Welcome to ipXchange’s coverage of embedded world Exhibition&Conference 2023, starting with an interview with Paweł Kaczyński from our good friends at Future Electronics. In this video, we discuss alternative use cases for Future Electronics’ Carpark Occupancy Demo Kit, which was featured on our booth.
The intended use case for the kit is to demonstrate the high accuracy of Acconeer AB’s XM132 60 GHz radar module for detecting parking space occupancy, i.e., vehicle detection, in carpark infrastructure applications. The module itself enables multiple object detection at distances between 60 mm and 7000 mm from the sensor. In a carpark, radar provides a far more reliable vehicle detection method than optical or IR proximity sensors due to radar’s robustness against dirt and sunlight; these can cause false occupancy/vacancy readings when using light-based sensors.
With an integrated STM32WL evaluation board for LoRa, this kit can then communicate with an application server for accurate overall carpark occupancy monitoring. To this end, Pawel makes another interesting point in that, with a little more interfacing, this reference design could be used to inform the server whether a vehicle is parked in an electric vehicle parking bay without using the charging facilities, possibly a fineable offense in some situations.
Another interesting take from this video is the extended use cases of Acconeer’s radar module outside of the carpark application. The high accuracy of 60 GHz radar enables patient vital signs monitoring in healthcare applications, without the need for sensors to be attached to the patients themselves; this may be uncomfortable or a hinderance in certain recovery settings. Additionally, an extended range version of the Acconeer module – up to 70 m range – provides a robust object detection system for devices such as drones for smart agriculture and smart city applications.
Watch the full interview with Pawel here, and apply to evaluate just below:
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