SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct 30, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Building on its popular Imote2 advanced wireless sensor platform, Crossbow Technology announced today the new Imote2 Multimedia Board (IMB400), an integrated camera sensor board that simplifies the capture of rich media content for wireless sensor network applications.

"For the first time visual and audio data can be easily added to wireless sensor applications," said Ralph Kling, Chief Architect for Crossbow Technology. "This opens up new possibilities for wireless sensor applications, including for example, surveillance, machine vision, object tracking, animal behavior surveys, and elder care monitoring in locations and environments that would otherwise be too costly to observe with traditional monitoring systems."

The Imote2 Multimedia Board offers a compact, power efficient solution due to its integration of camera, audio and motion detection functionality into one platform. The built-in camera can handle high-quality images with resolutions up to 640x480 pixels and 30 fps, along with audio at sampling rates of up to 48kHz.

Instead of transmitting streaming video, the Imote2 Multimedia Board uses a Passive InfraRed (PIR) sensor to pick up any movement, which then activates the camera to take multiple still shots allowing for its operate as a low-power device. These images are then transmitted with accompanying sound, and all data is digitally captured for storage, transmission or further processing on the Imote2 main board.

In addition to the PIR sensor, key subsystems include a color image and video camera chip along with an audio capture and playback CODEC. The board is supported under TinyOS, with future support planned for Linux, SOS and the Microsoft .NET Micro Framework. It is planned for general availability in Q4, and advance sales inquiries may be directed to sales@xbow.com.

Crossbow's Imote2 is an advanced wireless platform designed for data-rich, compute-intensive wireless sensor network applications that operate in low-power, low duty cycle environments.

From Crossbow Solutions

Building on its popular Imote2 advanced wireless sensor platform, Crossbow Technology announced the new Imote2 Multimedia Board (IMB400), an integrated camera sensor board that simplifies the capture of rich media content for wireless sensor network applications. The IMB400 board adds rich media capabilities to wireless sensor platforms.

Ralph Kling, Chief Architect for Crossbow Technology said “For the first time visual and audio data can be easily added to wireless sensor applications. This opens up new possibilities for wireless sensor applications, including for example, surveillance, machine vision, object tracking, animal behavior surveys, and elder care monitoring in locations and environments that would otherwise be too costly to observe with traditional monitoring systems.”

The Imote2 Multimedia Board offers a compact, power efficient solution due to its integration of camera, audio and motion detection functionality into one platform. The built-in camera can handle high-quality images with resolutions up to 640x480 pixels and 30 fps, along with audio at sampling rates of up to 48kHz.
Instead of using compute intensive image analysis to detect motion, the IMB400 uses a Passive InfraRed (PIR) sensor to pick up movement, which then activates the camera allowing for its operation as a low power device. These images can subsequently be stored, locally processed and transmitted with accompanying sound.

In addition to the PIR sensor, key subsystems include a color image and video camera chip along with an audio capture and playback CODEC. The board is supported under TinyOS, with future support planned for Linux, SOS and the Microsoft .NET Micro Framework. For more information and to order this exciting new platform, visit Crossbow's site here.