Rambus, along with partners MLove and IXDS, hosted 4YFN’s “Eyes of the IoT” MWC 2015 workshop this afternoon in Barcelona, Spain. Participants discussed how smart vision, facilitated by technology such as Rambus’ lensless smart sensors (LSS), could potentially impact the future of smart cities, medical equipment, transportation and manufacturing.
Bramble Subway Smartcard now Live with Payzone
March 2015
Subway Smartcard users can now buy tickets in shops around Glasgow
Payzone outlets across Glasgow now offer pay as you go top-ups as well as the ability to buy Subway season ticket products at convenience stores and newsagents around the city.
Smart card holders can now top up at Payzone outlets, selected due to their proximity to Subway stations, giving even more access to the Subway – as well as buying tickets in stations.
The credit or travel season ticket is uploaded directly to the smart card using contactless technology in Payzone terminals similar to that used by payment terminals in coffee shops.
The move is possible thanks to the flexibility of the smart technology used in the Subway Smartcard, called Bramble, delivered by the joint venture partnership between SPT and Rambus Ecebs called Nevis Technologies. 
This is part of a wider vision to deliver even greater convenience to public transport customers through the use of smart technology. Future deployments could include topping up online or remotely through smartphones.
David Braddock, Director of Nevis Technologies commented: “The integration with Payzone makes it even easier for travellers to get their tickets or top-ups. Uploading straight to your smartcard but away from the station is something we know people want – it’s very simple and convenient and helps to avoid queues at stations during peak periods. All you need is a Subway smart card and the Bramble technology will do the rest.
“We have started this process with 45 Payzone outlets located near Subway stations. The long term vision is to embrace technology still further and find new ways to make everyone’s life a little easier. So watch this space.”
Uptake of the Subway smart card continues to increase, with around 100,000 ‘smart’ journeys taking place on the Subway every week.
Damian Scholes, Business Development Director from Payzone added: “Payzone is an easy way to add travel at your convenience in your local shops. Payzone has enabled a number of outlets at locations close to Subway stations which are open, early morning or late into the evening seven days a week. Payzone has been delivering Smart Ticketing services across the whole of the UK and is delighted to be working with Nevis Technologies and we look forward to delivering further services together.”
Rambus to deploy lensless smart sensor PODs
Rambus kicked off Mobile World Congress 2015 by announcing its newly minted lensless smart sensor (LSS) POD (Partners in Open Development) program. “Individuals and companies designing sensors for the rapidly evolving Internet of Things (IoT) are often forced to code complex algorithms from the ground up,” Kendra De Berti, a director at Rambus, told us on the sidelines of MWC 2015 in Barcelona.
Rambus Launches Partners-in-Open-Development Program to Accelerate Adoption of Lensless Smart Sensor Technology
Collaboration with inaugural partners — frog and IXDS — enables development across critical IoT application areas
SUNNYVALE, Calif., and BARCELONA, Spain — March 2, 2015 — Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) today announced its Partners-in-Open-Development (POD) program in collaboration with design firms frog and IXDS to promote the adoption of its lensless smart sensor (LSS) technology. The Rambus LSS technology represents a fundamentally new approach to sensing that shifts the function of traditional optics to computation, eliminating the need for expensive lenses. By replacing traditional sensor refraction optics with lensless diffraction and computation, LSS technology enables ultra-miniature form-factor and low-power design, ideal for a wide range of Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
“Our work with lensless smart sensors through the POD program is helping to pave the way for innovations that are sure to inspire and become ubiquitous throughout our lives,” said Andrew Zimmerman, president of frog. “The opportunity to partner with Rambus, through our R&D platform frogLabs™ and other organizations, to build out the burgeoning sensor ecosystem means we are helping to propel solutions that can be adopted much more quickly.”
“Opening its innovative lensless smart technology to the developer community enables Rambus to promote what promises to be a robust, intelligent ecosystem around this new approach to sensing and imaging,” said Dr. Reto Wettach, founder and design director with IXDS. “We are proud to be among the inaugural POD partners and look forward to being among the first contributors to identify and expand upon existing IoT-based applications for this technology.”
The Rambus lensless smart sensor technology consists of spiral grating diffractive optics and computational algorithms that enable reduced computation times and superior design flexibility, delivering more data and improved accuracy versus current sensors comparable in size, power and cost. The combination of spiral grating diffractive optics and computational algorithms provide high fidelity output for greater accuracy and more sophisticated capabilities in the areas of gesture recognition, depth and range tracking, point finding and advanced object recognition.
“With the need for smart sensors growing, our engineers have invented novel ways to become the eyes of the IoT,” said Gary Bronner, vice president of Rambus Labs. “Our Partners-in-Open-Development provides a great opportunity for innovators to develop technology for a smarter world. With this program, we encourage developers across the globe to join in to create new products that introduce real-world IoT applications that will touch so many parts of our lives. This is the first step toward expanding the accessibility of an ecosystem that will foster a new generation of innovation.”
As part of the POD program, Rambus has identified four key verticals to accelerate and amplify discovery of smart applications, which include cities, transportation, manufacturing and medical. To learn more about Rambus, lensless smart sensors and the Partners-in-Open-Development program, visit rambus.com/smartsensors.
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About Rambus Inc.
Rambus brings invention to market. Our customizable IP cores, architecture licenses, tools, services, and training improve the competitive advantage of our customer’s products while accelerating their time-to-market. Rambus products and innovations capture, secure and move data. For more information, visit rambus.com.
Rambus to host “Eyes of the IoT” workshop at MWC 2015
On March 2, Rambus, along with partners MLove and IXDS, will be hosting 4YFN’s “Eyes of the IoT” workshop and reception from 2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. “The Internet of Things (IoT) depends on data and smart sensors are essential to effectively capturing that data,” explained Kendra De Berti, a director at Rambus.
CryptoFirewall ASIC security cores integrated into 65 chipsets
Designed by the Rambus Cryptography Research Division (CRD), self-contained CryptoFirewall™ (CF) ASIC cores offer a secure hardware-based root-of-trust for content protection applications. According to Cynthia Yu, a Rambus CRD director, CryptoFirewall ASIC security cores have been integrated into at least 65 chipsets, including those manufactured by Ali, ST, MStar, Broadcom, Entropic and ViXS.
