Edison leads Intel into wearables
Intel gave attendees the $50 module and a development board for free. It hopes the Maker movement of amateur tinkerers and engineer hobbyists spark enthusiasm for the x86 in emerging consumer IoT markets.
The current Edison is an upgrade from the initial concept which Intel first announced in January at CES. At that time, Intel said it was based on Quark, a new Pentium-class processor for IoT that, strangely, Intel rarely mentioned at IDF. Early testers said the initial Quark processor and single-antenna 802.11g wireless link in Edison were too slow.
So the current version officially released today uses the Tangiers version of Intel’s 22nm Merrifield smartphone processor. It includes two 500 MHz dual-threaded Silvermont-class Atom cores and an older Lakemont-class core that acts as a sensor hub, scrubbing noise from accelerometers and other sensors. It now includes a Broadcom 11n Wi-Fi chip with dual antennas.
The module now supports Linux. Intel ships Edison with a version of its Yocto distribution, originally targeting servers. The code which some developers got just weeks ago is still buggy, some say.
In a sign of how quickly Intel is moving, some developers said its only been three or four weeks since they got their hands on the current version of Edison and the version of Yocto it is running.
Having largely missed the smartphone opportunity, Intel is clearly stepping on the gas to get ahead of the game in consumer IoT applications, hoping to get traction in sometimes viral Maker projects. "We have to make it so you don’t have to have a PhD in electrical engineering to make something," said Mike Bell, general manager of Intel’s New Devices group, introducing Edison.
That said Intel also rolled out two development boards for the module so "you can prototype and not have to redesign the board to go into production," Bell said. One board (below) is compatible with the Arduino Yun, accepting design files popular in the Maker community.
In just the last four weeks, Sparkfun Electronics has developed 14 stackable boards for Edison. They use a somewhat obscure Hirose 3mm connector that is on order and may hold up commercial availability of the Sparkfun boards for about six weeks, said a Sparkfun representative here.
So far, Intel has spawned about 40 Edison projects, many of them internal Intel efforts. In the following pages we take a look at some of the initial Edison partners and projects.
Beyond Edison, the New Devices group hopes to spawn many SoCs, platforms and even full end products with cloud services for wearables and other consumer IoT applications. For example, the group has has in its arsenal the Basis wearable and team behind it, acquired in late March. Intel will ship an upgraded version of the Basis device this year. It also is making the guts of the Basis device available as merchant components.
Intel has other wearable and IoT projects in the works with watchmaker Fossil and others. However it revealed few details about whether they will use Edison, components from Basis or other x86 platform ingredients still in the works.
Gene McKelvey, a Fossil marketing and strategy executive on hand, was one of several who called for smartwatches and jewelry more tailored to the tastes of women than today’s relatively clunky gadgets. "We’ve done smartwatches for a decade and tech has not quite been there in function, size and battery life, we are not quite there yet but we are very close — it’s almost there," he said.
Mathew Woolsey, executive vide resident of digital products at retailer Barneys, said he sees technology components that work together spreading into fashion shoes, bags and anything. “You have to build an ecosystem – it’s not like a jacket you wear everyday,” he said.
David Garver, a representative of AT&T’s emerging devices group, said wearables that provide access at work, home and in the car will be hot. “Getting the right information and doing something with it will turn this area of wearables from novelties to necessities,” he said.
Bell said Intel will ship before the end of the year Basis Peak, an upgraded version of the smartwatch with better sensors for tracking heartbeat and sleep patterns and a new industrial design.
Intel’s New Devices group has the capability of creating finished consumer systems as well as SoC, software and cloud-service components it will sell, Bell said, noting its recent acquisitions (above) that include mechanical and industrial engineering talent across multiple market areas.
Bell promised “a series of SoCs that enable products with visual, audio and environmental sensing in small devices, along with a communications and energy-harvesting back end — no matter what size the battery is, software will suck it dry so we are looking at ways to harvest energy.”
He also called for an integrated user interface. “Right now you have to learn how to use each device separately and they don’t talk to each other — we want to help fix this,” Bell said.
Former Wired Magazine editor Chris Anderson (above left) told Intel’s Mike Bell his new company 3D Robotics will ship quad-copters (below) before the end of the year that use Edison models to recognize and follow their owners.
Separately, audiophile company Meridian Audio promised to ship "audio endpoints" that act like audio set-top boxes that connect online music services to speakers and other players in the home.
Bell showed 14 stackable boards Sparkfun Electronics developed in the last four weeks for Edison.
Trossen Robotics is using Edison to power a robotics kit it will show at Maker Faire New York (above). Users can create and program an 18-inch high robot based on a standard chassis with an Edison module and an exterior they create at home with a 3D printer.
Some of the early Edison beta testers are already making insect-inspired bots (below).
Bell congratulated one young maker (above) who created a Braille printer using Edison based on a Lego Mindstorms project. Intel will invest in the company he created.
In another session, High School student Tim Balz talked about working as an intern on a connected wheelchair with Intel user interface expert Pete Denman and others. Denman helped create a way to merge wheelchair and biometric data from separate devices in ways that made sense for users. The group shared its project with noted physicist Stephen Hawking with whom it expects to make news in November.
Clearly, Intel is pulling out all the stops seeking projects for its emerging offerings that might go viral. In another effort, tech fashion designer Anouk Wipprecht who presented her work in New York in June said she will use Edison to deliver more functions on her high tech clothes such as the LED-laden Synapse dress (below).
Intel displayed My Intelligent Communicating Accessory (MICA) announced last week as a collaboration with a New York fashion design house. Bell said it will sport a cellular modem and have its own data plan and not be tethered to a smartphone. "Devices tethered to a cellphone is not the way of the future," Bell said.
Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich showed an early prototype (below), joking "and this is what it looks like when an engineer designs it."
Intel is already selling the Biosport headset (above) co-developed with SMS Audio that tracks heart beats while you listen to music and exercise. Bell announced a new Intel API developers can use to grab the heart rate data and develop applications using it.
Meanwhile one Edison developer (below) showed an Edison-powered shirt for tracking ECG signals.
Overall, the New Devices group is clearly running at full speed to leverage everything in Intel’s tool shed — and companies it can readily buy or partner with — to carve out a position in wearables and consumer IoT.
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