Insigma’s ‘Connected Retail’ solutions, powered by Nordic’s nRF52832 SoC, allows brand owners to wirelessly and remotely monitor chilled and ambient point of sales stock
Nordic Semiconductor today announces that Insigma Inc, a U.S.-based Internet of Things (IoT) solutions company, employs Nordic’s nRF52832 Bluetooth® Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) System-on-Chip (SoC) in its “Connected Retail” suite of IOT products.
Insigma’s Connected Retail solution allows brands to create an intelligent IoT network of smart coolers, shelves, displays, and vending machines with minimal human intervention. The solution employs a proprietary wireless sensor and camera techology to record and report on stock levels, product placement compliance, product consumption trends, and consumer engagement.
In operation, the device is equipped with two cameras, which take images of the products in the cooler or on the shelf. This image is then processed via Insigma’s proprietary machine vision technology to detect the products in view.
To start collecting data and analytics, Insigma’s customers simply attach the sensor to the inside of an existing cooler, vending machine, or shelf without need for wiring or mains power. The integration of the Nordic SoC establishes ultra low power wireless connectivity, delivering up to seven years battery life thanks in part to the ultra low power characteristics of the Nordic SoC. The nRF52832 has been engineered to minimize power consumption with features such as the 2.4GHz radio’s 5.5mA peak RX/TX currents and a fully-automatic power management system that reduces power consumption by up to 80 percent compared with Nordic’s nRF51 Series SoCs.
Insigma’s IOT devices rely on non-replaceable batteries, making low power consumption our most important development consideration
Karan Bakshi, Insigma Inc
The collected data is stored on the device and is then relayed on-site to a sales agent or technician’s Bluetooth 4.0 (and later) smartphone or tablet using Bluetooth LE wireless connectivity. From Insigma’s ‘Virtual Hub’ app, the data can then be uploaded to Insigma’s Cloud servers, or sent directly to an IoT gateway (again via Bluetooth LE), from where it is automatically sent to Insigma’s Cloud servers via a GSM or CDMA cellular network. The secure and scalable Cloud platform features alert and artificial intelligence engines enabling device management and configuration, while providing a reporting dashboard to display complex IoT data with simple visualization.
Nordic’s nRF52832 multiprotocol SoC combines a 64MHz, 32-bit Arm® Cortex® M4F processor with a 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio (supporting Bluetooth 5, ANT™, and proprietary 2.4GHz RF protocol software) featuring -96dBm RX sensitivity, with 512kB Flash memory and 64kB RAM.
The SoC is supplied with Nordic’s S132 SoftDevice, a Bluetooth 5-certifed RF software protocol stack for building advanced Bluetooth LE applications. The S132 SoftDevice features Central, Peripheral, Broadcaster and Observer Bluetooth LE roles, supports up to twenty connections, and enables concurrent role operation.
“Insigma’s IOT devices rely on non-replaceable batteries, making low power consumption our most important development consideration and therefore the key reason for selecting the Nordic SoC,” says Karan Bakshi, COO at Insigma Inc. “We also selected the nRF52832 SoC for the reliability of the hardware, the competitive price point, and the outstanding support from Nordic’s technical team.”
