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Vision systems can fill many roles in the modern city. They can help optimize traffic and pedestrian flow, secure infrastructure and facilities, and even provide first responder “man down” alerts.

Cities began using surveillance cameras decades ago, but the emergence of intelligent vision systems is quite recent. Rapid advances in video analytics, the falling cost of high-resolution cameras, and the ubiquity of communications infrastructure are all contributing to dramatic changes in vision system capabilities. And the availability of high-performance, low-cost video processing and storage systems are making advanced systems practical for a wide range of applications.

Situational Awareness

A good example of an intelligent vision system is the LiveCast Sentinel from IoT Smart Systems, Inc. (Figure 1). The Sentinel software allows a city to track first responders both visually and with telemetry to get full situational awareness. Plus, the application enables two-way communication with field personnel via monitoring and retransmission of video and audio streams, corresponding IoT sensory telemetry, and streaming documents and pictures.

Figure 1. Livecast Sentinel allows a city to track first responders both visually and with telemetry.

Sentinel also offers bandwidth-efficient streaming optimized for UAVs and drones. This feature is invaluable for first responders trying to assess an emergency situation. For example, the streaming UAV video could be used to give an entire fire department a shared bird’s-eye view of a disaster recovery effort.

Video Analytics

Cities are also gaining new insights into quality-of-life issues through video analytics. Video analytics has progressed far beyond simple motion detection and image capture. Today, pattern recognition and deep-learning algorithms can identify objects and safety hazards, detect behaviors like loitering, and compensate for noise such as rain and fog (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Video analytics filters out irrelevant information and identifies objects and actions of interest.

These advanced algorithms require equally advanced processors like the sixth generation Intel^® Core^™ processors. These processors incorporate powerful graphics engines that can run vision algorithms using the OpenGL and DirectX APIs, as well as video engines for real-time encoding and decoding of IP video streams.

For example, the Intel^® Core^™ i7-6700K processor starts with four cores running at up to 4.2 GHz, with 8 Mb of cache. It then adds the Intel^® HD Graphics 530 engine running at up to 1.15 GHz with 64 Gb of memory.

The sixth generation Intel Core processors’ capabilities are integral to the design of the Sabot SFF1 video analytics system from EmbedTek (Figure 3). The hybrid system accepts both analog and IP cameras so it is backward compatible with installed infrastructure, while providing an upgrade path to future technologies.

Figure 3. The Sabot SFF1 from EmbedTek uses sixth generation Intel^® Core^™ processors.

The chassis measures 9 x 13 x 3.5 inches. The motherboard and chassis were sized to accommodate an optional video capture card, while a custom small form factor optimizes airflow in higher-temperature environments.

Balancing local and cloud video storage

For municipalities or the companies serving them, deciding where and how to store the video so it can be accessed readily for analysis and reference provides a unique opportunity to innovate. Defaulting to a closed-loop, local-storage solution seems simpler, faster, and more secure. But a cloud-based solution offers more flexibility and scalability, as well as access to higher-level IP video analytics.

For designers and developers who may want the best of both worlds, Infortrend developed the EonStor GS3000 family, with unlimited cloud storage and high-performance local storage (Figure 4). This allows a municipality to easily expand a storage area network (SAN) or network attach storage (NAS) application into cloud services.

Figure 4. The EonStor GS family of storage servers from Infortrend Technologies rely upon the Intel^® Xeon^® processor D-1500 family.

This requires high-end processing, communications, and protocol support, for which the EonStor GS3000 family uses the Intel^® Xeon^® processor D-1500 family, with either two or four cores.

In total, the EonStor GS family supports 4 x 1-GbE and 4 x 10-GbE ports, with a maximum RAM of up to 256 GB. Infortrend’s “smart algorithms” allow data to be optimally allocated between the system and the cloud, which can be any private or public service, including Amazon, Microsoft* Azure*, and Google.

Infortrend lets users take full advantage of the cloud with options like Cloud Tiering, Cloud Cache, and Cloud Backup. Given the importance of security, it’s worth noting that the EonStor GS family provides AES 256-bit encryption for data-in-flight and data-at-rest, as well as self-encrypting drives (SED) compatibility, ensuring data is always protected from malicious threats. Furthermore, with integrated SSL, links between server and client are also encrypted.

In case of disk crashes, the system features integrated backup functions such as Intelligent Drive Recovery (IDR), snapshot, local replication, remote replication, and file-level synchronization.

These are just a few examples of the elements that developers can use to implement a smart city IP video security and surveillance system. For more examples of key IoT video elements—many designed for specific use cases—check out the Solutions Directory.

Healthcare providers are constantly looking for enhancements in image generation to help them improve patient diagnosis and outcomes. Over the last 20 years, applying such enhancements to ultrasound, magnetic resonance, radiography, radiation oncology, mammography, interventional x-ray, fluoroscopy, and molecular imaging systems has transformed modern healthcare, enabling earlier detection and more accurate diagnosis (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Enhancements to medical imaging has transformed modern healthcare, enabling earlier detection and more accurate diagnosis.

Seeking a boost in performance, a leading original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for medical/surgical simulation systems approached EmbedTek, a designer and manufacturer of embedded solutions for OEMs in healthcare and other markets. The OEM shared an ongoing challenge with their current supplier – they frequently changed their configuration, forcing the OEM to make adaptions. These adaptions interrupted production and required costly revalidations.

EmbedTek offered to design a platform that would met their current requirements and allow for upgrades – on the OEM’s schedule.

A Proven Product Realization Process

EmbedTek has their own product realization process designed to provide customers with a scalable set of services and capabilities. This enables customers to leverage EmbedTek in ways that suit their business needs or a particular project. EmbedTek can work as a part of a customer’s team to help meet their goals, determine how to source, manufacture and support the end product long-term, and maintain accountability for all aspects. From concept, R&D and design to prototypes, validation, launch, and production, EmbedTek can help customers with any and all aspects of a product’s lifecyle.

This particular engagement with the medical OEM provides a good example of how the process works. The overall challenge from EmbedTek’s perspective was to simultaneously manage system design to meet the OEM’s demanding performance requirements, while also managing supply chain design to align component availability with the customer’s scheduled program upgrades. In the design stage, EmbedTek determined that the image generator would need a high performance processor, proprietary I/O card, and the capacity to support up to two high-end video cards Since some configurations would require concealing the system within a portable cart, thermal management was also important.

To meet the performance and thermal requirements, EmbedTek selected the 6^th generation Intel^® Core^™ i7 processor product family. Recently introduced at the time of design, the embedded versions of the processor offer a significant performance leap as the previous generation within a standardized thermal envelope. The processors include long lifecycle support to protect the development investment.

To handle the image generating tasks, EmbedTek’s new system, the Burke 1040 Image Generator, provides room for multiple internal drives and the video cards. It also includes multiple onboard I/O slots to accommodate various card types, including native support for up to two legacy PCI boards (avoiding any transition through PCI Express*). The Burke 1040 also provides 10 USB ports, including six USB 3.0 ports.

To house the processor and its motherboard, EmbedTek designed a custom chassis providing the necessary airflow and form factor. The all-aluminum chassis made the finished system significantly lighter than earlier systems and provided a better fit into the final product (Figure 2).

Figure 2. The Burke 1040 Image Generator features a lightweight design with an aluminum chassis.

As for prototypes and validation, by applying custom design tools to commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components, EmbedTek delivered prototype systems to the customer within four weeks from the project’s start. EmbedTek also aligned program milestones with a main program update including a new discrete graphics card and revised software for launch.

Since the previous system was already end-of-life, making the launch date was critical. EmbedTek’s product realization process ensured the launch date was made. The solution is now in full production, EmbedTek is managing the supply chain for all components, including the customer-specified I/O card. As a result, the OEM needs to track only one SKU instead of several. EmbedTek communicates component availability with the OEM in real time, and proactively lets them know when supply situations call for end-of-life buys. The result is future system upgrades will now be at scheduled program upgrades, not based on surprise component changes.

Advantages of Choosing the Latest Processor

A big plus for the medical image generator’s development was the timely launch of the 6^th generation Intel^® Core^™ processor product family (Figure 3). As a Platinum-level Intel^® Technology Provider, EmbedTek enjoyed early access to Intel’s roadmap and design help in implementing the processor in its designs.

Figure 3. Die map of a 6^th generation Intel^® Core^™ processor.

The 6th generation Intel Core processors deliver the power of Intel’s leading 14nm process and the latest 3D transistors. As a result, these processors allow for more transistors at lower power consumption, enabling new capabilities and enhanced performance. For example, compared to previous generation Intel^® Core^™ i5 processors, the 6th generation Intel^® Core^™ i5 processors deliver up to 60 percent better compute performance. In addition, with Intel^® Speed Shift Technology, system responsiveness sees a 20-45 percent improvement.

For medical image generator applications, this performance boost translates into faster results. Support for DDR4 RAM also contributes to these performance gains, providing capacity for up to 64GB RAM and high transfer speeds than DDR3. The 6^th generation Intel^® Core^™ i7 and i5 processors also include Intel^® Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology for an extra burst of performance in tasks that can benefit from a periodic hike in frequency.

The Intel^® Core^™ i7 processors have the added advantage of Intel^® Hyper-Threading Technology, which allows each processor core to work on two tasks at the same time. This improves multitasking and speeds up the workflow to accomplish more in less time. The processor’s integrated graphics capabilities also support graphics programmability features such as OpenCL 2.0. This make it easy for programmers to take advantage of the graphics units for added compute capabilities.

For imaging tasks, Intel^® Advanced Vector Extensions 2.02 (Intel^® AVX2) add to the performance gains. Intel AVX2’s 256-bit integer instructions and new instructions for FMA (Fused Multiply Add) help deliver better performance on media and floating point computations, including imaging and compression.

Healthcare organizations are naturally concerned about security, particularly when devices are connected to the network and access to electronic health records (EHRs). The 6^th generation Intel Core processors provide considerable protection through hardware-level security features. These features include:

Intel^® Software Guard Extensions (Intel^® SGX) which give applications the ability to create hardware enforced trusted execution protection for their applications’s sensitive routines and data
Intel^® Memory Protection Extensions which help protect application run-time integrity
Intel^® Device Protection Technology with BIOS Guard 2.0 which helps protect the system during boot

Improve Your Imaging with a New Generation of Processor

If you’re looking to enhance an imaging system, you can find the EmbedTek Burke 1040 Image Generator, as well as a wealth of other systems and boards using 6^th generation Intel Core processors, in our Solutions Directory.

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