Innominds
Powering Intelligence at the Edge

It’s not science fiction anymore. The new Industrial Revolution of a connected world is under way at great speed as we speak. It’s so disruptive that it means new models of business and new opportunities for enterprises. Welcome to the exciting present and the fascinating future of the IoT - a world where devices at the edge gather data and enact commands to create intelligent systems. Are you ready to make good the opportunities that the Internet of Things (IoT) can bring to your business?

A myriad of devices are being designed to perform new tasks. From capturing data on driving habits and using the data to assess insurance premium to performing painless clinical breast exams to check for cancer, devices are helping artificial intelligence mature fast. Companies are designing new hardware every day to fulfil different business cases. Emulator platforms encourage thousands of designers to build applications ranging from smart sensors to unmanned aerial vehicles.

Innominds’ KiteBoard is a versatile hardware platform suite that can accelerate custom device design and creation of intelligent devices which are capable of collecting data as well as making decisions at the edge. KiteBoard offers a great choice for design teams that want to tailor bespoke intelligent systems.

Devices are proliferating at a rapid pace in today's automated world. These devices are a new generation and are capable of thinking – they can make decisions for you. But these devices need very capable hardware. They also must work with systems in the cloud to which they send data, get it processed, and based on the analysis, act on the insights extracted from the data. On another plane, as the Internet of Things (IoT) expands, standards like WiFi, BLE Mesh, Zwave, Zigbee and other proprietary technologies coexist to integrate sensors that acquire information from the surroundings. At Innominds, we develop devices for which features like LTE connectivity, multi-core processing, remote device management and edge analytics are the de-facto requirements; and devices that are artificial intelligence ready.

By 2021, 10% of all IoT devices installed will connect through cellular networks (LTE, LTE-M, and NB-IoT), according to a conservative estimate by a global telecommunications company. IoT device shipments will grow from 4.6 billion in 2015 to 15.7 billion in 2021, a 22% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), meaning close to 1.5 billion devices using cellular networks.

A schematic of innovative design

Cellular networks have evolved significantly from just voice and video, to providing affordable long-range data transmission between IoT nodes & gateways at the edge and the cloud. GPS-based trucking (fleet management) is a great example of devices that pair with cellular networks and transmit data to a central location as well as other trucks.

Innominds has designed devices ranging from wearables to home automation devices to medical tools and connected appliances for its customers.

We have focused approach to catering to devices that are part of connected homes to connected cars; assembly line sensors, GPS-guided agricultural equipment etc. Designing devices with long range mobile capabilities and other smart enablement is commodity.

We are a microfactory, where the total time from concept to production takes just a few months

Device development requires deep expertise

New device development presents a familiar dilemma for a lot of companies – be it large corporates or fledgling startups. Startups that have good ideas struggle to secure the resources required for a full-fledged design team; while large companies find it hard to pull resources out from existing priorities.

Innominds practices a high rigor, high reliability design process, and their engineering teams are active agents, who are creatively interpreting responses, and impulses, which is the bedrock for design research. We are capable of rapid prototyping while addressing market risks. We help customers realize the concept, engage through their go-to-market journey and ensure we impact their business positively.

We have a deep understanding of electronics, artificial intelligence/ machine learning and the techniques to design for a successful production. We offer a unique value proposition as a design services provider. Our capabilities across design research, product engineering in hardware and software, digital experience, and performance, present a compelling value proposition.

Safer time to market

Moving a device from lab to manufacturing causes considerable trepidation and anxiety - it is up for acceptance, consumption and market performance - before it is a candidate for large scale manufacturing. Designing IoT/IIoT devices require large-volume thinking, but planning for large volume production without a proof of concept is very risky. Well before acceptance, a device must be rejigged for performance, reason enough to opt for low volume manufacturing, in the production range of 100 to 100,000 parts.

In-house Risks: Designing complex devices for low-volume can force you to compromise. Even with large investments in R&D infrastructure, conducting research to design a device for small volume production requires a large budget, involves finding designers, subject matter experts and integration experts. Outsourcing the design can give both large companies and startups a distinct advantage to harness the service provider’s knowledge acquired from different domains, and the ability to put together a team of diversely skilled people quickly.

For example, a kiosk that dispenses products specific to an enterprise. The global need for such kiosks may be less than a 100 units. Their cost in comparison to standard kiosks, which typically don’t suit the need is a factor of 5. Outsourcing design of such jobs to a credible partner will still produce a high-quality product, while saving money.

Faster Time to Deployment: Being the first to market with a unique device is the differentiating factor between success and failure. High competition combined with a rapidly evolving market leads to enormous pressure on designers to continuously create high-quality, unique devices in the least amount of time possible.

Edge Analytics to the Fore: iFusion Analytics

From landing to running augmented reality/virtual reality applications and navigating driverless cars, there are many scenarios where running real time deep learning at the edge is critical.

Pushing intelligence to the edge devices reduces bandwidth constraints, latency, and battery drain, while ensuring instant response to situations. AI-capable hardware in tandem with edge analytics solutions like iFusion Analytics by Innominds can execute machine learning algorithms, help mature the programs so they get better each time, and bridge the shortage of intelligence at the edge, where you need high computing performance at very low power.

iFusion Analytics can enable your business to manage complex data as well as provide opportunities to make real time decisions.

KiteBoard: Ready for the market

"We are a microfactory, where the total time from concept to production takes just a few months. We are a like First Build by GE, the difference being they crowd source ideas, while we develop an idea into a device for our customers. Our costs are about 10% of traditional product rollout budgets, which can cost millions of dollars."

KiteBoard is a single board computer that includes complete connectivity and delivers high performance in a small battery powered form factor. The board is versatile enough to be used to develop anything between an in-car dashboard, a drone or a game controller.

With a sub-credit card size, and a low profile, the KiteBoard is small yet packed with a full-fledged mobile ecosystem to make up the core of any mobile connected device that includes high-speed LTE connectivity besides, WiFi, and Bluetooth Low Energy.

KiteBoard provides a stable, high performance, low power core and extensive scalability around which you can build your own device and has everything that a company needs to make your custom device. The scalability of KiteBoard is obvious from the capability matrix in the table, apart from its ability to integrate with analytics tools.

The Future at the Edge

IoT is less about standalone smart devices and more about the symbiotic nature of the entire ecosystem. It is more and more critically, the endpoints and how they relate to the cloud, and where all data is stored and processed. The KiteBoard is positioned to help your device takeoff in the consumer or enterprise market. Innominds continues to extend KiteBoard’s features for customizing the AI/ML capability within these devices, to deliver the level of sophistication demanded by the market.