Building the Internet of Things: Rapid Prototyping Using PSoC Technology

When: 
Sunday, September 25, 2011 - 9:00am
Room: 
E51-345
Lecturer(s): 
Ted Kochanski, President and Chief Scientist, Vital Electronics Institute, Inc. Patrick Kane, Director, Cypress University Alliance

GBC/ACM and IEEE Computer and Electron Devices Societies Hands-On Workshop
9:00 AM, Sunday, 25 September 2011, 09:00am - 04:00pm

You are invited to participate in a hands-on introduction to rapid prototyping of Embedded Systems using PSoC Technology, an enabler for building the Internet of Things (IoT). This hands-on tutorial will show you how to build several systems using the PSoC Integrated Development Environment, which combines a context sensitive C editor with a Schematic Capture process for designing with libraries of analog and digital virtual hardware, and then download the design onto a piece of target hardware. The integrated hardware / software co-designs use a unified bitstream image of your application to program a reconfigurable Cypress Semiconductor PSoC, situated on a compact printed circuit board development target containing several sensors and LEDs.

The Internet of Things links the objects of the real world with the virtual world, thus enabling anytime, anyplace connectivity for anything and not only for anyone. It refers to a world where physical objects and beings, as well as virtual data and environments, all interact with each other in the same space and time.
[Gérald Santucci, Head of Unit "Enterprise Networking and RFID“ for the European Commission Directorate General Information Society and Media]

This workshop will introduce the Internet of Things and the concepts of RASSP (Rapid-Prototyping of Application Specific Signal Processors) to build mixed systems on a chip incorporating reconfigurable digital logic, analog components, and microcontrollers using programs written in industry standard C.

Synopsis of the the Labs:

  • Lab0 introduces the TakeHomeLab Environment (aka Starter Kit, PSOC Creator, and Development software). Using the C-Code editor and the Build and Download process you will implement a system which takes advantage of your persistence of vision to display a rasterized image of a message you create as characters apparently floating in the air in front of you when you Wave the circuit board containing the PSoC (introduces how to interface to LEDs and an accelerometer).

  • Lab1 leads you through the design and build process to build a system from scratch incorporating CapSense technology by reusing library modules and other previously defined components and shows you how to put them together to define a complete system. CapSense technology is useful for supporting multitouch screens and proximity sensing (used in devices like the iPOD).

By the conclusion of Lab1, you will be able to begin with a blank Schematic and develop and implement a project using PSoC Creator to:

  1. Select, Place, Interconnect, and Configure pre-defined and pre-tested functions and analog and digital resources within the PSoC; Configure system-wide resources, such as clocking, voltage levels, and analog references.

  2. Write the C Code (or assembler) firmware associated with your project.

  • Lab2 shows you how to build a system that employs several on-board, off-chip sensors with analog outputs to measure the room temperature and how to allow users to control details of the display using a push button interface.
    This set of labs will introduce you to the potential of combining analog and digital processing to create new types of user interfaces and new ways to use sensors to gather information about the environment and then take further actions or do further analysis on this information using both digital computer analysis and interaction with humans. It will also give you an introduction to actually building such systems and introduce you to the relatively low cost platform for doing this provided by the Cypress Semiconductor PSoC technology and development environment.

Agenda:

09:00 - 09:30 am registration, coffee, and installing of software
10:00 - 12:30 introductory talk, lab 0 and part of lab 1
12:30 - 01:30 lunch break, discussions and on-your-own lab time
01:30 - 03:30 continuation of lab 1 and lab 2
03:30 - 04:00 wrap up discussion and recap (possibly followed by additional discussion over beer at a local watering hole)

This seminar is free, but you must register at http://ieeepsoc.eventbrite.com/ so we have enough development kits and food. Contact Peter Mager (p.mager at computer.org) for additional information.

Thaddeus (Ted) P. Kochanski, SB, Ph.D. , (Ted), an Affiliate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Hampshire, is an experimental physicist, systems engineering consultant and entrepreneur, with a passion for informal education, walking, and history. He has contributed to wired and wireless sensor networks, soft x-ray, VUV, IR and cosmic-ray muon imaging, Giga-scale IC's, radar propagation, Ground Penetration Radar, data acquisition, signal processing and interactive multimedia. His career spans: Tokamaks, University of Texas at Austin; Defense System Analysis, MIT Lincoln Laboratory; founder of Sensors Signals Systems and co-founder of several companies. He received the IEEE Third Millennium Medal and the Gold award with Sapphire Gem of the Service League of the Boston Museum of Science.

Patrick Kane is the director of the Cypress University Alliance Program. This program is dedicated to partnering with academia and universities to ensure that professors and students have access to the latest Cypress PSoC technology for use in education and research.