“If someone throws the question: what is artificial intelligence? Different people will have different answers, and they will often describe them according to the relevant applications around them. For example, intelligent lighting is to realize intelligent control of lighting systems through Internet of Things technology, wired/wireless communication technology, power carrier communication technology, intelligent information processing technology and distributed control technology.
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If someone throws the question: what is artificial intelligence? Different people will have different answers, and they will often describe them according to the relevant applications around them. For example, intelligent lighting is to realize intelligent control of lighting systems through Internet of Things technology, wired/wireless communication technology, power carrier communication technology, intelligent information processing technology and distributed control technology.
With the orderly implementation of artificial intelligence technology in the terminal market, the concept of smart home has become popular in recent years, and the intelligent lighting system, which is an important part of smart home, is also developing rapidly. According to the forecast of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, the market size of China’s smart lighting industry will reach 43.1 billion yuan in 2022, a year-on-year growth rate of 23% compared to 2021. For social development, intelligent lighting systems in both public and private areas will be part of the great cause of energy conservation and emission reduction. Through intelligent methods such as on-demand switching, scene control, strength adjustment, etc., intelligent lighting not only improves the user experience It can also help to achieve a greener social life by extending the life of lamps and reducing energy consumption.
The explosion of the smart lighting market has allowed more artificial intelligence technologies to enter this market. The current market trend is the realization of intelligent lighting systems based on intelligent voice. Consumers only need to call the name of the system and issue instructions. Wherever they want to turn on the lights, the lights will turn on at the sound, which is very simple and convenient.
However, the collection of consumer voices by the intelligent voice system is real-time, so it will contain a lot of sensitive information, which attracts the attention of criminals. In this article, we will focus on the existing problems of intelligent voice lighting systems, and how the Electronic components sold by Mouser Electronics meet the challenges brought by these problems from a hardware perspective.
Intelligent voice lighting in crisis
In the era of intelligence, lamps can no longer be simply defined as lighting tools. They create different atmospheres for scenes such as home and office, and bring comfort and convenience to work and life. From automatic control, intelligent dimming to distributed networking architecture, Smarter and smarter lighting has become an integral part of smart homes and is a new and excellent development direction. What we must say is that the intelligent lighting system based on the intelligent voice system is undoubtedly a great representative of simplicity and convenience.
From the perspective of implementation, intelligent voice lighting has various implementation methods such as built-in solutions, central control integration, and networking. According to different implementation methods, intelligent voice modules will be placed in different positions such as lamps, control panels, and networking modules. In this way, consumers’ voice control instructions are collected to realize the control and adjustment of lighting switches, brightness and color.
Figure 1: Typical implementation of intelligent voice lighting (Source: Qiying Tai Lun)
Generally speaking, offline-controlled intelligent voice lighting mostly adopts the method of built-in solution and central control integration. The intelligent voice module is directly integrated into the lamp and the control panel. The algorithm runs in the local system, and users can pass the voice without connecting to the network. Instructions control lamps; online-controlled intelligent voice lighting is mostly linked with intelligent devices such as smart phones and smart speakers, and the voice instructions received on the smart devices are transmitted to the digital intelligent gateway of the intelligent lighting system through the network, and then the system completes the relevant operations. .
However, the introduction of intelligent voice as a convenient way also brings new security risks to the intelligent lighting system, including algorithm security risks, data security risks and network security risks, and these risks all point to one goal, that is, to acquire users Privacy Data. For example, in terms of network security risks, unscrupulous merchants and hackers can use the smart gateway as the entry point to monitor the consumer voice received by the smart device online, which is equivalent to installing a monitoring system in the consumer’s home. In the same way, the main control Panel can also be targeted to monitor offline voice.
In addition, for offline-controlled intelligent voice lighting, another challenge is the support of algorithms. If the intelligence of the algorithm is insufficient, problems such as background noise and human voice interference will occur, causing the lighting system to malfunction. These problems will greatly reduce the user experience.
As mentioned above, Mouser Electronics has a wealth of hardware solutions that can help you solve the above problems and help designers complete the design of safe and intelligent voice lighting systems.
MCU with excellent security and hardware acceleration
Whether it is an offline or online intelligent voice lighting system, the performance of the control module determines the intelligence level of the lighting system. These control modules are either placed in the master control module, or directly integrated into the interior of the luminaire. The component we will introduce below is excellent in algorithm support, device interconnection and security information protection, and is an ideal choice for building a high-level, safe and intelligent voice lighting system. It is an STM32G4 mixed-signal microcontroller (MCU) from manufacturer ST that Mouser Electronics sells under the manufacturer number STM32G491CEU6 on Mouser Electronics.
Figure 2: STM32G4 mixed-signal microcontroller (Image source: ST)
The STM32G4 series of MCUs based on the Arm®Cortex®-M4 core is a continuation of the STM32F3 series, with stronger performance and high compatibility with the STM32F3 series MCUs, ensuring excellent efficiency when designing derivative applications of different performance levels.
The STM32G4 series of MCUs have four outstanding product features, enabling intelligent voice lighting systems. These four outstanding features are strong performance, rich built-in digital and analog peripherals, functional safety and information security, and a complete platform.
About strong performance
The STM32G4 series is an MCU with DSP and FPU instructions, and integrates 3 different hardware accelerators: ART Accelerator™, CCM-SRAM execution accelerator and math operation accelerator. Coupled with the high frequency of the product itself up to 170MHz, the STM32G4 series MCU can provide excellent computing performance. Efficient signal processing and complex algorithm execution have more full support for the scheme algorithm.
About the rich built-in digital and analog peripherals
The STM32G4 series MCU integrates a variety of digital-to-analog peripherals such as comparators, operational amplifiers, and DACs, bringing greater freedom to solution development.
About functional safety and information security
The STM32G4 series MCU brings comprehensive protection to the system solution. This series of products adopts the dual-BankFlash mechanism with error correction code (ECC), which supports loading application programs on two different banks at the same time, opening a safe “green channel” for online system upgrades; It is used to store sensitive information such as keys, and is protected by tamper detection circuits; it supports AES hardware encryption to further strengthen system security. More importantly, thanks to the robust security architecture provided by the STM32Trust, secure connections and system integrity are ensured.
About the complete platform
The STM32G4 series of MCUs can share the ecological resources of the STM32 family and have dedicated reference designs and comprehensive platforms, whether for general-purpose markets or digital power conversion applications such as digital switching power supplies, lighting, welding, solar energy, and wireless charging. The products are all cost-effective options.
Figure 3: STM32Trust security architecture (Source: ST official website)
RF development kits to help build secure connections
With the full popularization of the smart home concept, the current smart voice lighting system is no longer a simple single-point device, but a linked system that covers every inch of space in the home. Therefore, wireless connection has become a necessary part of the whole system and undertakes the heavy responsibility of information transmission.
To help you build secure and reliable networking applications, we recommend the nRF21540 DB RF development kit from manufacturer Nordic semiconductor, which you can find by searching for the manufacturer number nRF21540-DB on the Mouser Electronics website.
Figure 4: nRF21540 DB RF Development Kit (Image source: Nordic Semiconductor)
The nRF21540 DB RF Development Kit contains the nRF21540 Development Kit (DK) and the nRF21540 Evaluation Kit (EK) with the nRF21540 RF Front End Module (FEM). Obviously, the nRF21540 RF front-end module is the core of this development kit. On Mouser, this device has the manufacturer number nRF21540-QDAA-R.
Figure 5: The nRF21540 RF front-end module (Image source: Nordic Semiconductor)
The nRF21540 is a “plug and play” RF front-end module that supports Bluetooth low energy, Bluetooth mesh, Thread and Zigbee (802.15.4) and proprietary 2.4GHz. Looking at wireless performance first, the nRF21540 can bring enhanced link stability to the system, providing a configurable gain power amplifier (PA) in the transmit path (Tx) and a low noise amplifier (LNA) in the receive path (Rx), Ideal for low-power short-range wireless solutions such as smart lighting, but also other types of smart home, industrial and factory automation, asset tracking, medical, sports and fitness, audio, and advanced CE remote control.
The nRF21540 is a complement to the star product nRF52832 of the manufacturer Nordic Semiconductor, bringing the latter’s high performance to low-power IoT scenarios such as smart voice lighting. Through the nRF21540 DB RF development kit, engineers can not only quickly understand the leading nRF21540 RF performance, while the development kit also includes the nRF52840 SoC, and there is also a dedicated interface on the nRF21540 development kit to connect to the nRF52840 SoC. That is to say, with this development kit, engineers and friends can build an online intelligent voice lighting system based on various popular IoT networks, which is very convenient.
The existence of the nRF21540 evaluation kit can help you evaluate the product performance of the nRF21540.
When it comes to the security of network connections, the nRF52840 SoC in the nRF21540 DB RF development kit not only supports the security standards of various network protocols, but also provides the Arm®CryptoCell-310 accelerator with excellent security and the accompanying software security protection. , to escort the system network security connection, so that criminals cannot steal the user’s voice information of the intelligent voice lighting system through the network transmission link.
Lighting stability control can not be ignored
The ultimate purpose of the intelligent voice lighting system is to provide intelligent, convenient and stable lighting, so the fundamental role of the system cannot be ignored because of intelligence. In order to help engineers and friends to build a stable and reliable intelligent lighting system, we recommend the G5RL-U/-K PCB power relay from the manufacturer Omron Electronics sold by Mouser Electronics. The manufacturer’s number is G5RL-U1-E-DC12 .
Figure 6: G5RL-U/-K PCB power relay (Image source: Omron Electronics)
G5RL-U/-K PCB power relay can realize 16A high-performance latching relay with high impact resistance switch under the premise of small size and low back (the distance between coil and contact is only 8mm), among which G5RL-U1- The E-DC12 is a high-capacity, single-coil latching product.
The G5RL-U/-K PCB power relay is capable of adapting to +85°C ambient operating temperature, 10kV impulse withstand voltage and 16A high inrush switching current, and complies with capacitor load standards (IEC60669-1) and international safety specifications for flame resistance ( IEC60335-1), bringing industry-leading stability to lighting control and smart home. In addition, G5RL-U/-K PCB power relays can also be used in electricity meters, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), factory automation equipment, building automation, residential equipment, etc.
Figure 7: Maximum switching capacity of G5RL-U/-K PCB power relays (Image source: Omron Electronics)
At the same time, we also noticed that in the intelligent voice lighting system, in addition to the microphone, the applied sensors also include brightness sensors and motion sensors, etc. The rich sensor configuration further improves the intelligence of the entire system.
Then, what we will introduce to you next is a sensor that can be used for human detection, still from the manufacturer Omron Electronics, and the manufacturer number on Mouser Electronics is B5W-DB1452-1.
Figure 8: B5W-DB diffuse sensor (Image source: Omron Electronics)
B5W-DB is an ultra-small long-distance diffuse reflection sensor, which provides a detection range of 550mm and flexible installation methods in four directions, so that it can be installed in any position. For human detection or human hand detection, B5W-DB provides higher design redundancy and can be used for a wider range of application scenarios. In the field of intelligent voice lighting, B5W-DB is an excellent choice for engineers and friends to build “accompanying” intelligent lighting systems. The human body-sensing lighting switch can be placed anywhere in the home through the 1m miniature photoelectric sensor connector harness without PCB.
In addition, the B5W-DB is also an ideal solution for contactless disinfection equipment, such as hand detection in sanitary equipment, human detection in sterilization equipment, and human detection in temperature measurement equipment. The high-quality features that are not affected by ambient light make these solutions more stable and reliable.
Better implementation of intelligent voice lighting
As mentioned above, as the most convenient control method at present, intelligent voice lighting is a new and excellent development direction. However, intelligence is often linked to user information, especially for system algorithms with deep learning. How to protect user sensitive information is the premise of designing an intelligent voice lighting system. At Mouser Electronics, whether it is a microcontroller or a wireless connection device, these hardware solutions not only have outstanding performance, but also take software and hardware security protection as a key performance to escort the system. At the same time, to better realize the intelligent voice lighting system, the stability and humanized design of the system itself cannot be ignored. The solutions from manufacturers such as Omron Electronics are ideal in this regard. All in all, Mouser Electronics has a large number of original authorized devices, which can help engineers and friends to create a better intelligent voice lighting system efficiently and cost-effectively.
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