Back to Office after Covid 19 lockdown: The Covid Buzzer

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Many offices have been closed or working on less power due to Covid-19. Now many offices want to open again. Last months, most employers have worked at home. There are employers who want to stay working at home, but most miss the energy of working at the office and the efficiency of a direct contact. And the latest gossip is juicier, the bad jokes funnier with an in-real-life cup of coffee together. How to re-open your office safely? Find out how the Covid Buzzer, a social distance badge, helps!

Creating a safe desk

But first, let’s take a look which measures offices take for re-opening. Most of their solutions consist of creating a safe desk. The policy that employees no longer have their own workplace are being drawn back. The limit of social distance (in the Netherlands 1.5 meter) is guaranteed by creating safe distances between desks. And sometimes, a transparent screen is placed between desks.

Creating a safe social distance in the building

So, there are many solutions possible for creating a Covid-19 safe desk. But… employers spend a lot of time by walking through the building. Going to desk. But also, to meetings, company restaurants, toilets and yes, the coffee machine. It’s there when people cross each other. And from the art of their function, facility managers are walking through the building all the time: such as receptionists, cleaners, security, maintenance workers.

Some offices are using tape for walking routes. But soon, after it’s there for some hour’s employers don’t notice the tape anymore. Especially when you’re busy and your mind is on the coming meeting.

Covid Buzzer: alarm goes off at 1.5-meter proximity

How do you alert your employees that they are less than 1.5 meters away from each other? This simple solution to keep a safe distance between each other. Everyone in the office, factory or elsewhere where many people gather, wears a badge. As soon as the badge meets another badge within a radius of 1.5 meters, a warning signal follows. The badge is completely anonymous, there are no privacy issues involved.

Covid Buzzer

Read More or order now: Covid Buzzer

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How Automotive benefits from IOT

Automotive is one of most important sectors in the development of IoT. This interest comes from Industry as Consumers as well. That’s why governments in Europe and elsewhere are supporting these new developments.

Benefits

  • A longer lifetime for your equipment with Preventive maintenance
  • Be in control and optimize your processes
  • Optimize your just-in-time management and get more value by delivering garantuees
  • Increase security for your cargo and your equipment

A longer lifetime for your equipment with Preventive maintenance

With IoT, you can create new ways of automotive and do more within the same budget. Automotive is an industry which deals with heavy circumstances like dust, wind, heat and pressure. So, it’s important to recognize if the equipment is still working properly.  With IoT, you can predict and prevent equipment failure by monitoring product wear and replacement rates.  As such, you improve the reliability of your assets and reduce downtime. And if you recognize little faults, you can solve them easily before they have become big and expensive problems.

Be in control and optimise your processes and increase value

On the other hand, you can add value for yourself and for your clients as well by monitor and interconnect your devices. To monitor and control one device in itself (like the development of self-driving cars). But also IoT delivers new possibilities to interconnect automotive in other grids. An example: a smart grid, where an office notices that a visitor will arrive in some minutes and already appoints a parking place to this visitor. By creating a network in which you know which device is on which location, you can optimize your just-in-time management and get more value by being able to deliver guarantees to your clients.

Security

Security has long time being disregarded, but is becoming one of the more important issues in Automotive. And with reason: think about the hack on harbour terminals

Read more: https://www.advsolned.com/automotive/

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A computationally efficient moving average filter: Definition and implementation

As discussed in a previous article, the moving average (MA) filter is perhaps one of the most widely used digital filters due to its conceptual simplicity and ease of implementation. The realisation diagram shown below, illustrates that an MA filter can be implemented as a simple FIR filter, just requiring additions and a delay line.

moving average filter, an MA filter can be implemented as a simple FIR filter, just requiring additions and a delay line. moving average FIR filter

Modelling the above, we see that a moving average filter of length \(\small\textstyle L\) for an input signal \(\small\textstyle x(n)\) may be defined as follows:

\( y(n)=\large{\frac{1}{L}}\normalsize{\sum\limits_{k=0}^{L-1}x(n-k)}\quad \text{for} \quad\normalsize{n=0,1,2,3….}\label{FIRdef}\tag{1}\)

This computation requires \(\small\textstyle L-1\) additions, which may become computationally demanding for very low power processors when \(\small\textstyle L\) is large. Therefore, applying some lateral thinking to the computational challenge, we see that a much more computationally efficient filter can be used in order to achieve the same result, namely:

\(H(z)=\displaystyle\frac{1}{L}\frac{1-z^{-L}}{1-z^{-1}}\tag{2}\label{TF}\)

with the difference equation,

\(y(n) =y(n-1)+\displaystyle\frac{x(n)-x(n-L)}{L}\tag{3}\)

Notice that this implementation only requires one addition and one subtraction for any value of \(\small\textstyle L\). A further simplification (valid for both implementations) can be achieved in a pre-processing step prior to implementing the difference equation, i.e. scaling all input values by \(\small\textstyle L\). If \(\small\textstyle L\) is a power of two (e.g. 4,8,16,32..), this can be achieved by a simple binary shift right operation.

Is it an IIR or actually an FIR?

Upon initial inspection of the transfer function of Eqn. \(\small\textstyle\eqref{TF}\), it appears that the efficient Moving average filter is an IIR filter. However, analysing the pole-zero plot of the filter (shown on the right for \(\small\textstyle L=8\)), we see that the pole at DC has been cancelled by a zero, and that the resulting filter is actually an FIR filter, with the same result as Eqn. \(\small\textstyle\eqref{FIRdef}\).

Moving average filter (MA filter). It appears that the efficient MA filter is an IIR filter. However, analysing the pole-zero plot of the filter, , we see that the pole at DC has been cancelled by a zero, and that the resulting filter is actually an FIR filter, with the same result as Eqn.

Notice also that the frequency spacing of the zeros (corresponding to the nulls in the frequency response) are at spaced at \(\small\textstyle\pm\frac{Fs}{L}\). This can be readily seen for this example, where an MA of length 8, sampled at \(\small\textstyle 500Hz\), results in a \(\small\textstyle\pm62.5Hz\) resolution.

As a final point, notice that the our efficient filter requires a delay line of length \(\small\textstyle L+1\), compared with the FIR delay line of length, \(\small\textstyle L\). However, this is a small price to pay for the computation advantage of a filter just requiring one addition and one subtraction. As such, the MA filter of Eqn. \(\small\textstyle\eqref{TF}\) presented herein is very attractive for very low power processors, such as the Arm Cortex-M0 that have been traditionally overlooked for DSP operations.

Implementation

The MA filter of Eqn. \(\small\textstyle\eqref{TF}\) may be implemented in ASN FilterScript as follows:

 
ClearH1;  // clear primary filter from cascade 
interface L = {2,32,2,4}; // interface variable definition 

Main() 
Num = {1,zeros(L-1),-1}; // define numerator coefficients 
Den = {1,-1}; // define denominator coefficients 
Gain = 1/L; // define gain



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Work and recreation in times of Covid-19: The Covid Buzzer

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The last months, due to Covid-19 factories, offices and institutions have been closed or been working on less power. Now, factories and offices want to open again. In the meantime, it is clear that Covid-19 will be with us for a long time. Employers want a safe as possible environment for their employees and visitors, as well as healthcare institutions and tourist and cultural providers. In addition, companies have a legal obligation to ensure a safe environment. And to take measures where necessary, so that the social distance is respected.

The Social Distance Badge is the device with which the 1.5-meter distance can be maintained. Simple, safe and without privacy issues

Work and recreation in times of Corona

For whom, what, why?

  • Factories
  • Construction and installation sites
  • Logistics: ports, warehouses
  • Transport (train, airports, busses)
  • Offices and Facility management
  • Healthcare
  • Touristic, sports and cultural sites and events

Factories

Factories and offices want to open again. Where offices can still choose by letting employees work from home, factories do not have this luxury. At assembly lines, many people are working together, concentrated to carry out their work. Then the 1.5 meter social distance may be ignored.

Construction and installations, logistics and transport

Employees are also unable to work from home during construction and installations. Many employees work side by side and close together. The employee will often need his focus to perform his work accurately and pay attention to other forms of safety, for example to prevent him from slipping or falling down. Employees can then forget to maintain the 1.5 meter social distance. The Social Distance badge helps to remind the employee to keep distance.

Offices and facility management

In the last months, many employees of offices have worked at home. But for social bonding and the well-being of employees, it’s important that employees are regularly present in the office. And not every office has the option to offer working from home.

Employees walk from workplace to company restaurant and meeting and back again. And meanwhile, facility managers walk through the entire building. Then it is important to keep the 1.5-meter distance, since 1 employee can spread the Corona-19 virus in the entire building.

Healthcare

For some groups, Covid-19 is particularly dangerous: the elderly and people who already have a condition. It is important for them that social distance is maintained. By clients, staff and visitors. In addition, some residents must be reminded to keep 1.5 meters.

Tourist, Cultural, Recreational, Sports sites and events

Visitors get mixed up, are enthusiastic and forget to keep their distance. Or are there visitors who do not take the 1.5 meter into account and thus pose a risk. With the Social Distance Badge, you can safely open again.


Guaranteed 1,5 meters distance

All employees (and customers or visitors) receive the SD badge upon entrance. This is worn around the wrist or neck. The SD Badge continuously scans its environment for other badges via a so-called Ultra Wide Band signal. This signal provides the most accurate distance measurement. As soon as 2 (or more) badges are less than 1.5 meters apart, they give a warning sound and/ or light signal. This allows everyone to keep enough distance. As soon as there are another safe 1.5 meters, the signal will stop.

Read more and order now: https://covidbuzzer.com

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Get your employees safely back to work with the Social Distance Badge.

Covid 19 Corona social distance

Each employee receives a Social Distance badge. When someone comes within 1.5 meters a warning signal follows (light and sound).

The Social Distance Badge:

∨ Quick and easy to use

∨ No privacy issues (AVG)

∨ 10 cm reliable due to UWB technology

Social Distancing Badge
Social Distancing Badge

Learn More and order now:

Learn More
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Biomedical IoT: to save and improve life

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How biomedics can benefit from IoT:

  • Improve the quality and effectiveness of your medical treatment with IoT and thus the quality of life for your patient
  • Do you want to spend your time on patients who really need it? Treat more patients in a better way in the same time within the same budget
  • Improve and fasten your patient’s recovery… with knowledge of results of the treatment of thousands of patients
  • Be on the forefront of IoT and help your patients in ways that were not possible before
  • Better measurement with clean data
  • Security: get control of your patients’ privacy

Sensor devices improve the quality of treatment and thus of life itself. Through prevention, medical treatment itself or therapy. Sensors solutions help to improve life and can even help to save lives. No wonder medical devices are one of the fastest growing sectors in IoT.

Households want to benefit from the newest possibilities IoT devices deliver. For better health and independence as much and as long as possible. Sensor devices can especially help people with chronic diseases, elderly people and people who need constant supervision.

For medical service providers, sensor devices can help to provide the best service as possible in times of increasing medical demand but also on a growing focus on costs. So, budgets must be spent in the best way as possible. Sensors and other IoT devices can help medical facilities to treat more patients in a better way and more efficiently.

How Advanced Solutions helps

Our services can help you in the following ways:

  • IoT solutions
  • Sensor measurement
  • Security

IoT solutions

Our systems prevent accidents from happening and reduce the response time of healthcare professionals.

Sensor measurement

In biomedical applications, sensors are already used in a lot of ways. EMG and ECG are just some examples. For making the right decisions on treatment, the measurement has to be accurate. However, most sensor data suffer from the following problems:

  • Powerline interference, measurement noise and glitches
  • Baseline wander and offsets from analog instrumentation electronics
  • Biomedical sensors are sending weak signals. So, in some cases, those signals have to be strengthened before analysis is possible.

Sometimes the filtering is done in the hardware of the medical equipment. However, these are very costly solutions. And most of the times, a simpler solution and thus less costly solution is what is being sort after.

ASN Consultancy is the modern way of working of algorithm design to separate the wanted sensor signals from the undesirable unwanted signals. So, you can analyse and take action on clean and accurate sensor data.

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Safety in the warehouse: Smart factory anti-collision system

Why?

  • Many accidents occur in the workplace in a storage room / warehouse
  • There are 110,000 serious injuries (NIOSHA) every year
  • Direct costs of $ 135 million are the result of forklift accidents alone
  • Nearly 80% of forklift accidents involved pedestrians
  • Every 3 days, someone in the US is killed in a forklift accident

Three most common types of injuries:

  • A forklift tilts
  • Employees are hit, crushed or detained by a forklift truck
  • Employees fall from a forklift truck.

Our Solution

  • 360 degree vehicle anti-collision system
  • Reduce the risk of personnel accidents and freight damage
  • Radar modules can detect personnel / objects in real time and warn the driver
  • Built on “Blind spot detection” technology (developed by ASN)
  • ASN smart endpoints (on vehicle) do all real-time data processing
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Preventive Maintenance: 7 Challenges for Asset Managers

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Competition on costs is ever increasing. Meanwhile, customers are more demanding in their expectations. In 2024, global smart sensor market will have a value of $80 billion. In others words: become part of the future or become obsolete!

Challenges Asset Managers

Asset managers are faced with the following challenges:

  • Asset managers demand huge cost savings
  • Tightening of budgets for maintenance programmes
  • Less service disruptions and customer complaints
  • Increasing demands from users
  • No Control and optimal use of my assets
  • Risk of hacking by terrorists
  • Remote firmware updates

With IoT, you can give your equipment a longer lifetime and thus save on repair and replacement costs.

Your customers will become more satisfied with your services. With solutions which weren’t possible until now, products can ‘think’ for their users. Like: the health of the lamp and power quality of street lights, refrigerators which will signal to a car that owner is out of milk, a space on a parking lot is reserved for the visitor when he’s close to the office etcetera.

And the other way around: remember the first time you went in a hotel which had Wi-Fi and you thought: “great”! You’ve probably forgotten; nowadays, not having Wi-Fi has since long became a standard. In IOT, users raise the expectations and will be dissatisfied with devices which do not help them.

A dashboard helps you to view in one glance which assets are working properly and which are probably in need of repair or replacement. Further, you learn when, where and how intensely your assets are being used, so you use your assets more efficiently.

In a world of connected devices, security is very important. Hackers will try to break in: to steal, to cause harm or to shut down your devices. Without security, hackers can make their entry from anywhere: from one of your devices, but also an unsecured device from one of your employee’s at home. So, in the world of IOT, security of these devices is key.

Read about solutions: https://www.advsolned.com/asn-condition-monitoring/

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Sensor market $87.6 billion by 2025

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How do you get the best performance from your IoT smart sensor?

The global smart sensor market size is projected to grow from USD 36.6 billion in 2020 to USD 87.6 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 19.0%. At least 80% of these IoT/IIoT smart sensors (temperature, pressure, gas, image, motion, loadcells) will use Arm’s Cortex-M technology.

IoT sensor measurement challenge

The challenge for most, is that many sensors used in these applications require filtering in order to clean the measurement data in order to make it useful for analysis.

Let’s have a look at what sensor data really is…. All sensors produce measurement data. These measurement data contain two types of components:

  • Wanted components, i.e. information what we want to know
  • Unwanted components, measurement noise, 50/60Hz powerline interference, glitches etc – what we don’t want to know

Unwanted components degrade system performance and need to be removed.

So, how do we do it?

DSP means Digital Signal Processing and is a mathematical recipe (algorithm) that can be applied to IoT sensor measurement data in order to clean it and make it useful for analysis.

But that’s not all! DSP algorithms can also help:

  • In analysing data, producing more accurate results for decision making with ML (machine learning)
  • They can also improve overall system performance with existing hardware. So ther’s no need to redesign your hardware: a massive cost saving!
  • To reduce the data sent off to the cloud by pre-analysing data. So send only the data which is necessary

Nevertheless, DSP has been considered by most to be a black art, limited only to those with a strong academic mathematical background. However, for many IoT/IIoT applications, DSP has been become a must in order to remain competitive and obtain high performance with relatively low cost hardware.

Do you have an example?

Consider the following application for gas sensor measurement (see the figure below). The requirement is to determine the amplitude of the sinusoid in order to get an estimate of gas concentration (bigger amplitude, more gas concentration etc). Analysing the figure, it is seen that the sinusoid is corrupted with measurement noise (shown in blue), and any estimate based on the blue signal will have a high degree of uncertainty about it – which is not very useful if getting an accurate reading of gas concentration!

Algorithms clean the sensor data

After ‘cleaning’ the sinusoid (red line) with a DSP filtering algorithm, we obtain a much more accurate and usable signal. Now we are able to estimate the amplitude/gas concentration. Notice how easy it is to determine the amplitude of red line.

This is only a snippet of what is possible with DSP algorithms for IoT/IIoT applications, but it should give you a good idea as to the possibilities of DSP.

How do I use this in my IoT application?

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, 80% of IoT smart sensor devices are deployed on Arm’s Cortex-M technology. The Arm Cortex-M4 is a very popular choice with hundreds of silicon vendors, as it offers DSP functionality traditionally found in more expensive DSPs. Arm and its partners provide developers with easy to use tooling and a free software framework (CMSIS-DSP). So, you’ll be up and running within minutes.

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