You’ll Love How SiPs Simplify Complex Systems: Biometric Door Opener
Ever since I was a child, I have loved building things and getting my hands dirty. Whether it was fixing my dad’s car, playing with electric motors, or writing code, I enjoy the satisfaction of seeing a problem and working to a solution. Actually building hands-on projects is a stress relief for me. When I was in school I was always looking for ways to take the theory I learned in class and put it into action.
Now that I am at Octavo Systems I like to do the same thing. The tools available to designers have come a long way. I am amazed at how easy it is to take an idea from the drawing board to a functioning prototype. The OSD335x System-In-Package on the BeagleBone® Black Wireless is a perfect example of these tools.
College Project Inspires Today’s Biometric Door System
I wanted to utilize these tools and my newly acquired knowledge of System-In-Package to update one of those old projects I did in my second year at university. While in school, I had watched “Iron Man” and was fascinated with the technology in Tony Stark’s house and office. I decided to create an automated door lock for my room. It opened with a push button sequence and utilized only logic ICs, which were commonly available to any of my fellow students. The design caught the attention of Electronics for You Magazine and a Circuit Idea article was published.
With the power of the OSD3358 on the BeagleBone Black Wireless I could do so much more than I could with simple logic gates. I decided to modernize the door lock idea to work with Biometrics, specifically facial recognition. This system would recognize our team as we approach our office door and automatically open the door for them. This is particularly useful when carrying packages.
Off-The-Shelf Components and Software Simplify Design
Just as the previous version had been, this design is easily replicated by anyone. It uses easily accessible, off- the-shelf components and existing open-source libraries. I chose the BeagleBone Black Wireless with a Debian Linux distribution as the base platform. It provides access to libraries for motor control, Image Processing (OpenCV) as well as text to speech. The BeagleBone Black Wireless also provides access to all of the peripherals available on the OSD3358 SiP. This made it easy to rapidly prototype my design by adding a variety of readily available sensors and actuators.
Our automated door opener project includes:
- Identifying visitors using facial recognition ( OpenCV)
- Rapid computation and decision making
- Opening the door for known visitors using motor control
- Welcoming visitors with voice output using a text to speech synthesizer
- Motion detection to open the door for a person coming from inside
See a video of the working project below.
A full write up and how to steps with code and parts list is available on Hackster.io
Using a SiP Reduces Complexity of Design
Building this project gave me a chance to be creative and also to see first-hand how our customers prototype with the OSD3358 by utilizing a BeagleBone Black Wireless board. It also reiterated some cool general characteristics of using a SiP in design.
Having all of the peripheral hardware and software readily available gave me freedom to focus on the application and add my own new features. I didn’t have to spend my time reinventing the wheel just to get started.
So too, can designers have the basics of their design available off-the-shelf for them with the OSD335x SiP. By incorporating the Texas Instruments AM3358 processor, the DDR3 memory, power management interface and over 100 supporting components, the OSD335x does a lot of the layout work for you. The tedious portions have been handled so designers can spend time on being creative and adding unique features to their product. In addition, hardware layout and instruction tutorials are available as well as software libraries and the support of the open-source community. This makes spinning a new design a more enjoyable adventure.
We hope you enjoy the project and join us in relieving stress by building your next project with OSD335x System-In-Package. Please contact us and let us know how we can help.