RoweBots Helps the Blind See

WATERLOO, Canada, Sept. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- RoweBots Inc., the leading supplier of tiny embedded Linux -compatible real-time operating systems (RTOS) products, today announced that the Unison™ Operating System (OS) is a core component in ALIVIOS™, intelligent eyewear that brings significantly improved vision to people with eye diseases.  The Unison OS controls a high definition video camera, a Texas Instruments (TI) DaVinci digital media processor and near-to-eye displays.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110919/LA70532)

The launch and release of Unison, Version 5.2 made this technology possible by supplying the key, high-performance software required. The Unison ultra-tiny embedded Linux-compatible RTOS opens  a broad set of medical, embedded or imaging applications to Linux- and POSIX-compatible development with substantially enhanced performance on the same hardware.

"Unison provided us with improved performance and real-time response from boot, to USB image transfer, focusing, image acquisition and display," said Kevin Rankin, CEO of eSight Corp., the developer and manufacturer of  ALIVIOS™ Intelligent Eyewear.   "These features will dramatically improve the ALIVIOS customer experience.  Furthermore, our software development and maintenance costs will be significantly better than they were with a generic embedded Linux architecture."

Unison's Linux compatibility, tiny size, zero boot time and modularity are the features which substantially reduce development risk, cost and time.  Over 50 Unison demonstration programs run out of the box on ARM microprocessor and DaVinci digital media processor development kits in 10 minutes.

Unison's newest features include:

• USB host and device I/O (http://rowebots.com/embedded_system_software/usb_stack)
• Extensive wireless I/O (http://rowebots.com/embedded_system_software/wireless_protocols)
  • 6loWPAN
  • 802.15.4 SimpliciTI
  • Bluetooth
• Enhanced networking
  • TCP IPv6 with IPv4 (http://rowebots.com/Embedded_System_Software/TCP_IP_Stack)
  • SNMP v1, 2c, 3 (http://rowebots.com/embedded_system_software/networking_protocols)
• NAND Flash File system (http://rowebots.com/Embedded_System_Software/Embedded_file_system)
• Graphics (http://www.rowebots.com/embedded_system_software/graphics )
• Remedy Tools
  • RED Analyzer (http://rowebots.com/embedded_software_development/remedy_red_analyzer)
  • Bootloader (http://www.rowebots.com/embedded_software_development/remedy_bootloader )

"The ability to replace Linux with Unison to reduce complexity, improve performance and achieve a near-zero boot time will eliminate very costly optimization and device driver redesign for many designs." said Juan Gonzales, worldwide DM37x DaVinci digital media processor Product Marketing Manager, TI.

Unison V5.2 and V4.2 are shipping.

About eSight Corp.

eSight develops wearable video devices for people challenged by various degenerative eye diseases.  Visit www.esightcorp.com for more information.

About the Texas Instruments Developer Network

RoweBots is a member of the TI Developer Network, a community of respected, well-established companies offering products and services based on TI analog and digital technology.  The Network provides a broad range of end-equipment solutions; embedded software, engineering services and development tools that help customers accelerate innovation to make the world smarter, healthier, safer, greener and more fun. www.ti.com/dspdevnetwork

About RoweBots Research Inc.

RoweBots is developing the next generation of modular system on chip ultra tiny embedded Linux software for embedded OEM applications.  www.rowebots.com.

Trademarks

Unison is a registered trademark of RoweBots Research Inc.  All other product and company names are the trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE RoweBots Research Inc.