Las Vegas, US, January 15 — Panasonic works with Silicon Valley startups to build more IoT and smart home solutions for various uses. During the CES event, they demonstrated three such concepts at their booth.
Even though the names of these startups have not been disclosed, the primary driver from Panasonic is their Corporation Automotive & Industrial Systems branch.
Home automation by pressing “eny key”
With the eny switch Panasonic wants to demonstrate how one of the most native user interfaces, a button, could be used for a variety of things for as long it is appropriately networked and programmed.
The energy-harvesting, maintenance-free IoT switch could be used to control other devices, for instance, smart speakers or smart lights, or perhaps trigger cloud events or possibly order something for you, much like the Amazon Dash Button.
They declare this to find suitable application in residential houses, elderly facilities, hotels, or offices.
ID authentication for more efficiency
Panasonic also thought of a solution to prevent issues that could happen if unqualified staff uses tools they have not been trained to use. Electric-field communication could enable ID authentication for staff to unlock specific devices based on their qualifications.
They demonstrated this with special wristbands that allow the use of particular tools one by the people who wear them. Introducing such an authentication technology could help to improve work safety and production efficiency.
Panasonic said that such a solution would be most suitable for applications in factories, offices, hospitals, and I thought that it might also apply to construction sites.
A more stable camera picture
This seemingly does neither apply to IoT nor smart home solutions, but it was still intriguing. Panasonic is planning to release developer kits if a camera stabilizer in March 2018.
The actuator will be able to process three axes at the same time and was said to combine image stabilizer and tracking functions. The effect of this will be that the camera can “anticipate” movement similar to how the human eye works.
It’s possible that such a solution could be deployed on drones, robots, or be used in extreme sports as action cam. Please note that the video below is of a prototype from 2016.
Photo credit: Panasonic
Source: Panasonic press release
