Tag: sensing_analytics

Combating Driver Fatigue with Mobile Surveillance

Posted on by Mark Scantlebury

Driver fatigue is a leading cause of traffic accidents, especially for heavy-duty vehicles such as mining trucks, excavators, bulldozers, cranes, cargo trucks, and commercial buses. Drivers of those vehicle types often face long shifts and may fall asleep at the wheel for short periods when drowsy or fatigued (Figure 1). According to data from Australia, England, Finland, and several other European nations drowsy driving is a factor in 10 to 30 percent of all crashes.

driver-fatigue

Figure 1. A typical drowsiness-related accident in which a driver confirmed falling asleep and was fortunately only slightly injured. (Image from European Accident Research and Safety Report 2013.)

An intriguing solution for helping prevent accidents from driver fatigue comes from Lanner Electronics, a global hardware provider for advanced network appliances and rugged industrial computers. Their in-vehicle surveillance platform enables using a camera to monitor drivers for fatigue. This platform performs as a gateway PC, analyzing the video in real-time and providing alerts and communications with the control room. Communications can include driver alertness over time, vehicle location, and other data.

The Cause and Extent of Driver Fatigue Accidents

According to estimates from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 100,000 police-reported crashes are the direct result of driver fatigue each year. These crashes result in an estimated 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries, and $12.5 billion in monetary losses. These figures may be the tip of the iceberg since it is difficult to attribute crashes to sleepiness. Many driver-fatigue accidents may not be identified as such. The bottom line here is that driver fatigue accidents have an enormous economic impact – and this is just in the United States.

Data from a 2009 Massachusetts state study, “Asleep at the Wheel,” indicates that those most susceptible to incidents of drowsy driving include young men aged 16-29, drivers with untreated sleep disorders, night-shift workers, commercial drivers, and persons working long shifts and long weeks. A 2016 report from the National Academy of Sciences on the approximately 4,000 U.S. fatalities due to truck and bus crashes each year estimates that 10 to 20 percent involve fatigued drivers. According to a study by Volvo, the majority of accidents resulting in truck driver injuries are single-vehicle incidents in which the truck drives off the road.

Long-distance truck drivers on overnight or early morning routes are particularly susceptible to the effects of sleep deprivation because of disruptions to their natural sleep patterns when working nights or long and irregular hours. A study by researchers in Australia demonstrated that being awake for 18 hours produced an impairment equal to a blood alcohol concentration of.05. This goes up to .10 after 24 hours (.08 is considered legally drunk).

A Challenging Problem

Unlike intoxication, there is no breath analyzer for drowsiness. Self-reporting and self-monitoring are unreliable. Consequently, an increasing number of companies using heavy-duty service vehicles seek in-vehicle solutions that can detect driver alertness. These companies recognize that lowering accident rates and damages could help them better protect drivers and the public. It could also help them avoid lawsuits and reduce insurance rates.

A Simple Solution

Lanner’s heavy-vehicle driver fatigue management system solution is a video surveillance system that monitors driver eye behavior such as closing eyelids, and frequency and duration of blinking. When abnormal behavior occurs, like distraction or longer-than-expected closed eyes, the system alarms the driver and sends video images to the dispatchers. The system can also activate systems such as a seat vibrator and/or an audio speaker – it can literally shake and wake the driver.

The key component is the Lanner LVR-2010 in-vehicle PC platform. This tough mobile computer functions as a video analytics system and IoT gateway. The platform runs the driver-fatigue management software, and with its wireless network connectivity connects dispatchers with data from infrared sensors, cameras, and alarms. Figure 2 shows the main components of the solution and their function.

Figure 2. The Lanner LVR-2010 in vehicle PC platform provides the video analytics and gateway functions for a driver-fatigue management system.

The LVR-2010 is well suited to a life on the road. The fanless, aluminum-cased, power-efficient PC offers wide temperature support and rich connectivity with shake-proof M12 connectors (Figure 3). It is EN50155-compliant and MIL-STD-810G-certified, meeting multiple endurance standards for withstanding shock, vibration, humidity, and extreme temperature ( -40°C ~ 70°C).

Figure 3. Front (top photo) and back (bottom photo) views of the Lanner LVR-2010 show all its IP-67-rated M12 connectors.

The unit’s design ensures reliability in motion, even when aboard heavy-duty mining and excavation equipment bumping over rocky, pothole-ridden grades. To protect the PC from potential dust, liquid splash, and hard jolts, the LVR-2010’s the M12 connectors are IP-67-rated. These connectors include three COM ports, two USB ports, two LAN ports, CAN bus, two video ports, audio port, modular input/output (MIO) port, and DC power input. These ports all offer foolproof connectivity for peripherals such as alert devices and IP cameras. A 2.5″ drive bay delivers ample storage capacity.

A GPS and G-sensor built into the LVR-2010 allows location tracking and acceleration measurement. For display functions, the LVR-2010 features both VGA and HDMI.

A Rugged Unit Starts with a Rugged Processor

The reliable, application-proven, power-efficient Intel® Atom™ E3845 processor gives the LVR-2010 all the processing power it needs and more. Written about extensively in past issues of Embedded Innovator magazine, it’s a four-core system-on-a-chip (SoC). The 64-bit, 1.91 GHz SoC uses Intel’s 22 nm process technology to deliver outstanding compute, graphical, and media performance at just 10 watts (TDP). Designed for ball grid array (BGA) socket, the processor enables a permanent, shake-proof mount.

Particularly important for the driver-fatigue management system, the processor’s integrated Intel® HD Graphics save the expense and power cost of a graphics card. Graphics capabilities include Intel® Quick Sync Video – a hardware-based video transcode engine that handles decoding and encoding functions to free up processor cores for applications. Intel® Atom™ processor cores also implement the same x86 Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) 4.2 instruction set as Intel® Core™ processor and Intel® Xeon® processor families. This enables developers to directly port existing video analytics algorithms, such as algorithms for monitoring eye movement and closure, from server-centric solutions.

With all these features, the Intel Atom processor processor easily handles the driver fatigue management software, video analytics for monitoring a driver’s eyes, and all the associated communications and alarm functions of the system. With processing power to spare, designers of fatigue management systems may even add additional safety and communication features.

Helping Keep Eyes Open and on the Road

Featuring its versatile, rugged design, the Lanner LVR-2010 in-vehicle PC makes a reliable choice for driver fatigue management on any vehicle. For a look at all the rugged mobile platforms available from Intel® Internet of Things Solutions Alliance members, see our Solutions Directory.

Speeding an Advanced Medical Image Generator to Market

Posted on by Mark Scantlebury

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 6th 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 6th 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 6th 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 6th 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 6th 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 6th generation Intel Core processors, in our Solutions Directory.

A Single Board Computer for Speeding up DNA Sequencing

Posted on by Mark Scantlebury

In healthcare and biotechnology, DNA sequencing – the process of determining the precise order of nucleotides within a DNA molecule – is accelerating diagnostic advances, medical and biological research, virology, and forensic science. While the possible uses of DNA sequencing appear endless, any organization looking to perform DNA sequencing needs to be prepared for massive amounts of data. They need a system that that can provide massive computing throughput, speed, scalability, and resolution.

This is particularly true with next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. NGS enables scientists and researchers to conveniently maximize the potential of data sequencing by searching and comparing billions of DNA fragments (Figure 1). In performing this analysis, NGS produces massive amounts of data that pose challenges in terms of data storage, analysis, management, and sharing. That said, a NGS system equipped with powerful Intel® processors can enable a complete DNA sequence (more than three billion DNA strands) to be mapped out in a week or less. That’s far less than the original 13 years required by the Human Genome Project!

Figure 1. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology enables scientists and researchers to maximize the potential of data sequencing by searching and comparing billions of DNA fragments.

Dealing with all this data is well worth the effort, of course. Genetic information is already helping to prolong lives, provide options to prevent life-threatening diseases from developing or progressing, and enable new preventive medicine solutions. Medical professionals are already using specific patient DNA information to offer treatment that minimizes risks and maximizes recovery rates.

In evaluating the major benefits NGS will have on healthcare – particularly infectious diseases, prenatal testing, idiopathic diseases, oncology, and matching organ and tissue donors – Grand View Research, Inc. estimates that the global market for next generation sequencing could reach $27.8 billion [USD] in annual revenue by 2022 (up from USD $2 billion in 2014). This makes it a lucrative field for system integrators. The key is getting finding a board that can handle this kind of data.

One company found its answer through the industrial PC design and manufacturing firm Axiomtek. This customer sought a single board computer (SBC) unlike any motherboard available at the time. Axiomtek’s design-in services designed a high-performance SBC that could support two high performance Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2400 product family CPUs.

From initial planning and design through testing and validation and the ready-to-ship phase, Axiomtek’s design-in services offered key assistance in the customization process to ensure that the final product worked reliably. Key elements such as processing speed, storage needs, and operating system (OS) driver integration were carefully thought out. The resulting motherboard met the customer’s complex and specific requirements, including multiple LAN ports, SATA ports for extensive storage of DNA sequence information, numerous USB ports, PCIe lanes, VGA connector, and LVDS interface.

To ensure that the solution was able to operate reliably in a variety of applications, the customer selected Axiomtek’s thermal solution service. Axiomtek’s design-in services also provided software services, including embedded OS development, software API utility and driver support, and BIOS customization. In particular, the NGS company used Axiomtek’s BIOS customization service to personalize the product’s boot-up screen and requested that each board come pre-installed with an embedded version of Windows OS in order to provide users with a familiar, easy-to-use interface.

While it was not necessary for this particular DNA-sequencing machine, many of Axiomtek’s embedded motherboards pass important certifications. These include UL60601-1/EN60601-1, CE, and FCC class B for use in medical facilities.

Built with Powerful Intel® Xeon® Processors

A key selling feature was Axiomtek’s ability to build a board supporting two Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2400 SKUs, each with eight cores. These processors include Intel® Turbo Boost Technology which, depending on thermal headroom, effectively “overclocks” individual cores to handle heavy workloads (Figure 2). The Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2400 series also supports Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology which doubles the number of threads per core, enabling each core to accomplish more in the same amount of time.

Figure 2. Intel® Turbo Boost Technology dynamically increases the processor’s frequency as needed by taking advantage of thermal and power headroom.

The latest Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 v3 product family is even more impressive. With up to 10 cores and support for up to 384 GB of DDR3 unbuffered memory, these processors make efficient powerhouses for NGS solutions, providing increased computing performance for faster answers to the DNA sequencing questions. Yet another step open in performance is available through the Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 v3 product family. Its embedded SKUs include up to 12 cores and support up to 768 GB of faster DDR4 memory.

The above discussion points to a particular advantage of Intel processors – the ability to scale a solution to meet the price point and performance needs of a solution. In the case of a NGS solution, time can be more valuable than money. When lives are at stake and treatment choice and speed depend on a fast result, the last thing you want is for the computing solution to be the bottleneck.

All-in-One Medical Touch-Panel Computers

Another advantage for medical equipment manufacturers in working with Axiomtek is the company also makes medical-grade, fanless touch-panel computers for displaying NGS and other test results. A good example is their MPC153-834 computer with a 15.6″ WXGA TFT LCD display with a high brightness of 300nits. Specifically designed for the medical environment, this medical panel PC has a IPX1-compliant chassis and an IP65/NEMA 4-rated spill- and dust-resistant front panel (Figure 3). Moreover, the wide-screen medical touch panel PC is equipped with an isolated COM port to protect equipment from electrical surges and transient voltage spike. Powered by quad-core Intel® Celeron® processor J1900, the powerful 15.6-inch MPC153-834 provides the built-in graphics capability to provide sharp, accurate display of medical images and other results.

Figure 3. Axiomtek’s MPC153-834 medical panel PC is specifically designed for the medical environment with an IPX1-compliant chassis and an IP65/NEMA 4-rated spill- and dust-resistant front panel.

Be Part of the Next Major Medical Advance

Members of the Intel® Internet of Things Solutions Alliance like Axiomtek are a great place for medical equipment manufacturers to start in developing new products for the healthcare and biotechnology industries. Many offer custom design services, plus there are approximately 2500 boards from these members in our Solutions Directory.