Embedded

We spoke with Janet Hansen about the world of professional costumery (with electronics) and becoming an artist. Janet’s business is Enlighted [https://enlighted.com/] where you can find custom illuminated clothing as well as Janet’s ready-made art. Janet’s personal site is janethansen.com [https://janethansen.com/] which is more focused on her artistic pursuits. Janet mentioned Seeed’s MSGEQ7 [https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2020/09/30/introduction-of-msgeq7/]. We talked about Janet’s light up pillow with Debra Ansell on 494: All Tech Is Wearable — Embedded [https://embedded.fm/episodes/494]. Transcript [https://embedded.fm/transcripts/499] If you’re interested in the intersection of neuroscience and engineering, you might want to check out what Mouser Electronics is doing with Brain-Computer Interfaces. It’s all about how you can control machines with your mind, and it’s one of the coolest areas of innovation right now. Mouser’s Empowering Innovation Together site has great content on BCIs, from videos to in-depth articles and podcasts that break down the tech. If this piques your curiosity, head over to Mouser.com/empowering-innovation [https://www.mouser.com/empowering-innovation] and explore what’s happening with BCI and other exciting developments in the world of design and engineering.

At the end of this week’s show, Elecia reads a Winnie the Pooh poem as Cookie Monster death metal. Before that, Chris and Elecia chat about mental health, journaling, personal projects, and listener questions.  Please sign up for the Nordic Giveaway [https://embedded.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bb8caeb750ad079df2b961c41&id=d80909b6b6&e=bf5fb14408]!  You can also sign up for the Embedded newsletter [https://embedded.fm/newsletter]. Maybe now with job postings? Elecia’s journaling notebook is this one on JetPens [https://www.jetpens.com/Stalogy-Editor-s-Series-365Days-Notebook-A5-Dot-Grid-Blue/pd/31977] (which is where she gets her nice pens and some of her stickers and washi tape).  From discussing some listener messages, we mentioned: * Matt Keeter’s talk on debuggability in production where you don’t have access to the system that is faulting (video [https://vimeo.com/877092565] and slides [https://www.mattkeeter.com/research/osfc2023.pdf]) * Letter boards (in the Adirondacks), see those in action here [https://www.northcountryearthaction.org/light-brigade.html] * Wokwi [https://wokwi.com/] simulator is a great place to get more embedded experience without buying all the kits. Christopher has said that there will not, definitely not, under any circumstances, be a whole death metal album of Winnie the Pooh poems. Elecia is practicing anyway.  Transcript [https://embedded.fm/transcripts/498] Nordic Semiconductor has been the driving force for Bluetooth Low Energy MCUs and wireless SoCs since the early 2010s, and they offer solutions for low-power Wi-Fi and global Cellular IoT as well. If you plan on developing robust and battery-operated applications, check out [https://embedded.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bb8caeb750ad079df2b961c41&id=907d298a44&e=bf5fb14408] their hardware, software, tools, and services.   On academy.nordicsemi.com [http://academy.nordicsemi.com/], [https://embedded.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bb8caeb750ad079df2b961c41&id=f334a550bd&e=bf5fb14408] you’ll find Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular IoT courses, and the Nordic DevZone community covers technical questions:  devzone.nordicsemi.com [http://devzone.nordicsemi.com/].   Oh, and don’t forget to enter Nordic Semiconductor’s giveaway contest! Just fill out the entrance form, [https://embedded.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bb8caeb750ad079df2b961c41&id=d80909b6b6&e=bf5fb14408] and you're in the running. Good luck!

OpenMV has a new Kickstarter so CEO Kwabena Agyeman chatted with us about more powerful (and smaller!) programmable cameras.  See OpenMV [https://openmv.io/]’s site for their existing cameras. See their (already funded!) kickstarter page [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/openmv/openmv-n6-and-ae3-low-power-python-programmable-ai-cameras] for the super powerful N6 and the ridiculously small AE3. Note that OpenMV still is committed to open source. See their github [https://github.com/openmv] if you want to know more. Edge AI is the idea of putting intelligence in the devices (instead of in the cloud). There is an advocacy and education foundation called Edge AI Foundation [https://www.edgeaifoundation.org/]. This organization was formerly the TinyML Foundation. Edge Impulse [https://edgeimpulse.com/] and Roboflow [https://roboflow.com/] are companies that aid in creating and training AI models that can be put on devices.  ARM talks about their Ethos-U55 NPU [https://developer.arm.com/Processors/Ethos-U55] (and how to write software for it [https://developer.arm.com/documentation/109267/0101/Arm-Ethos-U-NPU/ML-software-support-for-Ethos-U]). Transcript [https://embedded.fm/transcripts/497]

Professor Shimon Schocken spoke with us about teaching computer science from NAND logic gates to arithmetic units, micro assembly, virtual machines, compilers, operating systems, and the Tetris games. We also talk about good design, good interfaces, and good tests. Shimon’s book is Elements of Computing Systems [https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Computing-Systems-Building-Principles/dp/0262640686] and the website with the course lecture notes, slides, videos, simulators, and everything you need is nand2tetris.org [https://www.nand2tetris.org/].  Shimon mentioned his work with teaching math, that is www.matific.com [https://www.matific.com/us/en-us/home/]. You can find out more about Shimon’s other projects on his site shimonschocken.com [https://www.shimonschocken.com/] (including his fascinating TED talk: The self-organizing computer course [https://www.ted.com/talks/shimon_schocken_the_self_organizing_computer_course]). Shimon’s co-author is Noam Nisan who also wrote about understanding logic systems [https://www.logicthrupython.org/] (look, anytime we can bring up Gödel's incompleteness theorems [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems], we will). We talked about Tim Bell’s CS Unplugged, teaching computer science concepts without a computer. It comes in Classic [https://classic.csunplugged.org/] and Modern [https://www.csunplugged.org/en/] flavors. Transcript [https://embedded.fm/transcripts/496] Memfault is a leading embedded device observability platform that empowers teams to build better IoT products, faster. Its off-the-shelf solution is specifically designed for bandwidth-constrained devices, offering device performance and product analytics, debugging, and over-the-air capabilities. Trusted by leading brands such as Bose, Lyft, Logitech, Panasonic, and Augury, Memfault improves the reliability of devices across consumer electronics and mission-critical industries such as access control, point of sale, energy, and healthcare. To learn more, visit memfault.com [http://memfault.com/].

Professor Cindy Harnett spoke to us about new and different sensors and actuators, primarily designed for soft robotics and fabricated with relatively low cost materials. Cindy is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Louisville [https://engineering.louisville.edu/faculty/cindy-k-harnett/] where she runs the Harnett Lab [https://harnettlab.org/]. The papers we discussed are here [https://paperpile.com/shared/snhvlw7lYTjm72qD81mqxRg]. You can find a longer list of Cindy’s papers on Google Scholar [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SQg5UZoAAAAJ&hl=en]. The video of the SESAME actuator [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agPaJ1WNwfQ] is especially interesting. Transcript [https://embedded.fm/transcripts/495] Nordic Semiconductor has been the driving force for Bluetooth Low Energy MCUs and wireless SoCs since the early 2010s, and they offer solutions for low-power Wi-Fi and global Cellular IoT as well. If you plan on developing robust and battery-operated applications, check out [https://embedded.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bb8caeb750ad079df2b961c41&id=907d298a44&e=bf5fb14408] their hardware, software, tools, and services.   On academy.nordicsemi.com [http://academy.nordicsemi.com/], [https://embedded.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bb8caeb750ad079df2b961c41&id=f334a550bd&e=bf5fb14408] you’ll find Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular IoT courses, and the Nordic DevZone community covers technical questions:  devzone.nordicsemi.com [http://devzone.nordicsemi.com/].   Oh, and don’t forget to enter Nordic Semiconductor’s giveaway contest! Just fill out the entrance form, [https://embedded.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bb8caeb750ad079df2b961c41&id=d80909b6b6&e=bf5fb14408] and you're in the running. Good luck!