provide better health outcomes.
Nordic Semiconductor, the manufacturer of the System on a Chip (SoC) in many beacons, has published the latest online issue of Wireless Quarter Magazine. It showcases the many uses of Nordic SoCs.
The latest issue of the magazine highlights the use of SoCs in the following Bluetooth solutions:
A glucose monitoring system
A six-degrees-freedom (6DoF) virtual reality (VR) headset
A smart bulb that can be controlled from a connected device or by voice command
A smartwatch incorporating Amazon Alexa Voice Service (AVS) functionality
A Mouse supporting very low latency PC gaming
A Bluetooth LE powered trampoline wearable
There are also interesting articles on:
The DECT-2020 standard for IoT
How engineering education is evolving to train tomorrow’s IoT innovators
How location services can extend beyond supply chains to other use cases
How wireless tech increases workers’ safety and boosts productivity
The use of asset tracking solutions in global logistics could create $1.9 trillion of economic value
There’s also an ‘Inside Track’ article on beacons showing how beacon wireless location services are making consumers’ lives simpler.
Nordic Semiconductor, the manufacturer of the System on a Chip (SoC) in many beacons, has published the latest online issue of Wireless Quarter Magazine. It showcases the many uses of Nordic SoCs.
The latest issue of the magazine highlights the use of the SoC in the following Bluetooth solutions:
Continuous glucose monitoring system for diabetes
Metered dose inhalers (MDIs) for asthma
Smart liquid heater
A musician’s playing monitor timer
Chipolo Bluetooth LE tracker
It’s mentioned that hospitals are struggling to manage IoT:
13 percent of hospitals have no inventory of their Internet-connected devices or any way of knowing how many connected medical devices are deployed in their facility… costing their facilities between $21.5k and $45.7k an hour
There’s also an article ‘Dog Gone’ showing wearables are rapidly being worn by animals as owners want to ensure their pets fitness, health and security.
The global pet technology market, which accounted for over $5.5 billion in 2020, is set to grow at 22 percent CAGR from 2021 to 2027 when it will be worth over $20 billion
Nordic Semiconductor, the manufacturer of the System on a Chip (SoC) used in many beacons, has published the latest online issue of Wireless Quarter Magazine. It showcases the many uses of Nordic SoCs.
Highlights include:
Nordic Semiconductor has launched an Apple Find My network compatible SDK
A new Bluetooth device that could help vapers quit
A Bluetooth LE smart pen that monitors aesthetic levels during surgery
There’s an in-depth article ‘Evolving Intelligence’ that covers AI machine learning. It explains how bandwidth limitations, latency demands and privacy concerns are dictating that machine learning move from the Cloud to edge devices. Battery powered IoT modules are able to perform machine learning inference in real-time allowing decision making near to where sensor data is generated and used.
Nordic Semiconductor, the manufacturer of the System on a Chip (SoC) in many beacons, has published the latest online issue of Wireless Quarter Magazine. It showcases the many uses of Nordic SoCs.
The latest issue of the magazine highlights the increasing use of IoT. Nordic Semiconductor has been known for enabling Bluetooth and cellular solutions and with their recent acquisition of Imagination Technologies this now extends to WiFi.
The magazine covers many usecases including:
Bluetooth connected prosthetics
CHIP smart home
Smart health
There’s also an informative article exploring the usefulness of patents.
You can find the processor chip in the specification section of our beacon descriptions. Most people don’t know what this means or implies. This article will help you make a more informed choice.
nRF51822 in a round beacon
There are currently three main chip families from Texas Instruments (CC25xx, CC26xx), Dialog Semiconductor (DAxxxx) and Nordic Semiconductor (nRF51xxx and nRF52xxx). These chip manufacturers publish standard electronic circuits and software SDKs that beacon OEMs use for their beacons. Hence, most beacons, within a chip family, have very similar designs. Small differences in implementation of board layout in areas such as the power supply, grounding, terminations, connectors and the antenna can cause electrical differences that can cause loss of power.
The strength of the beacon radio signal is affected more by the quality of the beacon implementation, particularly the antenna, rather than the choice of chip. This is also evident in real world tests. We have performed RSSI strength and stability tests on the beacons we sell and haven’t yet found any correlation between signal strength and chip family.
The choice of SoC affects battery use. Newer chip families such as the Nordic nRF52 (as opposed to nRF51) and Texas Instruments CC2640 (as opposed to CC2541) are more power efficient.
Most beacon SoCs transmit up to +4dBm output power for a longer range. A few such as the nRF52840 and CC2640RF can be set to higher output power of +8dBm and +5dBM respectively, with a consequent reduction of battery life. If you are looking for longer range, it’s more usual to use a long range beacon with an additional output amplifier chip.
The newer SoCs have much more memory. This isn’t used for most beacons except for those that store data.
The use of standard SoC manufacturer designs and software means that all beacons work well, adhere to Bluetooth standards and compatibility is never a problem.
Nordic Semiconductor, the manufacturer of the System on a Chip (SoC) in many beacons, has published the latest issue of Wireless Quarter Magazine. It showcases the many uses of Nordic SoCs.
It showcases a gym management platform using beacons that analyses equipment and zone use. It also mentions the nRF52 SoC, used in beacons, being used in
MEZOO’s ECG monitor that detects heart arrhythmia
Xiaomi’s Bluetooth LE smart door lock
M Lura Health’s 1000 tooth sensor
Escort’s fuel level sensor
Juniper Research reports on how the pandemic is accelerating use of IoT:
IoT connections driven by early industrial deployments and pandemic-driven telemedicine applications are projected to reach 83 billion by 2024, a 130 percent growth rate
There are also articles on using tech to prevent deforestation, wellness tech, smart street lighting and precision positioning.
There’s a new video of the Nordic Semiconductor webinar on Everything you need to know about Bluetooth LE advertising. It covers the basics of Bluetooth LE including advertising and data formats. It explains how to use the nRF Connect SDK API and provides a demo. It also shows how to use nRF Sniffer to examine Bluetooth LE data packets.
The video mentions advertising extensions. These are only in Bluetooth 5. Most current devices only support Bluetooth 4.2 legacy advertising. Growth in numbers Bluetooth 5 devices has been limited due to the non-compatibility with the majority of smartphones. It’s for this reason that devices that are Bluetooth 5 usually communicate using, backward compatible, legacy advertising. Extended advertising is also an optional feature of Bluetooth 5.
Nordic, the manufacturer of the System on a Chip (SoC) in many beacons, has published the latest issue of Wireless Quarter Magazine. It showcases the many uses of Nordic SoCs.
This issue has a special feature on how Nordic powered devices are helping the fight against Covid. This includes smart thermometers, smart pulse oximeters, smart soap dispensers, improved cleaning of VR headsets and social distancing/contact tracing solutions. Of social distancing solutions the magazine says:
Technology is needed to enforce social distancing. Bluetooth LE wearables are emerging as one of the most promising workplace solutions
There’s also product news such as Lynxemi’s vibration and temperature sensor platform for predictive maintenance and the Carv Bluetooth LE sensor ski training solution. The magazine also includes an article on ‘STEAM’ (science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics) and how the MICRO:BIT is going global.
Nordic, the manufacturer of the System on a Chip (SoC) in many beacons, has published the latest issue of Wireless Quarter Magazine. It showcases the many uses of Nordic SoCs.
In the magazine you can find lots of new products using the same technology found in Bluetooth beacons:
Citizen Watch’s solar powered watch
Sphero RVR programmable robot
F5 Sports smart baseball
A wearable canine activity tracker that monitors pet exercise
An equine monitoring solution helping farmers monitor horses’ health
