ON Semiconductor's RSL10 smart shooting camera platform enables ultra-low-power event-triggered imaging

The Internet of Things is integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and evolving toward hyper-automation. ON Semiconductor’s RSL10 smart shooting camera platform embodies this concept, providing vision-based AI for the edge to realize automatic object recognition and scene change functions. The RSL10 smart shooting camera platform is designed to support battery-powered smart imaging applications. It is portable, has ultra-low power consumption, can capture images when related events are triggered, and provides edge-to-cloud connections for smart image monitoring solutions, suitable for assets Management, intelligent building, industrial automation, intelligent agriculture, and other fields.

Key features of the RSL10 smart shooting camera platform

1) Event-triggered imaging

In any vision-based solution, most of the time, the camera output will not directly bring useful information, and continuous analysis of these images will greatly consume processing power, network bandwidth, and power consumption. We add acceleration sensors, motion sensors, and low-power temperature and humidity sensors, allowing users to set trigger conditions for single or multiple sensors, and capture images only when the event is triggered, thereby significantly reducing the total power consumption of the system.

2) Ultra-low power consumption

The devices used in the platform basically have ultra-low power consumption characteristics, such as the industry’s lowest power consumption Bluetooth low energy (BLE) system-on-a-chip (SOC) RSL10, single frame 3 mW ARX3A0 image sensor, optimized Battery management circuit, SunplusIT IoT camera image signal processor (ISP), so that the battery life is more than one year.

RSL10 is the key to the platform. It is a multi-protocol radio SoC with the lowest power consumption and Bluetooth 5.0 support in the industry, supports Bluetooth low energy and multiple 2.4 GHz proprietary protocols, provides advanced wireless functions, and realizes The industry's lowest power consumption (62.5 nW in deep sleep mode, 7 mW in receiving mode). RSL10 has obtained the industry’s highest EEMBC? ULPMark? score (1090 ULPMark CP @ 3 V; 1260 @ 2.1 V), compact size, power supply voltage range 1.1 to 3.3 V, using a sophisticated dual-core architecture, with 384 K Flash memory, supports analog and digital dual interfaces, is compatible with various sensor protocols, integrates AES128 encryption features to protect data security, and supports online firmware updates (FOTA).

RSL10 has a variety of packaging forms and has been well used in high-demand applications such as automobiles and medical treatment. In the RSL10 smart shooting camera platform, the RSL10 system-in-package (SIP) is used. RSL10 SIP integrates a complete antenna solution, power management, filtering, and other passive components into a 6 x 8 x 1.46 mm miniature package, and has passed the certification system of the United States, Europe, Japan, and other countries, without additional RF design, Plug and play, easy to design and import into any intelligent wireless interconnection application.

3) Excellent image perception

The ARX3A0 used in this platform is a 1/10-inch black and white image sensor, which is very suitable for machine vision-based applications. It can achieve global shutter performance at a speed of 360 frames per second, greatly reducing the motion blur in the image, and near-infrared technology provides excellent The low-light characteristics and small size (55 x 65 mm) are very suitable for imaging applications that require space.

4) Edge to cloud connection

In addition to the hardware kit, ON Semiconductor also provides a mobile app for the platform, which can connect and communicate through BLE, and provide an edge-to-cloud connection for the camera. The platform uses Amazon Cloud Artificial Intelligence (AI) engine for image recognition.

Can choose to be powered by USB or battery

In the RSL10 smart shooting camera platform, the image sensor and image processor are set on different power supply rails to improve the overall performance of the system. RSL10 can turn off the imaging system when it is not needed, and trigger to wake up the imaging system when needed.

How does the RSL10 smart shooting camera platform work?

The user uses the APP to set the sensor trigger conditions. Before the trigger, the image sensor and image processor remain powered off to reduce power consumption. After the trigger, the image sensor and image processor will capture the image, and then transmit the image to the mobile phone via BLE to move The program at the end acts as a camera gateway, and users can view images on the APP for further analysis, or send them to the cloud for image recognition. The APP can be downloaded in the Android and iOS app stores.

The system can also be set as an industrial Internet of Things gateway. The gateway can manage the camera's networked devices, and can also send the collected images to the cloud for analysis. The user can control the camera through the mobile application, or remotely through the cloud and the gateway. Control the camera.

RSL10 smart shooting camera platform battery performance

The battery life depends mainly on the usage of the camera. We used a 1700 mA lithium battery for testing. As shown in the figure, the X-axis represents the number of pictures taken by the camera in a day, the Y-axis represents the battery life in days, and the red line represents the average current consumption in each case. If the RSL10 smart shooting camera platform takes about 100 pictures in one day, the 1700 mA battery can support it for a whole year; if only one picture is taken per day, the platform can be used for nearly 100 pictures without using external power. 3 years.

Example

The RSL10 smart shooting camera platform has a compact appearance, ultra-low power consumption, excellent imaging performance, BLE connection function, and environmental awareness. It is suitable for various applications that have high requirements for battery life, portability, and detection space, including but not limited to:

1) In-car monitoring: Parents can monitor the health of children in the back seat with their mobile phones. There is no need for continuous monitoring, but when needed or periodically, such as when a child wakes up from sleep. The camera can be conveniently placed on the back seat without the need for an additional power cord or display system

2) Safety helmet camera: can monitor the safety of factory workers. Automatically record sensor data according to event conditions, and alert when workers fall

3) Empty shelf detection: a small camera can be installed on the shelf aisle for out-of-stock detection, and regularly send pictures to the Internet or the cloud, and the clerk will receive regular purchase notifications

4) Automatic meter reading: In some cases, the transformation of the old meter will bring a lot of additional costs. Use RSL10 smart shooting camera to modify the existing instrument, then it can be used for reading and uploading

5) Shopping cart scanning: help the store to manage inventory during checkout while ensuring that all items in the shopping cart have been accounted for

6) Greenhouse monitoring: used to monitor crops according to environmental conditions, to sum up

The RSL10 smart shooting camera platform enables engineers to build ultra-low power consumption, small size, and event-triggered machine vision cameras, which are suitable for asset management, smart buildings, industrial automation, smart agriculture, and other fields. The platform brings together a number of innovations from ON Semiconductor, including RSL10 SIP, which provides ultra-low-power BLE technology, and an imaging module with 360 frames per second (fps) black and white imaging based on ARX3A0 CMOS image sensor, supplemented by advanced sports and Environmental sensors and power and battery management are used to automatically capture images and identify objects in them. ON Semiconductor also provides all related documents and tools, including start guide, user manual, software manual, ready-made kit, bill of materials (BoM), schematic diagram, integrated development environment (IDE), mobile APP, CMSIS-Pack, etc., to help Engineers speed up development.