Notion Ink

Development Blog is up!

Rohan Shravan — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 07:12:05 +0000

Dear All,

The Adam II development blog is up and we already have 3 posts on it!

First one is just introduction, second one is on OMAP and third on one of the Infographics Project in progress here at Notion Ink.

The aim of the development blog is to take you deeper into the hardware, software and design, it also aims at providing material so we can learn a bit while reading them. First blog on OMAP covers some of its interface right now and if you follow it till the end, you should be close to making your own device/peripheral or write a driver!

The second blog will not change anything on this blog, which will keep its focus on the Firm, Adam 1 and any other issues you might have.

Also notice that all Adam I information, specially on ICS will be posted here on this main blog.

Head over to this LINK if you want to learn more.

With Warm Regards

Rohan Shravan

Notion Ink partners with Texas Instruments

Rohan Shravan — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:33:04 +0000

Press Release

Notion Ink partners with Texas Instruments

21 January 2012, Bangalore

Notion Ink has partnered with Texas Instruments (TI) Incorporated for its next generation Adam II Tablets. Adam II will be using OMAP44xx processor along with other TI components like Wi-Link 7.0 and Phoenix Audio Power Amplifiers. Adam II will also leverage the power optimizations achieved using mature combination of TI’s integrated power-management IC.

Designed specifically for best Power Performance and Multi-tasking Experience, Adam II will be based on Google’s IceCream Sandwich Operating System.

The OMAP44xx platform’s smart multicore architecture pairs its main CPUs with several differentiated features including programmable accelerators, hardware composition engines and a dedicated ISP. Imagination Technologies’ super-fast PowerVR SGX5xx GPU and enhanced memory architecture add still more functionality while an OMAP-specific distributed composition architecture enables advanced image and video layering for crisp, HD visuals. These elements and more are the force behind the OMAP44xx processor’s ability to enable fast and fluid multitasking while maintaining ultra-low power consumption.

Adam II will release the world’s first Modular Based Software Architecture which will further expand the scope of application development and use nearly every single hardware feature in a “user customizable” application. Drag and drop features will enable easy application modification and Open Source Module will further expand the use cases and tablet deployment. Node operations like in Blender, and “Application Authoring Tools” are primarily aimed at non-programmers for composing applications, games and use-case flows in a drag-and-drop fashion, utilizing visual editors and behavior-based logic system.

This System will help consumers, professionals and students become productive as they will be able to use the tablet as a logic analyzer, medical imaging device, signal acquisition and processing, 3D modeling and multi-media.

For more information about TI OMAP processors, visit www.ti.com and follow this blog for Adam II.

Rohan Shravan

Here is the Alpha!

Rohan Shravan — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:56:48 +0000

Hello,

Alpha ROM as expected is available for download. MrDead Locked played a lot on this new latest ROM, so lets start with a video first:

I am sure you will love this ROM.

Major fixes include:

Audio
Sensors (including Compass)
Bluetooth
Sleep bug partially fixed (you need to change the wi-fi policy for this)
- In case you have installed and device is not coming out of sleep, there is a re-set button near the MicroSD card. Press it to reset the device. Once it boots, turn on wifi, go to advanced settings, set “Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep” to “Never”. It’s a known bug (mentioned in the blog as well) and will be resolved in the next drop.
  You must keep the “Wi-Fi on during sleep” set to Never.
Hardware Acceleration
Accelerated Video
Wi-Fi
HDMI Video (no sound)
Capacitive Buttons
Back Buttons
SD Card Mount
GPS
120dpi launcher fix
0.39 Kernel

What’s left:

3G, though it’s working on kernel level now
Camera
USB plugged-in at boot
USB mass storage and MTP
USB Flash Drive
Light Sensor
Sleep Bug
Video Acceleration for High Quality YouTube Video
HDMI Sound

You can download the update from these links:

Please be sure to read THIS before you install.

Further, you can follow development and comments on LINK on TR. Special thanks to RaYmAn, MrDead Locked, MrGuy, kushiels, Ankit and Rohit.

Let’s discuss some stuff on Camera:

Camera implementation in ICS is very different from the older ones. There are new features and only stable platform is OMAP since they had a head start in getting ICS, add to it the lack of support from NVidia on any Harmony platform.
New added features in ICS are Face Detection (which is OMAP implementation), Zero Shutter Lag, Migration to Kernel 3.0, Sensor Polls the Accelerometer Input, Multiple Auto Focus Region Support, Multiple Metering Area Support, Face Unlock, Launching Camera from Locked Screen and new application of course.
All these changes on the User Space demands a lot of changes on the proprietary architecture of Tegra, which of course is proprietary.
This ultimately means that a lot of effort will be involved in fixing the camera, but we stay positive on fixing it asap.

There is a change in NInk’s strategy which was reflected in CES as well. You will seeing even lesser of NI in press. All meetings were private and confidential, and purely meant for business (in fact only business development team was at CES). Hence no public releases from CES, but there will be one coming next week, after which we will be sharing the developments on the next generation.

Post the mentioned public release, we will be starting another blog. It will focus only on development, and we will again see a new device coming to life. Unlike last time where the hardware was mostly done out-house, this time every resistor, IC, bus lane, etc is designed and selected on the very computer working on this blog. We will try to involve as many professionals as possible so the new blog can become a reference for new developments!

A very busy and productive year awaits us!

Warm Regards

Rohan Shravan

A Cross-platform Framework for NUI – Kivy

Rohan Shravan — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:21:17 +0000

Hello All,

Happy New Year All!

We have been rather quiet on what’s happening at our end on future products and developments, but today I want to share a rather unique project called Kivy. Remember the earlier reference to Python? Let’s see what it was.

Kivy is an Open Source Library Project for rapid development of applications that make use of innovative user interfaces, such as multi-touch apps. It can use natively most inputs protocols and devices like WM_Touch, WM_Pen, Mac OS X Trackpad and Magic Mouse, Mtdev, Linux Kernel HID, TUIO. A multi-touch mouse simulator is included.

Check out this video of Kivy on Andoid.

Kivy is 100% free to use, under LGPL 3 licence. The toolkit is professionally developed, backed and used. You can use it in a product and sell your product.

The framework is stable and has a documented API, plus a programming guide to help for in the first step.

The graphics engine is built over OpenGL ES 2, using modern and fast way of doing graphics.

To understand more, just take a look at this (my personal favorite):

The toolkit is coming with more than 20 widgets designed to be extensible. Many parts are written in C using Cython, tested with regression tests.

Kivy is a community project, led by professional software developers. For more information on Kivy, you can get in touch with Mathie Virbel, Thomas Hansen and Christopher Denter here.

Why bother? Read this LINK.

Notion Ink is an active contributor for this project, and once you go through the gallery here, you’d see what Eden and Genesis would probably be able to do.

Download this app here to play around (it’s a presentation tool, and you might take a while to getting use to it as it is still in development. Hint: tap icons again to clear view…).

You can download Kivy from this link for your Macs, PC and Linux platforms as well.

Kivy is a powerful tool, and shares our philosophy of enriching user experience and promoting community collaboration. Notion Ink is proud to support Kivy and their latest venture to accelerate development, a Programming Contest.

This competition will help you learn more about the project, build some exciting apps (you can be a programmer of any domain) and help improve the project. Head over to this link for more information: http://kivy.org/#contest

This is going to be a very impressive year, specially because it will let me explain what are we doing, finally! Happy New Year Again!

Warm Regards

Rohan Shravan

Pre-Alpha ICS for Adam with Source!

Rohan Shravan — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:21:41 +0000

Hello All,

How are we doing? First let’s take a look here:

This is the ICS Pre-Alpha demo (we think Alpha at least need sound working, should be easier to install) and is available as we speak on Conclave for download (not for faint hearted). It’s a developer release for the community so we can further push the development and get the remaining things working. Here is the conclave post link: LINK

As of now we have accelerated graphics, GPS, Wi-Fi, Accelerometer, SD Card and ADB working. Major things which are left are Camera, Sound, Sleep Bug, 3G, Bluetooth and remaining sensors.

We plan to fix these issues one by one, and you can also track the progress on Git-Hub. Source is also released on the GIT, so those interested in getting hands dirty can jump in. Not to mention special efforts from MrDead Locked, RaYmAn, Ankit and TR. Here is the GIT Link: LINK and here is the Kernel Link: LINK

Before ending post here, a special announcement. Last “small” round of sales are currently underway. This stock was reserved to be released with ICS. You can also avail New Year special discounts. Head over to this link: store.notionink.com.

Stay tuned for more information.

Warm Regards

Rohan Shravan

GPS and Accelerometer Done; Compass and Ambient Light Sensor Next

Rohan Shravan — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:12:01 +0000

Accelerometer and GPS working now. Next targets: Ambient Light Sensor and Digital Compass.

Thanks RaYmAn and MrDead Locked!

Warm Regards

Rohan Shravan

Next Step: libhw

Rohan Shravan — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 04:47:48 +0000

Working WiFi - MrDead Locked

Current Status: WiFi Working (needs further testing to call it “stable”).

Next Step: libhw (sensors works on kernel level right now, next is to get them working on Android level. After libhw step port will be shareable at least for beta testing).

This image has special meaning for us. MrDead Locked took this image from hospital where he is looking after his Dad, who just had successful heart surgery! All our wishes for speedy recovery and great respect for MrDead Locked’s perseverance.

Warm Regards

Rohan Shravan

Next Step: Stable WiFi

Rohan Shravan — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:31:14 +0000

Kernel .39 up, all sensors working at Kernel level.

Next step, get stable Wi-Fi/BT.

Thanks to the awesome effort from RaYmAn! Good work pal!

Stay tuned.

Regards

Rohan Shravan

Next step: Integrate .39 Kernel

Rohan Shravan — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 04:07:39 +0000

Update:

This is another fork of ICS development, running .36 Kernel (the cause of green flash). Next step, integrate with stable .39 Kernel. Video:

Thanks “MrDead Locked”!

Regards

Rohan Shravan

Quick Update

Rohan Shravan — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 03:43:15 +0000

Regards

Rohan Shravan