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GearDb has been keeping an eye on LiFi companies at CES. (view the LiFi category for past posts) LiFi is like WiFi but uses modulated light instead of radio waves. So it was great to see Basic6 at CES 2016. Basic6 is an award-winning tech company (Interop 2014) based in Westport, CT and has partnered with Oledcomm, the French LiFi hardware provider that exhibited the previous 2 years at CES.

Basic6 exhibited a suite of new software and hardware LiFi products. They had a retail floor demonstration where LiFi-enabled tablets receive & display dynamic product information from the nearest LiFi LED lamps. Customer information associated with each LiFi lamp such as number of customers, visit time and duration are logged for customer behavior analysis.

Next there was a data streaming demo used LiFi to transmit encoded music to a LiFi-enabled table radio (Ladio?)  And Basic6 showed their new LiFi adapter which can be placed between an existing LED lamp head and socket base. This adapter communicates with a hub on how it should modulate the light emitted from the LED lamp. Communication between the adapter and hub can be bi-directional using WiFi or other existing wireless RF protocols. (Contact Basic6.com for pricing and availability.)

With Basic6 on the scene, the US market for LiFi has taken a promising step forward.

Visit Basic6.com for more details and some great LiFi explanations – and see their CES blog post for several videos from CES.

SL Interphase demonstrated their prototype Nitro Duo at CES Eureka Park. It lets you toggle between Windows 10 and Android in one combined handheld unit. Each OS runs on its own hardware – CPU, RAM, Disk – and they share a 5″ touch screen and I/O ports.

Android runs on a Freescale quad core iMX-6 with 2GB of DDR2 Ram. Windows runs on a Intel quad core Atom with 4GB of DDR3 Ram and a 256GB SSD. A Xilinx FPGA handles the switching between the two and manages, power, ports, a 4GLTE modem and other peripherals. You can either have both systems running at the same time or have one go to sleep.

The Nitro Duo will have a dock for charging plus 3 USB, an HDMI and an ethernet port.

The US coasts get most of the tech attention and so many don’t hear about the tech hotspots in middle America.  St. Louis is one of these hot spots and at CES 2016, I learned about the StL-based company Fybr which been doing city scale IoT implementations in the areas of utilities management, safety & security, environmental monitoring and everyone’s urban priority – parking management.

Fybr does the full stack – from initial needs analysis / feasibility to deployment and everything in between – sensor selection, firmware development, robust packaging/housing, connectivity of edge devices into secure networks, and analyzing the data for effective management, planning and other analytics.  Fybr can also enable machine learning to make edge devices intelligent and adaptable.  www.fybr-tech.com

If you’re familiar with using the Eclipse IDEs for developing in Java (or C / C++) to write for Android or desktop applications, then think of MicroEJ (EJ = Embedded Java) as offering a similar dev path but for embedded devices.  MicroEJ has rapid development tools for both rich UI apps and embedded device logic across a wide range of capabilities starting with a virtual machine with 28 KB of Flash and less than 1.5 KB RAM and on up to State of the Art high end devices.

MicroEJ came to CES 2016 to expand their global market presence.  They were founded in 2004, are HQ’d in Nantes, France and have offices in Paris, Munich and Austin.  MicroEJ is the operating brand name of Industrial Smart Software Technology (IS2T S.A.)  www.MicroEJ.com  (take a look at their video library of features and applications)

At CES 2016, the newly-formed Airbus Defence and Space group presented a core system to detect, track and counter UAVs. Initial detection will be with X band radar at up to 4 km range followed with thermal and optical color imaging out to 1.5 km.  (These ranges are for small DJI Phantom-like drones – longer ranges for larger UAVs) A radio direction finder will be used to locate the operator.  A UAV signature database will be available for the “human in the loop” to determine type.  Jamming of the radio control frequency, operator video feed, and GPS spoofing can be applied if the operator cannot be located or if the UAV is autonomous.  This is an institutional (.gov / mega corp) grade system, not residential…unless you’re Bill Gates, etc.

www.AirbusDefenCeandSpace.com  (there’s a nice video and image gallery!)

The GOPUCK line of USB reserve power banks have a very versatile geometry. If you want a clean, smooth shape with no belt clip protrusions, just completely and quickly remove the Active Mount clip that grips diagonally opposite corners of the 3″ square GOPUCK.

If you want to securely clip the GOPUCK to a strap, belt or cord, the beefy Active Mount will do that. You can also use the countersunk center hole to screw or bolt the Active Mount to a surface or to attach a camera or other device. And let’s not forget glue, tape and Velcro. Two Active Mounts can be attached to a GOPUCK.

There’s currently “3X” (4400mAh / 4oz) and “5X” (6600mAh / 6 oz) versions of the GOPUCK which indicate the number of times a small cell phone could be recharged. The next version, the “6XR” (9000mAh / 6.5 oz) will also feature a ~75% faster charge rate and will be out in early 2016.

All GOPUCKs have dual 2.4 Amp fullsize USB outputs, a micro USB input, 4 segment LED power level indicator, corner off/on switch and come with an Active Mount and 3′ micro USB cord.   www.GOPUCK.com

(GearDb received a GOPUCK 5X for review/eval at CES 2016 and will post periodic real life usage updates here.)

Award-winning software developer Emersya was one of the many fine French companies in the 2016 CES Eureka Park startup pavilion.  The Emersya Showcase software solution enables internet shoppers to view and rotate products in 3D.  The Emersya Designer solution has the 3D view and rotate but also lets the shopper change the colors of various designated areas.  The size and color of logos and other skin graphics can also be changed by the shopper.  So the shopper can have greater confidence and enthusiasm about how the specific item will look – who knows, maybe they end up buying several different colors.

To use Emersya, the key first step is to get a 3D model of the item via Textured 3D Mesh, CAD 3D Model, or a 3D Scan. Once you have that, you can fine tune and enrich the appearance by adding 3D effects, animations, backgrounds, specific feature descriptions, SEO, and of course the various borders for color changes on the item.

The static image above does not do justice to a full screen 3D rotating Emersya session.
Click here – ooh ahhh! – to launch a new window and see all the things you can change.  Then you’ll be wanting to contact Emersya for specific platform details and pricing.

Swedish company aiFi has a wonderfully designed and implemented stackable speaker system.  You can stack the speakers either side by side or on top of each other and an IR port will link them.  Audio characteristics of the speaker array will adjust to optimum as speakers are added.  Each speaker unit is autonomous, has a ~ 8 hr battery life and Bluetooth, analog line-in (1/8″ /3.5mm plug) or  S/PDIF optical input.  The speakers have a gentle radius so if you have 20 speakers set side to side they will form a circle.   There’s also a multi-color LED bezel and an app to control the speakers.  I like to imagine a group of friends all using an aiFi individually but also getting together for parties and everyone brings their aiFi to stack together.

And here’s a cool stealth feature – if 2 “master” speakers, each with their own audio input are paired, one will randomly become the new master – because you know “there can only be one.”  So place your bets on which genre will reign supreme.   www.aiFi.se

French-based E.Sensory is a CES 2016 Innovation Honoree for their B.Sensory “Little Bird” vibrator and control + synchronization app. The Little Bird will vibrate in one of 10 different modes as well as varying intensity based on settings in the ebook, audio file or video file. Currently the media files are prepared by E-SENSORY but the capability for authors and publishers to do the mark up is in the works. The Little Bird is intended to be inserted into the vagina and is sheathed in waterproof, body-safe silicone elastomer. It is USB rechargeable, can run for about 90 minutes and can be controlled both locally via BlueTooth and globally over the internet. The Little Bird is taking phone sex to a new level. The imaginative GearDb reader will of course realize many additional applications are sure to be found for E.Sensory technology.

Details and online shopping for the Little Bird are at www.b-sensory.com and corporate information at www.e-sensory.com.

Securmate showed their concept pocket-sized & portable premise security system at the CES 2016 Eureka Park startup pavilion.  At a minimum, you have a control / communication unit about the size of a medium smart phone and a matchbox-sized sensor (2 AAA batteries) which communicate via WiFi.

You can secure the door(s) or window(s) of a hotel room, a motor home, a dorm room, an apartment or basement storage unit – pretty much any open / close access panel with one or multiple sensors. (no hard-coded limit!)  When a security breach is detected, the sensor signals the control unit which then can text ($3/mo) or email the designated entity.  www.securmate.com